September's Minutes

Fairmont State University
Honors Program Meeting
September 9, 2008

Welcome back! This year Honor’s will celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Mass emails will be sent through the list serve to everyone’s FSU email accounts, so check it regularly to keep up to date on honors events.

Mike Kittle, mentor chair spoke to us. If you haven’t met your mentor/mentee let him know. He also proposed an activity such as Secret Santa. If anyone has any other ideas or any feedback on that idea, just let him know.

Kiley Wilfong, community service chair spoke next. Recap of last semester- we raised $850 for the local no-kill shelter the Marion County Humane Society. We will not be doing any fundraisers this year to avoid depleting our resources (aka: donations) from the local businesses. Instead, we will be recruiting volunteers to help with Habitat For Humanity. We hope to pull together with other organizations on campus. Also, we would like to start an educational campaign about recycling. Contact Kiley if you need any information about these things.

The mentor/mentee ice cream social in the Falcon Center on Wednesday, August 27th was a big hit.

The Washington, D.C. trip has been postponed until Saturday, September 13. We will still be meeting at the turnaround by the parking garage at 6 am. Let Jason or Dr. Baker know if you cannot make it because there is a waiting list of people wanting to go.

Honors has jumped on the blog bandwagon. The site of the blog is www.fsuhonors.blogspot.com. Announcements and other information will be posted here on a regular basis. Also, if you have facebook, join the FSU Honors facebook group to keep in contact and up to date.

We will again be teaming up with Kappa Delta Pi and Gear Up for Quiz Bowl. It is scheduled for October 18th. We need volunteers looking to fill the jobs of moderator, scorekeeper, timekeeper, and escort. If you’re interested let any of the officers know.

This year we are trying out an Honors Book Club. This semesters book will be Nickled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. This book is required for several honors classes and anyone in Honors Seminar will receive cultural event credit for attending. We need student facilitators to help lead the discussions. All you have to do is come up with 3-5 questions to help keep the discussion going. The facilitator is encouraged is interact with the text through their major. This month’s meeting will be held Thursday, September 18. Time and place are TBA. Check the blog/facebook group for more information. Email Jason if you would like to facilitate.
This semester’s Director’s Talk will be for the upcoming play The Mandrake. Dr.O’Connor is the director of this production. It will start with dinner at 6pm and the show at 7:30pm. It will take place October 16th in room 126 of the Education Building. A $20 deposit is required and you will get it back the night of the performance.

If anyone has any honors pictures (honors wing, honors events) please email them to Jason or to Dr. Baker.

Homecoming is October 20-25. Does honors want to get involved? If so, let Jason know. We could get involved with the community service project with the Marion County Boys and Girls Club to volunteer, fundraise, or donate supplies. Email Jason or post a discussion on the facebook group.

Our speaker for this meeting was our very own Dr. Gregory Hinton. He shared with us some of his own success strategies. Here are some of his basic tips:
• the secret to good grades is to work smarter, not harder
• actively listen in class and pay attention to cues
• read the textbook the right way and let the headings guide you
• read the table of contents at the beginning of chapters
• read the summary to a chapter before you read the actual chapter
• be careful of absolute and qualitative modifiers on true/false tests
• split study sessions up
• read with a purpose

BOOK CLUB TONIGHT!

The first book club event will be tonight at 5:00 in the student lounge of the library. This is on the second floor up from the ground, past all the computers in the new annexed parts. Megan Walters will be our facilitator tonight and has some really great discussion topics! I encourage you to attend, and also remember that this does count for a cultural event if you are in the Honors Seminar class.

DC TRIP CHANGE!!!

THE WASHINGTON DC TRIP IS BEING POSTPONED UNTIL NEXT WEEKEND--SEPTEMBER 13, 2008! WE WILL STILL MEET IN FRONT OF THE PARKING GARAGE AND LEAVE AT 6:00 AM! TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT IS SIGNED UP! IF YOU CANNOT GO PLEASE CONTACT JASON!

Jason's contact information:
jvanfosson@fairmontstate.edu
Facebook: Jason Vanfosson
304.376.9089