Spring 2012

UK Honors’ 50th Anniversary By Dr. Frank Ettensohn, Director

This edition of Tidings is devoted to the 50th Anniversary of the Honors Program at the University of Kentucky during the 2011-2012 academic year. In fact, this academic year will see not only a celebration of fifty years (1961-2011) but also the beginning of a new program in Fall 2012 with a new Honors dorm and office facility in the following year. In truth, the Honors Program is fifty-three years old. It was founded in 1958 by Dr. Stephen Diachun. During the first three years, the program consisted only of Honors sections of a few regular courses. The predecessor to the current program began in the 1960-1961 academic year when Dr. Robert Evans established the first Honors colloquia and seminars, the goal of which was to provide high-quality students with community-based learning opportunities of the type that characterized small liberal arts colleges. What Evans established was a broad-based program with allegiance only to the student and methodology, not to departments, colleges, or professions. He claimed that it was not the business of Honors to provide knowledge about any specific discipline; rather, it was the business of Honors to prepare students for coherent conceptual inquiry within an ethical framework. The Honors experience is about process — how we become life-long learners — and about community — a community of student scholars working with a community of faculty scholars to develop vision, perspective, and critical thinking while challenging all assumptions. In many ways, what the program is celebrating is fifty years of broad-based, community learning and the successes that this process has generated among several generations of students. Some of these successes were the subjects of colloquia that

were offered during the celebration. As one of our current Honors students observed after hearing a colloquium conversation between two of our former students at the Anniversary Celebration, “…she [the speaker] had the capability [to work many jobs] because of the problem-solving skills that she had developed through having to think more deeply in the Honors Program ….[the former students] argued that there was no way to replace the conversations that could be had in the classroom. They both agreed that some of the discussions they had during their Honors experience were some of the most intellectual and exciting conversations that they had ever experienced …. The main idea that Honors is trying to teach us … is deeper thinking and conversing about these ideas.” This student clearly grasped what Honors at UK is all about: The development of critical thinking in community. This is what we celebrate and look forward to sustaining in the future. The Honors 50th Anniversary Celebration banner “flew” for nearly two semesters. Although the banner has now been taken down, with this celebration we commemorate all of those students, faculty, and staff who have made this way of learning “fly” at UK Honors for the past fifty years.

Honors Alumni below banner on Main Building.

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Tidings By Tim Diachun I was asked to recall the remarks I made on September 9, 2011, at the Honors Program 50th Anniversary Dinner Celebration. My “speech” was not written out, but the outline I used has helped me remember more or less what I said. My father, Steve Diachun, was the first director of the Honors Program and I was invited to look back on 50 or more years ago. I’ll tell you some things I know about the man and what I remember about the circumstances as this program came into reality. I have concluded that Dad may have been the right man at about the right time to help this wonderful program get started. Two people were profoundly helpful with the homework and research I did. My wife dug up many of the details and specific dates. She is here tonight; thank you, Jackie. My younger brother, Pete, lives in western New York and is not here tonight, but we spoke at length several times about his memories of how all this got started. Two or three people from that very first small group of students are here tonight. For example, sitting over to my far right is Robert Stokes. He came from rural Kentucky to UK, pursued graduate degrees in physics at Yale and returned to teach at UK before starting a successful company. How about that, Jiggs! I summed up more than half of a century of your life in one sentence? Of course, I’m having a little fun here, but I think this is a great story about some of what this program is all about. While acknowledging that my story is oversimplified, my suggestion is that from the very first year, this whole thing got off to a strong start.

Well, first a little about the man. Dad went to a small rural high school in Rhode Island where he was one of only a few to graduate, let alone go on to college. This was apparently at least partly because of a teacher who encouraged him. At the University of Rhode Island, he was again influenced by educators who took an interest in his ability and industry. Once again, he was helped and guided by professors as he did doctoral work at the University of Illinois. By then he was well into doing the same for others. Dad died some 17 years ago in his early eighties. Several people, some of whom I didn’t recall having ever met before, told me in appreciative detail how he had helped them “get through school.” I am again reminded to more often make the effort to thank people in person for the positive effect they have had on me. You may want to give it some thought yourself.

In 1937, Dad filled a choice position in phytopathology at UK to work with a Dr. W.D. Valleau, who was becoming well-known for his work developing disease-resistant varieties of corn and tobacco. I understand some of the work done by them so many years ago is still of influence today. The year is not clear and the figures may be in error, but this story was told by Dad’s brother: At a high school reunion of some sort, Dad was asked by a former school mate, “Steve, you went and got all that fancy schooling, how much do you make?” Dad who is said to have just gotten a fifty dollar raise responded with some pride, “Thirty seven hundred and fifty bucks.” The friend responded, “No way; that is more than I have ever made in my best month with tons of overtime.” Dad apparently never did gather the energy to explain it was his annual compensation with no potential for overtime.

I am told that in the classroom he was an intense and demanding intellectual. In the green house and lab, he was judged to be an open-minded and careful research scientist. And out across the state he developed a reputation with county agents as being a “good old boy” who had success urging farmers to try out new techniques. It was not hard to know where Dad stood on an issue, but he would listen with care and was willing to change his mind. He turned out to be a good politician. He represented the faculty on the Board of Trustees more than once and he was appointed to the Athletic Board. He sat on two or maybe three presidential selection committees. Even after factoring out some of my renewed personal bias, history seems to suggest that he not only knew how to “talk the talk”, but that he also regularly proved he was willing to “walk the walk.” He was a good selection to get the new Honors Program started.

Now let me reflect a little about some other things. I was a freshman at UK in the Fall of 1959 and I remember helping Dad set up the first Honors Program office in the basement of the Fine Arts Building. The office was two rooms on the west side of the north-south hall just before the half set of stairs, which give access to the elevated back entrance on the west side of the building. Today that building is very much like it was back then.

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Remembering the Beginning

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Tidings Shelby Leer—UK Nursing and ROTC Alexander Levine—UofL Medical School Bridgett Lyall Courtney Lynch—Americorps Program, Law School

Kaitlin Marshall—Continue working for current company

Emily Meier—Marriage and working as staff with Campus Crusade for Christ

Matthew McGrail Katelyn McNamara Allison McVey Mallory Megee—UK College of Pharmacy Emily Meier Nathan Miles Jamie Miller—Working in hospital and then Med School

Eleni Minor—Teach for America, SW Ohio Ramey Monem Abigail Mulloy Joshua Nation—MIT Masters and Ph.D. in Mech Engineering

Tressa Neal Hannah Osborne—UK Patterson School of Diplomacy

William Osborne Darcy Osting—Univ of Cincinnati Masters in Architecture

Peter Ostling—UofL Med School Alice Pan—Pharmacy School Ashley Parks—Univ of North Carolina Greensboro Graduate School in Speech Language pathology

Jessica Parks—UK Doctor of Physical Therapy Program

Tiffany Patrick—Join the workforce then Grad School

Matthew Peach—Join the workforce then Grad School, Psychology

Rachel Peters Darcy Porter Lauren Power Steven Pritchett Jill Riddell Megan Romines Kristina Satek—DePaul Univ. College of Law Megan Schultz—UK Med School Anne Schwab—UK Masters of Architecture Richard Sellnow—Not quite sure Hannah Shear Melissa Shelton Eric Shockey Thomas Simendinger Lindsey Smith—Teach For America, Alabama Caitlin Snyder Daniel Sparks—UK Masters in Mechanical Engineering

Kelsey Sparrow—Applying to Veterinary School (Continued on page 4)

Shady El-Maraghi—Medical School Lindsey Elza—UK Masters in Architecture Emma Elizabeth—Doctorate in English Alexis Farley—Law School Derek Fenwick—Barry Univ. MS in Movement Science

David Fenz—Join staff of Campus Crusade for Christ

Rachel Flaherty Lauren French—Auburn College of Veterinary Medicine

Sarah Geegan—Applying to Grad Schools Andrea Gentile Kelsey Giurgevich—EKU Masters in General Psychology and Psy.S.

Lindsay Good—UK Masters in Animal Science Christopher Goodale Seth Gover—UK Masters in Architecture Thomas Green Elizabeth Greenfield—Arts Administration, Grad School

Martha Groppo Kimber Guinn—Move to San Francisco and work in Education Abroad field

Ashleigh Gustafson Christopher Hartlage Claire Heitzman—MA Classics and Latin, UK Ross Hempel—Med School Rachel Hensley—Law School Chase Hieneman—Move to DC and work for lobbying firm

Sarah Houseman Philip Houtz—Cornell Univ Graduate Entomology Program

Carla Hurt—Masters in Public Health in Health Policy, The George Washington Univ

Adesuwa Ighodaro Lauren Ison—Teach for America, Texas Gauri Iyengar—Work in advertising/marketing industry

Alexandra Izydorek Sarah Jacobs—UK Masters in Library and Information Science

Ashley Jeanmougin Kirk Jenkins—UK Masters in Civil Engineering Christopher Jester Jonathan Kidd Anna King—Teach For America, Eastern NC and UK Social Work Grad School

Nathan Kitchens Emily Kraemer Amanda Laborio—Work in Public Relations or Marketing

Emily Lawler—Vanderbilt Doctorial Program in Economics

Bridgett Lyall—Work as Sexuality Educator for Adolescents

Michael Lee—PhD in Experimental Psychology, UK

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list.

2012 Graduates Jacob Adams—MS/PhD ME Stephanie Albracht—Pikeville College of Osteopathic Medicine

Jessica Anderson—Univ. of Oxford, M.Sc. Sarah Ausmus—Employment Daniel Bacon-Brown—Univ of Illinois Urbana-Champaign PHd Materials Science and Engineering

Lindsay Baranowski—Teach For America, Milwaukee

Kathleen Barrette Jeffrey Belcher Allison Bergmann—UK College of Dentistry

Robert Bickel—UK Grad for ME Charles Blandford Thomas Blythe Reske Danielle Boucher—Team Member with City Year Boston

Katie Brandewie Alexander Brewer Benjamin Burke—NYU MA International Education

Melody Burkhart Amy Camenisch—Masters in hospitality and Dietetic Admin, Reg. Dietitian exam

Tyler Cantrell—Music Education Emily Carnahan—Univ of Cincinnati Master’s of Community Planning

Katherine Carpenter Jessica Carter—Iowa State Univ Dietetics Internship

Lura Cash—Dental School Jennifer Chadwick—Teach for America, Houston

Joshua Combs Andrea Corkran Kari Cornett—Teach For America, Appalachia

Ben Cox Taylor Cox—UK College of Dentistry Daniel Curtis—Grad School Laryssa Cybriwsky—Teach For America Tatum Dale—US Congressional Campaign Michael Daniel—Spalding Univ, Psy.D. Program

Kristen Darst Anna Davis—Teach for America, Indianapolis

Zachary Davis—too much to list! William Decker—Duke Law School Michael Detisch Kaitlin Diffenderfer—Work as Emergency RN

Matthew Doane David Dudley—Georgia Tech Grad School Ashley Dunn Elizabeth Dunn—Charleston School of Law

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Tidings Alumni News

I am a former UK Honors Program participant and Singletary Scholar, now a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at Yale University (where I also received my Ph.D.). I am writing to share with you my appreciation for the educational experience I received during my time as a UK Honors student. Though I definitely enjoyed the stimulating, multidisciplinary courses of the Honors program while I was a student at UK, I have only recently realized the extent to which those studies broadened my mind, expanded my understanding of my world, and contributed to my later thinking and scholarship. Even now, more than ten years since I graduated, I still reflect on my wonderful learning experience as an Honors student. Just this morning, I recounted to a friend details of utilitarianism and John Stuart Mill's life (which I remembered studying in the Honors program, thus prompting this note to you), and I rather often reflect on key lessons I learned from reading Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther," or Voltaire's "Candide," or from studying the New Testament in an historical and cultural context, as well as the writings of Camille Paglia and Sappho, just to name a few. Your curriculum and innovative, interdisciplinary approach to teaching supplemented my two majors of Agricultural Biotechnology and Russian in a way that I now realize gave me a true liberal arts education. I am so thankful that I participated in the Honors Program (and also the Gaines Center, which had a similarly enlightening influence on my thinking), and I want you to know that your efforts made me a better thinker and a better scholar, both then and now in my work at Yale. The University of Kentucky is so much more than good basketball. Thank you for your good work. As a teacher myself now, I continue to appreciate your positive influence on me. Sincerely, Kristina Talbert-Slagle, Ph.D.

Where are you now? What have you been doing? When did you graduate? How did the Honors Program help you?

Please contact us at honprog@uky.edu and let us know.

Amelia Stevens—UK M.A. Program in French Michelle Studeny—Marshall Univ Biological Medical Science Grad School

Amanda Sutton Kimberly Swallom Tracey Thackston—Travel abroad Kayla Thomas Philip Timmerman—Univ of Virginia JD/MA English

Vicky Tran—Pharmacy School Matthew Trautman—Vanderbilt Univ Grad School

Lauren Vanhook Katherine VanHoose Kathleen Volker—Undecided Ainsley Wagoner—Move to San Francisco and work as graphic designer

Amanda Wallace John Wehry—UofL Med School Jennifer Weiler—New Media Studio MA, Eastern TN State Univ

Katherine Welch Andrew Welleford Kaitlyn Wheeler

Sarah White Lindley Winchester—UK Masters in Linguistic Typology and Theory

Megan Winchester—UK Masters of Social Work Program

Daniel Woods Rachel Wright—Americorps, PhD Gender & Women’s Studies

Michael Wurzbacher Timothy Yff—UofL Med School Alyssa Yson

(Continued from page 3)

2012 Graduates cont’d

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Tidings Faculty Profile—Jane Gentry Vance

In 1972 Jane Gentry Vance, almost finished with her Ph.D. studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was recruited by UK English professor Robert O. Evans, second director of the Honors Program, to teach the colloquia and to found an Honors literary journal. Professor Vance, who had grown up in Fayette County but had attended out-of-state undergraduate (Hollins College in Virginia) and graduate schools (Brandeis University in Boston for her Masters, as well as Chapel Hill), was ready to come back home to teach. At that time the Honors Program had its own budget and hired its own teachers who taught full-time in the program. Professor Evans encouraged

every Honors professor to teach each of the four colloquia in order to develop a sense of the connections among the chronological periods they covered. After teaching all four, Professor Vance settled into her two favorites, “The Classical World,” and “The Modern World.” For many years she also conducted an editing and creative writing workshop that produced JAR, the Honors literary magazine.

In 1988 she was jointly appointed to English along with Honors. Since then, in addition to the colloquia, she also taught creative writing (poetry) workshops in the English Department. In the early nineties she served the program as interim director for two semesters while Director Raymond Betts was on sabbatical. In 1986 she won the UK Alumni Association’s Great Teacher award, an honor she values highly because honors students nominated her for it.

Born into a farm family at Athens, Kentucky, where her father’s forebears had lived since the time of the settlement at Boonesboro, she came into the world at Good Samaritan Hospital, now part of the UK campus; so she is a literal native of the University of Kentucky! She began writing poems in high school and developed a strong sense of belonging to the history and the landscape of this part of Kentucky. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for graduate study.

As Kentucky Poet Laureate from 2007 to 2009, she traveled the state advocating for the importance of literature in the culture and history of Kentucky. Her poems (which she publishes under her family name Jane Gentry), appear regularly in literary journals and in various anthologies. Her most recent full-length collection of poems, Portrait of the Artist as a White Pig, came out in 2006 from Louisiana State University Press, which also published her previous collection, A Garden in Kentucky, in 1995. In 2005, Press 817 in Lexington brought out her chapbook, A Year in Kentucky. She co-edited an anthology, Five Kentucky Poets Laureate, published in 2008, and designed to introduce high school students to contemporary Kentucky poetry.

She has been awarded two Al Smith Fellowships from the Kentucky Arts Council, and has held fellowships at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York and at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts at Lynchburg. In November, 2008, she arranged and participated in a reading of Kentucky poetry at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. In February, 2009, she read her poem, “Alexander Gardner’s November 8, 1863, Photograph of Lincoln,” at the Kennedy Center in Washington as part of the Kentucky Humanities’ Council’s “Our Lincoln,” a celebration of the Lincoln Bicentennial.

Now in her third year of phased retirement, Professor Vance relishes teaching and writing as much as ever. She has two daughters: Lucy Seligson, a social worker for the Actors Fund of America in New York, and Susannah Vance, a graduate of UK Law School and an attorney in Washington, DC. She has two grandsons: Jake and Andy Seligson.

Honors Students Help Win Hearst Journalism Award The UK School of Journalism and Telecommunications finished 10th in the annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program Intercollegiate Writing Competition for 2011-12.

UK’s win was due to the work of journalism majors writing in the Kentucky Kernel. HP student, Taylor Moak, the Kernel's editor-in-chief, will compete in the writing championship in June in San Francisco. Moak qualified with a top- five performance in spot news and top-20 performances in two other competitions. HP student, Becca Clemons, recently named editor-in-chief for the 2012-13 school year, took second place in the spot news competition.

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Tidings It is with great sadness that the Honors Program says farewell to members of our community. We offer our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and professors of these exceptional individuals. Kawthar A. Suleiman – Class of 2010 Lexington, Kentucky 1/30/88 – 6/24/11 A 2010 University of Kentucky and Honors graduate in biology, Kawthar had completed her first year of medical school at the University of Louisville. In Spring of 2010, she completed an in-depth study of Arab migration in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to Kentucky communities for her Honors Program Independent Project, and was an enthusiastic, thoughtful participant in her Honors colloquia. Her Honors peers remember her as a joyful spirit with a unique ability to tie together her appreciation for the sciences and the arts, and many who followed her to medical school cite her as inspiration to excel. William M. Mallory – Class of 2013 LaCenter, Kentucky 12/28/91 – 8/3/11 Will was preparing to begin his sophomore year of college at the University of Kentucky and in the Honors Program after a very successful first year, with a few comedic hiccups at which the Honors Program staff chuckles to recall. He was a 2010 graduate of Ballard Memorial High School, and always a cheerful presence in the program—his tremendous smile is especially missed. One of his Honors professors described Will as “delighted with every new thought he encountered and every opportunity to learn more”—traits that exemplify what makes Honors students so exciting to teach and learn from.

In Memorium

By Dr. Frank Ettensohn, Director The University of Kentucky Honors Program acknowledges Rayma Beal, esteemed faculty member and Chair of the 50th Anniversary Honors Reunion. Rayma’s giving extends far beyond her generous financial support — she’s also a strong advocate for the Honors Program. As the Honors Program planned its 50th anniversary celebration, Rayma led a committee of alumni, faculty and staff in hosting two days of campus events. Through this, Rayma brought alumni back to the UK campus—folks, who had not previously been interested in reconnecting with their alma mater. Rayma is helping re-engage alums as they consider their personal philanthropy. A long-time philanthropist herself, Dr. Beal established a scholarship for University of Kentucky students who excel in dance performance. She has given much of her talents, time and treasure to support the UK Dance Ensemble. The UK Honors Program recognizes the generosity and leadership of Dr. Rayma Beal.

Faculty Profile—Rayma Beal

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Tidings National Conference on Undergraduate Research The Honors Program is proud to announce two students whose undergraduate research has been selected for presentation at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), to be held at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, on March 29-31, 2012. Christopher Karounos, Biology and Chemistry Sophomore “Showing a Tragedy of Commons in Plant Root Competition with Transparent Growth Medium” The aim is to use newly developed imaging techniques to show how plant-root competition for soil nutrients impacts the reproductive success of Brassica rapa. Jacob Welch, Anthropology Sophomore “Measuring Maya Politics: Demographic Research on Ancient Community Relations” By carrying out a systematic survey of Kancab, a Maya site in Yucatán, México, the UCRIP project has identified a diverse and extensive data set of structures, allowing the project to calculate the projected size of the site and answer numerous questions regarding integration of the site following the construction of a causeway.

By Whitney Hale

A new composition by Honors Program sophomore Ben Norton has been selected for the Lexington Philharmonic's New Music Experiment, a new initiative to foster musical creativity and innovation. As part of the experiment, Norton's piece was part of a workshop and later presented to the public in a performance on Friday, February 17, at the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. "I am very excited and incredibly honored to be given this opportunity," says Norton. "I was simply happy that others wanted to go out of their way to perform one of my works. This is why I compose music." The New Music Experiment is a multi-day workshop that is part of the Lexington Philharmonic's Composer-In-Residence Program. Participants have the opportunity to work with composers, conductors and musicians while bringing new art to life. Norton competed against composers from a range of levels from high school to the pre-professional ranks. Winners were selected through an application and audition process. Composed in 2009, Woodwind Quintet No. 9 is the ninth in a series of woodwind quartets for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon by Norton. This particular quartet, like a few others in the series, is technically a quintet, as it has piano accompaniment. While stylistically, the piece contains a few traits that pervade most of the young Norton's compositions, namely, alternating and irregular meter, extended harmony and rapidly shifting orchestration, it does stand out from much of the composer's work. "It's an ebullient, even comedic, very major-sounding work," Norton says. Music has been a big part of Norton's life from an early age. He performed in the jazz, concert and marching bands, as well as in the percussion ensemble at Oldham County High School. The artist started composing at a young age as well. "I have been composing and performing music, of all styles and genres, for approximately seven years now," he says. Norton, who came to UK on a Singletary Scholarship, is pursuing music, film and Spanish majors and a minor in mathematics. The sophomore, who has already earned enough credits to be a senior, began graduate studies toward a master's degree in composition as part of the University Scholars Program. At the School of Music in the UK College of Fine Arts, Norton is currently studying composition with Joseph Baber, Professor of composition, and composition and piano with Raleigh Dailey, Assistant Professor of jazz studies. He also studies bass with UK alumnus and Morehead State University faculty member Danny Cecil.

A Different Kind of Beat

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Tidings Remembering the Beginning (cont’d)

On October 16, 1959, the Executive Committee of the University of Kentucky approved initial funding for a Gifted Student Program with Dr. Steven Diachun as the director. Dad liked to suggest that the very next day, the front cover of the popular Saturday Evening Post commemorated this event. That October 17th cover was a Richard Sargent drawing of an apple-eating, book-reading, and tie-tucked-into-his-pants student walking across campus with an attractive and attentive coed on each arm. In the background, there were the prerequisite ivy covered towers of education and a dejected-looking student athlete in a letter sweater with football in hand, but no girls. Dad secured an autographed copy from Mr. Sargent. In our garage I helped Dad frame the picture and then we hung it on the east wall of the entry room of the Honors Program office. He was very fond of that picture and told his version of the story more than once. The next year I headed off to California, worked on a BS in chemistry, fell in love with Jackie, and got married. My brother was not in the Honors Program, but was a freshman at UK in 1960. He already knew, or came to know, most of the group of people in those first Honors Program “classes.” He remembers with fondness that he and Dad after supper would often come back to campus where he would study in the library and Dad did paperwork in the Honors Program office. At the appointed time, Pete would walk over to the second-level, west-side entrance of the Fine Arts Building and make a noise. He would see the light go off in the second room and then see Dad walk out through the entry room of the office. A light was apparently left on in that room for people to feel welcome and maybe a little bit at home. You could easily see from outside the building the potted corn and tobacco plants that were part of the decorations. From time to time, Honors students were guests at different professor homes. When at our home, they would have come to a very modest five-room house that somehow had an elegant atmosphere. The living room, dining room and kitchen formed an L-shaped room that made up most of the first floor. There were lots of hand-finished cherry woodwork, books were everywhere, unmatched pictures hung here and there, and there was a variety of unknown curious items of interest. There would have also been music playing; it was probably opera or chamber music in the background. My mother would have been an important part of this scene. She was not an aloof person, but sometimes she had a bit of grandeur about her. She was the daughter of a Chicago architect and not uncomfortable about joining her father to have lunch with the likes of Louie Sullivan or Frank Lloyd Wright. She also was not above staging things for effect. Maybe there would have been a book opened on the table to a controversial picture or topic. She might have someone of note stop by to say hello; it might have been a dean, the president, the mayor, or maybe the basketball coach who was putting UK in the news. Great fun, I imagine. Students probably felt part of something special, and at the same time, at ease. I think Dad really cared about students and very likely many of them came to understand that fact.

Thank you for listening as I looked back on things that may have taken place some 50 years ago. I think helping one another by teaching and stimulating our minds is what this program and education in general is all about. May I suggest that helping each other is not limited to education? I believe pushing and pulling each other along the bumpy road is an important part of this adventure called life. Thank you; it was good to be here with you tonight.

(Continued from page 2)

Save the Date!! “Continuing the Celebration”

September 8, 2012

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Tidings Honors Students Experience India: The Large and Small of It

By Dr. Frank Ettensohn, Director Christmas Eve, 2011: While most people from the University were preparing to celebrate or already celebrating Christmas, 14 Honors students, 4 guests and 2 Honors professors were meeting in the Delhi airport to begin a two-week trip around India — a trip designed to give UK Honors students contact with Indian culture and religion and provide them with a first-hand view of a major third-world superpower. The trip was planned by Dr. Sonya Jones, who had been preparing students for the previous two semesters with a course on Indian Religion and Culture, and she was helped on the trip by Dr. Frank Ettensohn, Director of the UK Honors Program, who had been sitting in on the courses.

The trip began in old Delhi with a trip to the third largest mosque in the world, the Jama Mesjid. In Delhi, we also visited with former Indian President, Abdul Kalam, at his home. After experiencing the Gandhi Memorial and some of the British influence in New Delhi, we traveled southwest to Jaipur, capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan, where students shopped in the Babu Bazaar and rode elephants to the Amber Palace, a former Mogul fort. We then traveled to Agra, where we rushed to see the Taj Mahal and then hopped a train to Varanasi, the Hindu spiritual capital on the Ganges River. Spending the night on an Indian train was an experience that many did not want to repeat. The next day, after a wild rickshaw ride to the Ganges River, we spent New Year’s Eve on the side of the river watching an initiation of new Brahman priests. Later on New Year’s Day, we experienced the

personification of the river as the goddess Ganga, while we watched Hindu pilgrims bathe in the river for purification and help in liberation from the cycle of life and death. It rained most of New Year’s Day, and in India, it is said that such rain is auspicious. Later that same day, we visited Sarnath where Buddha gave his first sermon after enlightenment. From Varanasi, we flew to Chennai and then traveled by bus to Pondicherry, where we experienced French Catholic culture in India, visited our first ashram (Sri Aurobindo), and were blessed by an elephant at the temple of Ganesh, which we hoped would take away any future obstacles. Sri Aurobindo taught that "Man is a transitional being. He is not final.” We next headed south for the small town of Chidambaram, which contained the famous Chidambaram Nataraja temple to Lord Shiva as a cosmic dancer. This is one of the most famous

Shiva temples as it contains the crystal Akasa Lingam, the manifestation of space, one of the five Hindu elements—Lord without form. We not only saw this lingam, but also participated in an Abhisheka , a devotional activity by priests wherein the pouring of libations on the lingam transmits Shiva’s blessings to us as participants. In the Hindu world, it is difficult to have any greater participation in Shaivite spirituality than this. From Chidambaram, we went to the southernmost point in India, Kanyakumari at the junction of the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea. From here we began our trip up the west coast of India with stops in Kovalam and Ft. Cochin in the Indian state of Kerala.

(Continued on page 10)

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Tidings

Honor Program to Get New Dorm and Offices!

By Dr. Frank Ettensohn, Director Earlier this year when President Capilouto was inducted as the twelfth president of the University of Kentucky, he made a promise to revitalize the core of the campus, and part of this involved enhancing undergraduate educational opportunities and housing. In fact, a large part of this promise entailed enhancing the Honors Program. No more than seven months after this promise, the process of fulfillment has begun with groundbreaking on the New Central Residence Hall, which will largely house Honors students. For some time Honors has had a small living-learning community, but there have never been enough positions in the dorm to meet the desires of new Honors students, and the dorm only has one small classroom with little modern teaching infrastructure. This will change with the opening of the new $26-million New Central Residence Hall in Fall 2013. This hall will contain beds for 600 students, have two state-of-the-art classrooms, multipurpose rooms, and the new offices of the Honors Program. Of course, along with this, the Honors Program will have a new look, accommodate more students, and offer more scholarships. The Honors Program celebrated its 50th anniversary in September, 2011, and although the excellent students that the program has produced over that time are, by any measurement, the most important signs of our program’s success, the fact that the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the University have seen fit to enhance and grow the program is an equally important indication of our success.

At Ft. Cochin we saw the influence of Portuguese, Dutch, and English colonialism in one church, the current St. Francis Anglican Church. We watched the cantilevered fishing nets work along the coast, a remnant of Chinese influence in the area. We also saw a traditional Kathakali dance and experienced the languid backwaters of Kerala for an evening on a covered houseboat or kettuvallum. This experience, I think, was critical in solidifying our understanding of the A. Roy’s novel, The God of Small Things, which we read in class and which largely took place in the same Kerala backwaters. After two days in Ft. Cochin, we traveled north to Kanhangad where we spent two nights at the ashram of Bhagawan Nityananda, one of

India’s most well-known gurus and spiritual leaders. Here, in the process of living simply and meditating, we briefly tried to experience some of Nityananda’s spirituality. India has a way of “grabbing onto and holding you” — long after the experience and no matter whether you liked it or not! We experienced a diversity of cultural and spiritual influences and thought about the monoculture that is taking over the U.S.; we experienced the new and the old, the worldly and the spiritual, poverty and wealth, health and illness, the past and the present, inclusiveness and exclusiveness, as well as the “Western” and the “Eastern.” But perhaps more than anything else, India will leave us with impact of all the Small Things we see and do almost automatically every day, only to be haunted by the Large Things that lurk within us and our society, unsaid and undone.

(Continued from page 9)

Honors Students Experience India: The Large and Small of It (cont’d)

Spring 2012

11

Tidings Honors Program Scholarships and Awards

Diachun Award

Claire Heitzman—Awarded $1,000 to assist with expenses during the first year of graduate study. Winner of an Otis Singletary Fellowship for students planning to continue their studies at UK, Laura will pursue an MA in Classics.

Jennifer Weiler—Awarded $1,000 to assist with expenses during the first year of graduate school. Graduating from UK in just three years with a major in art history with minors in studio art and Japanese, Jennifer will pursue an MA in “New Media Studio” at East Tennessee State University.

Student Skills and Development

Brian Hancock—to support study of Scottish literature this summer at Arcadia University in Edinburgh.

Bethany McClintock—to assist her participation in an English-language course at the Otto Beisheim School of Management in Valendar, Germany, in conjunction with her role as a Global Scholar in the Gatton College of Business.

Damarias Moore—to aid with a semester of study at the Université Rennes 2, where she can continue working on her double major in French and in Arabic Studies.

Justin Penny—to help with costs of attending a KIIS program in Greece, where he will take courses to enhance his classics major.

Ashley Scoby—to cover part of the expenses of a program sponsored by the College of Communication and Information Studies in Cape Town, South Africa, which will involve a course and work with a social services organization, the J.L. Zwane Center.

Kate Johnson Scholarship

Matthew Bendure—to enable him to take up a Sister Cities Internship with Deauville in the Normandy region of France, an ideal opportunity for a dual major in International Studies and French.

Carolyn McKenzie—to assist with a semester of study at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile.

Laura Throckmorton—to support a semester at the University of Belgrano in Buenos Aires.

Jacob Welch—to enable his participation in an archaeological dig organized by the University of Colorado—the Achiutla Archaeological Project—in the highland region of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Raymond Betts Crystal Award

Lindsay Baranowski—and her incredible variety of involvement in and commitment to the honors Program at UK have helped this program and its students in invaluable ways during her four years here. While pursuing a rigorous academic journey that has included a double major in music and Hispanic studies, a philosophy minor, and the Honors Program curriculum, Lindsay has served as a model scholar to her peers on campus through her dedication to scholarly pursuits, including conference presentations of her research at the prestigious National Conference on Undergraduate Research and the Kentucky Honors Roundtable. She has been a more formal leader for academics at UK in her role as Honors Program Peer Mentor, and as both an ambassador and the student coordinator for the Honors Program Ambassador Team, which plays an invaluable role in recruiting the best students from around the country to attend UK and the Honors Program. She has served as a student committee member on several university committees due to her maturity and thoughtfulness. In all of these experiences, Lindsay has helped countless students at every stage of their college experience understand the value of rising to fulfill their potential. There are certainly many students at the University of Kentucky who are here because they spoke with Lindsay at a preview night. There are students who might have struggled with their first semester of college if not for Lindsay’s guidance as a peer mentor.

Spring 2012

12

Tidings

Honors Program Scholarships and Awards Recipients

University of Kentucky Honors Program

355 Patterson Office Tower Lexington, KY 40506-0027

Phone: 859-257-3111 Fax: 859-257-6428

E-mail: honprog@uky.edu

Recipients from left to right: Laura Throckmorton, Bethany McClintock, Brian Hancock, Ashley Scoby, Jacob Welch, Carolyn McKenzie, Matt Bendure, Jennifer Weiler, Lindsay Baranowski, Clair Heitzman Not pictured: Damarias Moore, Justin Penny

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