Last spring, Angela Orend-Cunningham, then a junior sociology major in the University Honors Program at U of L, took a seminar called "African History and Thought."

Taught by distinguished Kenyan scholar Dismas Masolo, the course was designed to give students a background in contemporary East African issues while closely examining the diverse colonial experiences that have affected Africa's indigenous heritage.

This was no ordinary history class. It was part of the Overseers International Seminars, an honors program course that combines semester-long, in-depth study with foreign travel.

The seminars--set up in 1995 through an endowment by U of L's Board of Overseers, a group of community leaders who advise and support the university--have become popular with honors students. About twice as many students want to sign on than can be accommodated.

And for good reason.

By the end of Angela's "African History and Thought" seminar, her classroom had become the Kenyan landscape as she traveled with 14 other students across the vast country learning firsthand about its peoples and culture.

"The first thing you notice about Kenya is the number of people," says Angela (pictured to the left standing next to a Maasai warrior in Kenya).

"The country has an overwhelming population. We traveled into some fairly remote areas, and everywhere we went there were people walking along the dusty roads to their homes, schools, farms or workplaces."

During their three-week trek throughout Kenya, Angela and her fellow students traveled through places like Nairobi, Kericho, Kisii, Kisumu, Lake Naivasha, Mount Kenya (which many students climbed), Maasai Mara, Mombasa and more. They stopped at universities, industrial factories, research stations, museums, local markets, historical sites, government centers, wildlife parks and farms.

"As soon as I got off the plane I knew that nothing I had ever learned in any book or lecture could teach me what I would learn by actually being there," Angela says.

"The trip gave me a better understanding of African culture, its peoples, its history and the social and political obstacles it faces."

Through the Overseers International Seminars, students have visited the Amazon to study ecology; Mexico to investigate Mayan ruins; Ireland to study James Joyce; Paris, to look at turn-of-the-century culture; and China to examine Buddhism. This past December, a group traveled to Guadalupe, Mexico, to study French Creole culture in the Americas.

In late May, students will depart for Italy to investigate the art and culture of ancient Rome. In the fall, some will travel to India to take a closer look at Indian royalty.

The world truly is their classroom.

With some 30 students participating each year, the seminars are designed to be intense, all-encompassing learning experiences, says John Richardson, a chemistry professor and honors program director.

"The primary focus is a three-hour course on a topic relating to the trip site," Richardson says. "When we went to China, for example, the goal was to help students understand Buddhism. They first studied the religion in the classroom, including its history, geography and cultural impact."

The students then spent 20 days in the People's Republic of China witnessing the religion and culture firsthand.

Cream of the Crop

Classes that incorporate a holistic approach to education ... Partnerships with faculty and professional mentors ... Help in locating and obtaining scholarships ... Exotic trips to foreign lands ... The honors program has grown into a stimulating, intense education far beyond the typical classroom experience.

 

The University Honors Program staff includes (from the left): Patricia Condon, associate director; Betsy Langness, academic counselor; Deanne Leek, administrative assistant; John Richardson, director; Ann Turner Slider, academic counselor; and Ruth Spangler, honors outreach coordinator.

This year, the University Honors Program is celebrating its 20th anniversary--two decades that have seen the program expand university-wide and effectively evolve to keep pace with the needs of the students it serves.

Operated by the College of Arts and Sciences, classes in the honors program promote discussion, personalized study, in-depth research and reading and close relationships with faculty and fellow students.

"You don't just leave class and go home. You mingle and study together; you exchange thoughts and ideas," says honors student Sarah Hemphill Vanderpool.

The honors program is the biggest reason Josh Abner, a freshman history major from La Grange, Ky., chose U of L.

"When I came for my campus visit as a high school senior, I was thoroughly impressed with the honors program to the point that I turned down substantial journalism scholarships from other universities whose honors programs were not as strong," he says.

Vanderpool, a 22-year-old senior from Ashland, Ky., is majoring in psychology and education. Her goal is to become an elementary school guidance counselor.

She and Abner are representative of the honors program participants, highly motivated young people drawn from the cream of U of L's academic crop.

New students are eligible to enroll in the honors program only if they have an ACT composite score of at least 27, or the equivalent SAT combined score of 1,220, and a minimum high school GPA of 3.25. They can major in any undergraduate program and must fulfill the same requirements as all students.

Students in the honors program also are encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities such as community service projects, undergraduate research and more.

Vanderpool, for example, participates in the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society and the Honors Volunteer Program, which pairs students with community service projects. Abner is news editor of the student newspaper and works extensively with the American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" fund-raiser.

About 700 students currently participate in the University Honors Program.

Like the dynamic students they serve, the honors program staff members are not content with the status quo. They strive to push the parameters of the program, searching for new ways to enhance the learning experience.

"We're working to make the program one that students will want to become even more active in," Richardson says.

Students who complete a minimum of 24 credit hours in honors courses can graduate as University Honors Scholars. In 2000, the Honors Scholars Program embarked on a new direction that makes it easier for students to participate by including introductory honors courses as part of their workload, along with the previously required upper-level seminars and research.

Another seminar involving travel and field research was introduced last year. Funded by alumni of the Woodcock Society, an undergraduate honors society in the arts and sciences college, the new seminars include trips to sites within the United States.

The first trip, which occurred last spring, was to New York City to study immigration and ethnicity. Later this spring, students will travel to Washington, D.C., as part of a study of the media in American society.

Increasing the total number of honors program seminars and continually developing faculty to teach them also are part of the revised program, recommended by a recent university-wide review committee.

"Other new benefits for active participants include priority registration--even before seniors--a residence hall in the center of campus and first choice for international seminars," Richardson adds.

Building Community

Beyond its purely academic offerings, participants say that the honors program has many other benefits.

"Its main advantage is that it builds community," says Disha Pancholi, 18, a sophomore majoring in political science and biology. "It's important to find a community of teachers, friends and administrators that you can trust and be comfortable with."

Pancholi plans to earn a graduate degree in international relations and then enter a profession where she can "help poor people understand the environmental and social implications of their way of life," she says.

The community service experience gained through the Honors Volunteer Program (HVP) has already given her insight into what it will take to realize her goals, she adds.

"The main thing that the honors program has done for me is to get me involved in volunteer work. Although I have lived in the Louisville area since 1994, I hadn't met or seen so many different people and places until I joined HVP. Since then I've ... learned many things about what it takes to become a committed leader."

Vanderpool says the value of the honors program stretches beyond classroom walls.

"I found it beneficial to my social life as well as my academic career," she says. "I have formed professional and personal relationships--and I have made some great friends."

For more information contact: Honors Program, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292; 502-852-6293. Or visit the program's Web site at: www.louisville.edu/a~s/honors.