Campus departments to host activities during Honors Week

Christina Thomas
March 27, 2008

Week to celebrate academic achievement with lectures, seminars, recitals and award ceremonies

Next week’s Honors Week is opened to all students to celebrate academic achievement.

For the entire week, various departments around campus will host seminars, lectures, award ceremonies, exhibits and recitals. Almost all the events are free and open to the public.

“The idea behind this week was to celebrate academic achievement on campus,” said Vicki Bocchicchio, honors coordinator of curriculum.

The Honors College is hosting several seminars, among several other events, to help students create eye-catching resumes, conduct interviews and how to apply for graduate school.

“That is our new initiative, to try to do something to prepare students for graduate level types of experiences,” said Becky Gares, honors coordinator of advising and communication.

The event started about 20 years ago when former staff member Helga Kaplan wanted to do more to honor academic success.

“She thought that the university ought to pay attention to the artistic and scholarly side of the university as well as the athletic side and the Greek side,” she said.

Gares said the past few years haven’t had as many events as in earlier years.

“We have had some big-name speakers through the years, and the departments used to do a lot of special things during the week,” she said. “Now the problem has been that departments have been asked to do more on their own, and budgets have decreased in recent years, so it has been harder to do the activities that the university would like to see during that concentrated period of time.”

One of the well-known speakers coming to Kent State next week is Sir Fraser Stoddart, who will give his speech on Wednesday called “Chemistry and Molecular Nanotechnology in Tomorrow’s World.” Anatoly Khitrin, associate professor of chemistry, said it would be a great opportunity to go to the lectures, because it will give students a chance to listen to someone speak who thinks on a broader level.

Contact Honors College reporter Christina Thomas at [email protected].