Jan. 24
HSC general meeting, Honors Conference room, 12:30 p.m.

Jan. 26
Last day to apply for a dgree for spring 2007 commencement

KHR Proposals due at the Etscorn Honors Center

Jan. 31
SRHC conference proposals due in the Etscorn Honors Center

HVP meeting starts at 12:15 in the Honors Center study area. Free pizza. contact Tia Alton for information.

Graduating in Spring 2007?
Be sure to apply for your degree!

Students intending to graduate in May 2007 may apply for a degree online now through Jan. 26. To do so, log in to ULink, select student services, registration, and then degree application.

Don't forget to tell Honors you intend to graduate as an Honors Scholar!

If you are planning on graduating in the Spring of 2007 and are finishing or have already finished your requirements for the University Honors Scholar (UHS) designation be sure to stop by the Etscorn Honors Center to fill out a brief form. This form ensures that you are listed as having completed this designation for commencement. Please make sure that come by and fill this out no later than March 9.

New Feature:
Green University

The U of L Honors Program, in cooperation with The Partnership for a Green City, will soon be offering courses with green, or environmental, subjects at their core. To jumpstart this new alliance, Honors students are invited to participate in the following green activities. Take the time to make a difference in your community right now!

The Ohio River: A New Century

This workshop focuses on the changes to the river that have occurred over the past century. History, the river as a natural resource, uses of the river, ecology and river stewardship will be the foci of this workship. Attendees will learn how the river has changed over time and how these changes have impacted the plant, animal and human lives that it supports. The workshop will be held on the river, on a barge moored at the Louisville Rowing Club (east of the Tumbleweed restaurant on the Waterfront). Workshops are scheduled for March 9, 16 and 17 and last all day. To register for a workshop check online and sign up! In the comments section at the bottom of the registration form, type: "U of L Honors Program." For more information, download this document.

Cleanup the Ohio River

Honors program students are also invited to participate in cleanup activities on the Ohio River with Living Lands and Water. Living Lands and Water is a nonprofit group from East Moline, Ill., that has worked to cleanup the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Working from their own tow and barges, they picked up over 40 tons of debris in Louisville last year. Cleanups are scheduled all through the month of March (see attached information). Students will be working with Living Lands and Water from flat bottom boats to cleanup the Ohio River and some of its major tributaries (Harrods Creek, Beargrass Creek and Salt River). To register for cleanup go online and click on the box Ohio River Cleanup 2007. There you will have access to the cleanup schedule. On that page choose to Register On-Line, then fill out and submit the form electronically.

Invasive Plant Life

Volunteers are needed to assist Kristen Ellis, the Riverbottom Restoration Coordinator for Living Lands and Water by helping pile felled honeysuckle that will later be chipped. Please read the following attachment for more information on volunteer opportunities to remove invasive plant species, specifically Honeysuckle and Euonymus.

Plan to make the most of your summer!
Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP)

The Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP), directed by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research, provides University of Louisville students, who would like to know more about graduate-level education, with a 10-week research experience in a department that offers graduate degrees. These fellowships will also be available to under-served/under-represented student populations from regional colleges and universities. Mentors will provide students with individualized research projects, and the program will provide group seminars on topics related to research and graduate education. Students should be, preferably, in their sophomore or junior year of study.

The Anne and William Axton Reading Series, Spring 2007

Mark your calendar!

The 2003 US Poet Laureate, Louise Glück’s most recent works include Averno (2006), a National Book Award finalist, "October", a six-part poem chapbook, The Seven Ages, and Vita Nova. Other poetry collections include Meadowlands, Pulitzer Prize winner The Wild Iris, Ararat, and The Triumph of Achilles. A reading will be held at Ekstrom Library's Chao Auditorium on March 29, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. Locations and dates subject to change. Please call the English Department at U of L to confirm at (502) 852-6801.

There and Back Again
Bethany Johnson, Junior humanities/English major

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Bilbo Baggins, when he waxes poetic, is fond of commenting, “The road goes ever on and on.” Bilbo would have encountered hearty agreement (and perhaps the suggestion of a couple of additional “and on”s) last Dec. 9 when the members of the fall Honors Seminar “Tolkien in Print and Film” spent 27 hours en route from Louisville to Aukland, New Zealand. After spending the semester studying the story of Lord of the Rings in both Tolkien’s novels and Peter Jackson’s film version, the group traveled across the world to spend two weeks following in the hobbits’ footsteps—using slightly less furry feet to do so.

Among other activities, our group spent just under two weeks wandering the sites used for filming and visiting the spots where Peter Jackson (who is a New Zealander, or Kiwi) and his host of actors, crew members, and extras recreated our favorite Lord of the Rings scenes and characters. Our journey from the North to the South Island of New Zealand and back was enough to convince everyone that although New Zealand isn’t the real Middle Earth, it has plenty of Kiwi magic of its own.

Class members had the chance to raft the beautiful Rangitikei river, which was used in the film as the River Anduin, and was bursting with beautiful New Zealand scenery in the form of looming valley walls, hanging foliage, secluded waterfalls, and (a popular favorite) handsome rafting guides. We were able to reenact the strangling of Deagol at the precise spot where it was filmed, and we visited the site of Mount Doom — Tongariro National Park — to learn the folk history of the location and scamper around on the active volcanoes where filming took place. And like the Fellowship members in the story, we had our own trusty wizard leaders. Our personal Gandalf took the form of guides who had been involved on the movie sets and could tell us details and anecdotes about the filmmaking process. One guide was even an Oscar-winning sound mixer (but what really made him my favorite wasn’t his hard earned skills, it was the fact that he gave us replicas of axes and swords to threaten one another with and photograph).

In addition to retracing the journey of Tolkien’s Fellowship, we visited places which would never have shown up in the wanderings of fictional inhabitants of Middle Earth. Tolkien makes no mention of any character boating silently through glowworm caves or going Zorbing—which amounts to climbing inside a giant plastic ball and being rolled down a hillside—but we saw that these things, too, must be explored. New Zealand was full of cities, museums, and cultural events. Over the course of the trip, the group spent plenty of time taking in all things Kiwi.

In the final reckoning, though, the best things to emerge from our time in New Zealand didn’t involve plot devices, mythological background, or filmmaker’s tricks. Instead, our group captured an even more essential theme of the story—Fellowship. Two weeks of togetherness meant hundreds of hours in close quarters, dozens of games on the bus, thousands of jokes, continuous shared moments of excitement and awe. It may be that our journey’s only perils involved prolific amounts of sheep debris, and that the closest we came to an evil foe was an ornery bus driver who lacked the affable Kiwi temperament. But like Tolkien’s characters on their fictional journey, our Fellowship learned about types of closeness and bonding that only come from traveling and growing together.

Honors Student Council News and Notes

The next regular meeting of the Honors Student council will be Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 12:30 p.m. in the Honors House conference room.

Good Luck!
English-Speaking Union Scholarship

Two U of L Honors students were selected as our representatives for the Kentucky branch E-SU Scholarship competition, 2007. The students are: Bethany Johnson, a junior English and humanities major. She has applied to study at the Cambridge University Summer Program in English Literature.

The second nominee is Brandon Meeks, a junior, English and humanities major, who is minoring in theatre arts. He is applying for the Summer Shakespeare Program at Cambridge University.

Facetime
Getting to know Honors students and staff

Charlene Stevens joined the Honors Staff last week to serve as receptionist while Kira is enjoying motherhood with Cole Nicholas at home. Charlene recently retired from U of L where she has worked for 22 years. Her daughter is a U of L graduate and former Honors Student. Her passions include children, education and encouraging the success of future generations. She is deeply involved in Making the Middle School Connection, a one-month mentoring program with Jefferson County Public Schools. For more information with volunteering with this program contact Charlene at c0stev02@louisville.edu. She is friendly and easy to talk to, so be sure to stop by Etscorn before Feb. 26 and spend some face time with her.