Sept. 29, 2014 | honors.missouri.edu

In someone else’s shoes

Start Empathy, a new Honors courseLiving and

learning in the HLCSchurz Hall’s offerings for freshmen

A drive to succeedMU golfer Laura Kraft

explorateUniversity of Missouri Honors College Newsletter

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Kara TaborStudent Spotlight

in this issue3

9

Announcements

Sports: A drive to succeedMU golfer Laura Kraft

11 Faculty: In someone else’s shoesStart Empathy, a new Honors course

5 Living and learning in the HLCSchurz Hall’s offerings for freshmen

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FacebookUniversity of Missouri Honors College

Twitter@MUHonors

explorate contributors

editorRachel Koehn

staff reportersSiyu Lei

Kate MaxcyJacob Renie

Kelsie SchraderCongrong Zheng

faculty adviserMegan Boyer

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explorateexplorate (ex-plo-raht) is a plural imperative form of the Latin verb explorare, “to ex-plore.” Drawing on the Hon-ors College motto, Explore. Dream. Discover., explorate invites students to seek out every opportunity available to them.

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Cover photo courtesy of Laura Kraft.

7 Kara TaborStudent Spotlight

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AnnouncementsUpdates from the Medopp Office

Juniors and Seniors: Still Want to Register for MDAP?

If you didn’t attend the MDAP (Medical and Dental Application Program) orientation in August, but are planning to apply for the 2016 entering class of medical or dental school, you may still register for MDAP by watching the ori-entation video on Tegrity and completing the MDAP application (found on Blackboard). You must turn in the MDAP application to the Medopp office. Medopp Freshman Connection Sessions are OPEN!

Registration is now available for the Medopp Freshman Connection advising sessions. These intimate group ses-sions are designed specifically for first year pre-health students (Medicine, Dentistry, Optometry, Podiatry and Phy-sician Assistant) who want to maximize their time and competitiveness for professional school. In these small groups, we will touch on a few important topics such as courses for the Spring semester, shadowing and volunteer-ing, research, study abroad and other topics first year students need to know, but the groups will also be interactive and there will be plenty of time for Q&A.

Sessions will be held during several time slots on Oct. 24, 30 & 31 and Nov. 6, 7, 13 & 14. All small groups will meet in the Lowry Hall Conference Room (2nd floor). Space is limited, so register early by calling 882-3893. Each session is limited to 8 students.

Medopp Sophomore/Junior (Pre-Application Year) Connection Sessions are OPEN!

Registration is now available for the Medopp Sophomore/Junior advising sessions. These intimate group sessions are designed to prepare pre-health students (Medicine, Dentistry, Optometry, Podiatry and Physician Assistant) for the application process for professional school. These sessions are not for those students currently enrolled in MDAP. In these groups, we will cover important topics such as standardized test prep, timeline of the application process, what’s a competitive candidacy and prerequisite courses. The groups will be interactive and there will be plenty of time for Q&A.

Sessions will be held during several time slots on Oct. 24, 30 & 31 and Nov. 6, 7, 13 & 14. All small groups will meet in the Lowry Hall Conference Room (2nd floor). Space is limited, so register early by calling 882-3893. Each session is limited to 8 students.

Honors Study Abroad Opportunities

Great Britain: British Culture and History

This summer offers you the unique opportunity to travel to Great Britain with Honors College Director Dr. Nancy West (westn@missouri.edu), who will teach a British literature seminar at the University of Manchester. Great Britain: British Culture and History – 6 creditsTentative dates: July 4 – 25, 2015Explore the ‘real’ Downton Abbey, the Brontes and the Beatles in Manchester

Open only to honors students, this new program allows students to take two courses, one with Dr. West and other one with a faculty member from The University of Manchester. With Dr. West’s course on British literature, you can earn three humanities credits – either as GH 3120H or English 3118H. For the course taught by a Manchester faculty member, you can earn three humanities or social science credits – either as GH 3120H or GH 3230H--depending on which course you choose to enroll in. For more information see http://international.missouri.edu/manchester-summer. Application deadline will be in mid-February, 2015. We have also highlighted specific courses on sustainability and psychology at the Danish Institute of Study Abroad (DIS) in Copenhagen, Denmark (http://www.disabroad.org/study-abroad-summer/) and a course on renewable energy in Bonn, Germany in summer 2015 (http://www3.uni-bonn.de/studying/international-students/exchange-and-study-abroad/renewable-energy-development-and-policy).

For information about study abroad, internships or experiential learning contact Honors College Associate Profes-sor Monika Fischer fischerm@missouri.edu

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It should come as no surprise that students who participate in Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs) have, on aver-age, higher GPAs than the campus av-erage. Students consistently surrounded by people with similar interests, like those in a FIG or Thematic Learning Commu-nity (TLC), constantly support one another in their goals and in-volvement on cam-pus, said Schurz Hall coordinator Nathan Winters. Schurz is the only residence hall on campus that houses students in Honors College-specific FIGs and TLCs. According to the MU Res-idential Life website, FIGs consist of 15-20 first-year students and a Peer Advisor (PA), with rooms assigned close together on the same floors. They are thematically focused on one specific major, academic inter-est or common learning theme. In ad-dition to living with one another, stu-dents also attend weekly FIG seminars in which they have group learning as-signments and activities. TLCs are similar to FIGs in that they focus on a specific sequence, but ac-cording to the MU Residential Life website, they provide some structure in balancing academic and social com-mitments. TLCs are broader than FIGs, so FIGs are grouped within TLCs. “These communities provide a start-ing point for students to be able to get involved and discover what their inter-

ests are,” Winters said. “We provide the opportunity for students to grow and learn because it’s many of their first time living on their own.” First-year students figure out what it means to learn interdependently and navigate with skills necessary to work

and live with each other, Winters said. The first through fourth floors of Sch-urz Hall house Hon-ors College students. The students are ei-ther in a pre-med, journalism, or “The Honors Experience” FIG, and each FIG is within an Honors Learning Community (HLC) TLC. What sets the HLC

apart from other learning communities is that each

week an Honors College academic ad-viser visits Schurz Hall to meet with students. Academic advisers Megan Boyer and Kristina Bradley visit the residence hall once a week. “I think it’s important for the Honors College to have a consistent presence in the Honors Learning Community,” Honors College academic adviser Me-gan Boyer said. “We offer the students a unique service with in-hall advising that is really not available in any other Learning Communities.” Boyer said the advisers do the same things they do while in the office, like answer questions and advise, but that it feels like the students are a little more relaxed when they’re having conversa-tions in their “home.” In addition to helping students figure

out their schedules and coursework, Boyer said she tries to bring in “special guests” like the Director and Associate Director of the Honors College, as well as Medopp advisors. Another benefit to living in an Hon-ors College residence hall is the oppor-tunity for workshops and programs. “We offer ways to help [students] prepare for a future beyond Schurz,” Winters said. “We want to be able to get them wel-comed to the community and get them prepared for thinking about things for the future that they’ll need to pursue with their degree.” Workshops like resume build-ing, working on interviewing skills, and helping direct students towards shadowing opportunities are some of many ways in which the residence hall helps students prepare for the future. Aside from academics, the HLC also offers traditional and social events like the Mr. Tiger pageant and an Honors Ball. Mr. Tiger is a campus-wide pag-eant in which each community picks one student to participate, and the winner picks a local charity to donate the proceeds to. The annual Honors Ball is co-sponsored by the Honors College and takes place in the spring. The Area Coordinator for Schurz Hall, Maya Hernandez, said this type of learning community is for fresh-man who are looking for a more spe-cial, targeted experience and connec-tion with the Honors College. “We’re hoping the Honors College is more in the forefront in the students’ experience in their first year at Miz-zou,” Hernandez said.

Living and learning in the HLCBy Kate Maxcy

Schurz Hall offers valuable resources, experiences for first-year HC students

Nathan WintersSchurz Hall coordinator

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Kara Tabor, a junior journalism student from Medford, N.J., is a second-year peer advisor for MU Residential Life. As a peer advisor, Tabor teaches the Honors Journalism Freshman Inter-est Group (FIG).

This fall begins Tabor’s third year of living

in the Honors Learning Community in Schurz Hall. When she became a peer advisor in her soph-omore year, Tabor actu-ally took over the FIG that she joined as a fresh-man. According to Tabor, this move “set the tone of her life at Mizzou.”

Tabor always wanted to attend a college or uni-versity that was far from home. In hopes of fol-lowing through on that intention, she visited MU as a high school student. During the tour, the Hon-ors FIGs caught her at-tention.

For Tabor, joining the Honors FIG is one of the best decisions she made in college.

“The FIG shrinks the size of campus and minimizes the scariness of coming to school,” Tabor said. Despite being an out-of-state student, she never felt that she was on her own.

“I met my lifelong friends in my FIG and my learning community,” Tabor said.

When Tabor was a freshman, her FIG attended football games and Mizzou After Dark events together. One of Tabor’s favorite memories with friends she made in her FIG was toward the end

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Kara Tabor

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

by Congrong Zheng

Photo courtesy of Kara Tabor.

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of her freshman year. She and several students from her FIG drove to Big Tree, a Columbia landmark. One of her friends brought a guitar, so the group enjoyed an evening of music and looking at the stars.

In her sophomore year, Tabor decided to pass the wonderful experience on to the incoming freshmen by becoming a peer advisor herself. Since taking on the role, Tabor has gained a deeper understanding of the value of the program.

“My students are very driven and have high curiosity,” Tabor said. “At the same time, they also need guidance.”

According to Tabor, it makes her proud when her students use what she has taught them in real life and the knowledge she passed on opens an opportunity for them. She tries to ensure that the resources she provides are what her students need. For Tabor, it was challenging to fulfill the needs of different students while also maintaining a high level interaction with all of them.

Tabor puts a lot of effort into designing her class. She asks

her students to write blog posts, for which she gives them very broad topics in order to let stu-dents express themselves free-ly.

Besides being a peer advi-sor, Tabor works as a reporter for the Missouri Business Alert and is part of the community outreach team for the Columbia Missourian. Tabor is particu-larly interested in entrepreneur-ial journalism. After college, she hopes to work for a startup news organization or a news-room that focuses on changing their relationship with their au-dience.

According to Tabor, working as a peer advisor has built up her leadership skills and taught the importance of listening to other people and giving them guidance.

“This program gave me the unique opportunity to teach as a 19-year-old undergradu-ate, which is intriguing,” Tabor said. “It’s not available other-wise nationally.”

Tabor looks forward to com-pleting the semester with her FIG students.

What’s Your Story?

Do you have a story that deserves to be in the spotlight? If you or some-one you know has a sto-ry that you would like to see in the Honors Col-lege Newsletter ’s student

spotlight, let us know!

Send your story idea and contact information to

siyulei@mail.missouri.edu.

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When she was 6 years old, Laura Kraft’s dad first brought her to a golf course. She rarely leaves one now. A senior on MU’s golf team, Kraft has enjoyed three great years here. “We are all just one big Mizzou family,” Kraft said of her team and athletic community. “I feel really privileged to be here honestly.” Since she first stepped foot on campus, Kraft knew this was home. “I toured a lot of schools in the Midwest,” Kraft said. “Mizzou was the last place. As soon as I stepped on campus, I felt like this was the big time.” She described the quality of MU’s coaches and facilities as being a key factor in influenc-ing her to come here — that and how nice and welcoming she found everyone on campus. Since she first started golfing with her dad some 15 years ago, her love for the game has only grown. “First of all it was really fun,” Kraft said. “I always enjoyed a challenge, and once I got older I realized I was good at [golfing] and it was something worthwhile.” In high school, she met great success, be-coming the first three-time state champion in North Dakota history. Her success continued on into college as she placed in the top 25 in several tournaments her freshman and soph-omore years. Then, in the fall of 2013, she hit a roadblock. “Last year I did not travel the entire fall season because I was struggling with mental blocks and not seeing a lot of success,” Kraft said. She persevered and eventually overcame the challenges. Kraft is now back at it again and holding her own.

A drive to succeedBy Jacob RenieSPORTS

Photo courtesy of Laura Kraft.

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Kraft said. “In the classes I’ve taken through the Honors Col-lege, the teaching has been above and beyond other classes.” Kraft specifically remembers Mar-tha Townsend’s English 1000 class. As a chem-istry major, Kraft said she doesn’t like English, but Townsend made her want to come to class every day. Her favorite memory at MU is going to the last MU vs. Kansas basketball game. “I’ve never felt so much energy in a stadium in my life,” Kraft said. After three years here and with one more to go, Kraft can confidently say she made the right choice in choosing MU. “In my opin-ion, I couldn’t have made a bet-ter choice,” Kraft said.

“When spring came, I was back stronger than ever and had a ca-reer best tournament,” Kraft said. She was mostly able to bounce back so strongly because of her coaches and teammates. Accord-ing to her, they are a tight-knit group. The key to Kraft succeeding on the golf course is staying focused. “The biggest thing that helps me focus is staying relaxed and realiz-ing everything around me,” Kraft said. “I try to stay in the moment, and if I look to the future, I break my focus.” Kraft referenced a saying she always hears from MU athletics: “Where are you, right here, right now?” With this in mind, she can focus on each individual hole in-stead of worrying about her score. Never one to back down from a challenge, Kraft is also a member of the Honors College. “I felt it was a great opportunity be in an elite program at Mizzou,” Kraft said. “I feel education is re-ally important.” Both of Kraft’s parents are teach-ers, and they heavily influenced her both academically and per-sonally. She described both her parents as her role models. Her dad is her sports motivator, and Kraft really loves his work ethic. As for her mother, Kraft admires her positive outlook on life and said she strives it emulate it. In the Honors College, Kraft has had a wonderful experience. “It’s the teachers I’ve had,”

The Seventh Column

Bow Ties and Sundresses

Okay, so we’ve been in the SEC for two years now, going on three, and I think it’s high time I address something. It’s about how we look on game days.

The SEC is classy. The SEC is southern. The SEC is refined.

Well, maybe it’s not refined, but we do dress like it. We are the best conference in college football, and so we should look like it.

Go down to Gainesville, Athens, Oxford, Colum-bia, Nashville, etc. There is one thing you’ll see besides quality football. It’s quality-looking fans.

I’m talking bow ties and sundresses. Guys look dashing and girls are perfection.

Our chancellor knows how it’s done. He wears a bow tie to every game. Heck, he wears it to every event.

Being from Atlanta, I grew up with this mentality. We call the Georgia vs. Florida game the World’s Biggest Cocktail Party for a reason.

Or watch the Ole Miss vs. LSU game. It looks like everyone just came from Sunday brunch.

Now, I’m not saying you gotta go crazy, but it’s high time Mizzou steps up. We are getting better, don’t get me wrong, but we still got a ways to go.

I know it’s hot out, but, guys, at least wear a polo. If you paint up or dress crazy-like that’s different. That’s school spirit and everyone loves that! UGA has their “mad dawg” crew just like our Tigers’ Lair has its 40 some people that paint up.

If you went to the SEC championship, then you know what I’m saying. The Auburn student sec-tion looked great! They even had a bunch of guys all in matching orange sport coats.

What I’m addressing here is the T-shirts and shorts. This isn’t the Big 12, where the fans dress like their team plays. This is the SEC. And its time we start looking like it.

By Jacob Renie

thy initiative. This initiative es-sentially operates on the premise that if all children are taught how to be empathetic, they will grow to be empathetic adults, allow-ing for a more understanding and comforting society. Three professors from the Col-lege of Education agreed with this logic and used it as a starting point for their new Start Empa-thy course. Together, these three professors—Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Kathryn Chval, Professor Melissa Maras and Pro-fessor Leigh Neier—set up a part-nership of sorts with Douglass High School. Students at Doug-lass will be working with MU stu-dents in Start Empathy to build a better understanding of what empathy truly is and how it fac-

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A look into a new Honors course, Start Empathy

tors in to a successful society. Their overall goal for the course is to start an “empathy revolution,” as Ch-val refers to it—they are aiming to change the community using empathy in the same way Ashoka aims to improve society. Students from Doug-lass and MU will work together to achieve this goal. They will spend eight weeks to-gether, exploring each other’s schools and daily environments. They will meet once each week—four times at Douglass and four times at MU—to hold class, where they will discuss empathy and topics related to empathy. They will partake in numerous activities to demon-strate concepts that relate to empathy. They will also dis-cuss readings and complete projects to-gether. Speakers such as Jimmy Cook from Be The Change will

What would the world be like if every single person were just slightly more empathetic? How would society benefit from an in-crease in everyone’s understand-ing of one another? And what, exactly, would it take to develop such an understanding in soci-ety? Whatever it is that is needed to improve individual empathy, students in the new Honors Start Empathy course at MU are look-ing to do just that. The Start Empathy course is based on an initiative put for-ward by the Ashoka group. Asho-ka is an organization that fosters social entrepreneurship and en-courages people everywhere to make a positive impact on the world. One way Ashoka has done this is through its Start Empa-

FACULTY

In someone else’s shoesBy Kelsie Schrader

come talk to the class about making a dif-ference in the world. The class will also have a Skype session with Ashoka. Just as Chval says, “every day is different.” The organization of the class itself sets it apart from many oth-er classes at MU. Few courses allow stu-dents to interact so closely with students from other schools in Columbia. However, there are many oth-er defining features of the course. One unique aspect of the course is its goal of community change. “Every class at Miz-zou has a component that’s around knowl-edge and compe-tencies—so, ‘What knowledge do we want students to learn?’ ‘What compe-tencies do we want them to develop?’” Chval said. Start Em-pathy, however, is different in that stu-dents must critically think through a plan for how they can

bring change to their communities. “This class is a beginning,” Chval said. Another unique aspect of the course is the final project. Students will be partnered with students from the op-posite school, and to-gether they will work to capture empathy in any way they choose, whether that be us-ing art, photography, writing or anything else. They are to use their chosen method to share their jour-ney and experience in the course. Whatever they create will be displayed in an Empathy Museum, which will be open to the public sometime in December. The hope is that both the museum and the students’ shared experiences will inspire the public to advance their own empathy, possibly achieving the goal of an empathy revolution. Clint Shannon, a freshman in Start Empathy, said he at first had some reservations about the course. “At first, I wasn’t sure what Start Empathy was going to be and how it could be beneficial for a non-education major like me,” he said. However, after being in the class just one month, he understands just how beneficial empathy is and

how applicable that knowledge is to all career paths. Kimberly Croxville, another fresh-man student in the class, agreed

that the class is one in which she feels she has learned the most “appli-cable” knowledge from. The class has already been a huge success. Stu-dents have been really enjoying it, and they have not even met up with students from Dougless yet. Ch-val said students are already asking

whether the course will be offered again next semester, a decision that will require further discussion before an accurate answer can be given. Regardless, the course is provid-ing both MU students and Douglass students with valuable skills that will at the very least allow them to be more understanding with oth-ers.“Being able to picture yourself in someone else’s shoes is a sign of intelligence,” Shannon said. If he is correct, then the students in Start Empathy have a lot to look forward to.

Kathryn Chval, Associate Dean of Aca-demic Affairs, said Start Empathy is the first Honors course she has taught at MU. Photo courtesy of MU Education Depart-ment website.

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Sept. 29, 2014 | honors.missouri.edu

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.”

— Source Unknown