• Cody Bressler received The President Sparks Award for having earned a 4.00 (A) cumulative GPA based on at least 36 graded Penn State credits.
  

• Rebecca Slomowitz received The President's Freshman Award for receiving a 4.00 cumulative GPA based on at least 12 graded credits completed by the end of the fall semester.

• Senior Eileen Fresta was honored with the Evan Pugh Scholar Award for having earned a cumulative GPA of a 4.0 on at least 48 graded Penn State credits. Eileen was also awarded the Undergraduate Research Award, which recognizes the excellence in student involvement in undergraduate research.

A huge congratulations to these students on their amazing academic achievements. We are so proud!

On Wednesday, April 17th, senior and Schreyer Honors Scholar, Eileen Fresta, held a gripping seminar on her thesis, titled "Charting the Health History of Middletown Township, Pennsylvania, through a Study of the Cumberland Cemetery Interment Records."

The event was a huge success, and our Tomezko Lounge was overflowing with everyone from Brandywine students and professors to members of the Middletown Township committee.

Through the course of her research, Fresta conducted a ground-penetrating radar study of the Pratt's Burial Ground in Cumberland and highlighted the ways by which the cemetery has always stood as an iconic landmark in Delaware County's vibrant history.

In all of her four years at Penn State Brandywine, Fresta has accomplished a tremendous amount; so, to  read more about Fresta's contributions to the campus and the local community, check out this article.

Congratulations, Eileen!

Fresta and Mookerjee, both Schreyer seniors, presented at the 2013 Eastern American Studies Conference held in Harrisonburg, Virginia on March 22-23.  Fresta presented on "Pleistocene Rewilding in North America."  Mookerjee won Best Undergraduate Paper Award for her presentation, "Jealous for Justice: Ednah Dow Cheney translates Transcendentalism to late 19th Century Social Activism through Margaret Fuller and Theodore Parker."

                Honors students at Penn State Brandywine have been busy this semester with a slew of different events and projects. Students started off the semester with debates, the launch of the Literary Blog, and traveling the world. A few students took some time to share their experience traveling with Penn State Brandywine.

                Becca Brophy, participated in Dr. Greene's, INART 1/ARTH 100 "Introduction to the Arts in Vienna and Prague" during the summer semester. The course was centered on musical forms present in Vienna and Prague and students were required to conduct research on the musical history of the area. Students looked at influential classical composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Hayden and the like. Of her experience she said:

"While abroad, Dr. Greene encouraged us to take in a variety of musical forms, including modern music.  Fulfilling the Classical music requirement, I attended a performance by the Vienna Residence Orchestra at the Palais Auersperg that performed the music of Classical composers Mozart and Strauss.  Other types of musical experiences I had involved watching a folk band perform outside St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna and attending a local jazz club, called the Ungelt Jazz and Blues Club, where a well-known band performed a variety of compositions using the bass cello, piano, and drums.  The Vienna and Prague study abroad program really helped to expand my knowledge of musical forms as well as prove to me that just like I see here in America, certain music is popular worldwide."

Students also traveled to Paris to explore French culture. Damien Melendez, who received a travel grant for this trip, took Professor Cynthia Lightfoot's "Youth Culture in Paris" which dealt with adolescent psychology and its relation to the Parisian youth culture. Trip courses are blended; students are expected to work both collaboratively with the professor and independently before and after the trip. While in Paris, students explored the city to both immerse themselves in the culture, but also to examine related topics to their course work.

To check out pictures from the debates, see Brandywine Honors Flickr. To see blog posts, check out the Literary Launch Blog. For more information about previous and future trips, check out PSU Brandywine Global Programs.  

On Thursday, November 8th, students from the Honors Program will host a public debate in Tomezsko classroom 101, during Common Hour (11:30 - 12:45). With the theme of "Celebrities, Politics, and the Media," students will discuss issues raised in our common read, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, by Chris Hedges. Free pizza will be provided, and all are welcome to join us as we listen to some thoughtful perspectives on the question, "Has the media created a celebrity culture that dumbs down our political process, or does it get more students involved?" 

Congratulations to three of our Cooper scholars whose essays were featured in the latest edition of Penn State's Best of Freshman Writing journal. Out of the twenty-three PSU students whose work was published this year, six are Penn State Brandywine students, three of whom are outstanding members of our honors program. Their writing demonstrates the sort of academic excellence and creativity that makes our honors community proud:

This Thursday, August 16, honors scholar Sarah DeMartino will be leading a discussion about Fair Trade chocolate, and the campus community is invited to come and enjoy s'mores while learning about the chocolate industry. Sarah is one of Penn State Brandywine's Fair Trade TrailBlazers, a group of concerned students, faculty, and alumni who recently helped our campus earn Fair Trade University status. For more information about this Thursday's event, read Sarah's recent post on the Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine blog.

Congratulations to Zanya Stephenson on being named a 2012 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact! Zanya has demonstrated a commitment to serving her community, both on campus and in Philadelphia. As Penn State Brandywine's first student to work in the Laboratory for Civic Engagement, she has been very active in promoting the integration of civic engagement into academic curricula and extracurricular activities. With the Newman Civic Fellows Award, Zanya joins a network of like-minded scholars, opening up new opportunities for her to make a real difference in the world.

    

Congratulations to freshman and Cooper Honors Scholar Steven Hargis! Steven was among five students who went to the Pennsylvania Phi Beta Lambda's State Leadership Conference (SLC) in Gettysburg in April. The students competed in four events, with several bringing home top awards. Hargis, vice president of the Penn State Brandywine chapter of PBL, placed first in the "retail management" category. He said the conference "gave me an opportunity to expand my network and meet a lot of new faces, while also testing my grasp of information and concepts that I will likely be using in my future work experiences. The conference provided a fun way to grow as an individual and as a leader, and I am excited to attend the National Leadership Conference in San Antonio, Texas this summer." 

On Saturday, May 5, three of our Honors Scholars graduated from Penn State Brandywine: Mary-Therese Capaldi, Lauren Orner, and Jennifer Santangelo. After much hard work and perseverance, each successfully defended her thesis in April and fulfilled the requirements of the honors program. We congratulate these outstanding scholars and wish them the best for their future endeavors!

Congratulations to Cooper Honors Scholar Chris Kramer on the exciting news he made this week! Along with two other PSU Brandywine students, Tara Landis and Samantha Golay, Chris was among 16 local college students who had an opportunity on Monday to chat with President Obama about student loan interest rates via conference call in the office of Mayor Michael Nutter. Chris was one of only two students in the room who actually spoke to the President, and he proudly stated that he represented Penn State Brandywine! This is just the latest example of our honors students' civic engagement, speaking out on important issues of local and global concern. Keep up the good work, Chris!

Congratulations to Sarah DeMartino who was presented with this prestigious award at the Academic Recognition Ceremony on March 22.  Sarah, a Cooper Honors Scholar, is also part of a student group spearheading a movement to have Brandywine designated as a Fair Trade campus. Her research projects with faculty include a gendered analysis of stress among students, an investigation of dementia within India, and an inquiry into how students cope with culture shock in study abroad experiences. 

Sarah has presented her work at the Association for Women in Psychology conference, the Penn State Regional Research Exhibition at Lehigh Valley, the PSU Brandywine Fall Pride event, St. Joseph's Sigma Xi Student Research Symposium, and the campus EURECA gathering. 

Her faculty mentor has described Sarah as "one of the brightest and motivated students" that he has come to know and praised her social commitment, personal integrity, and intellectual focus.  As he noted, "Sarah deserves this award because she is consistently striving to improve the quality of life around her--here and throughout the world." 

The Honors Program is going through some exciting changes in its leadership.  Dr. Kimberly Blockett, Associate Professor of English, is the new overall honors coordinator and point person for the Jane E. Cooper Honors Program and students.  Dr. Laura Guertin will be working with the Schreyer Honors Scholars.  We continue to have the following faculty serve on the Honors Faculty Committee at the campus:  Dr. Ivan Esparragoza, Dr. Jennifer Zosh, Dr. Kathleen Kennedy, and Dr. Julie Stanton.

The Penn State Brandywine Honors Program is looking forward to an honors theme that is current and relates to the Literary Launch and additional semester programming:


Scholars are reading through Clay Shirky's book Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, while commenting and discussing the content on the Literary Launch blog.

Honors events for the fall semester include an open mic on Constitution Day focusing on social media, two TED Salons and the TEDxPSU Watch Party, and more!  Stay tuned to this website for updates as the semester continues.

The Honors Program, Office of Student Affairs, and the Laboratory for Civic Engagement are coming together to organize the first-ever volunteer activity for our incoming first-year students.  On Convocation Day, August 18, all new students (and faculty and staff) are asked to bring to campus a box of their favorite breakfast cereal to be donated to Philabundance.  Breakfast cereal is one of the most needed and most highly-demanded items from the 500 agencies across the Delaware Valley that Philabundance serves.

The Community Service Kick-off is to allow our newest students to participate in a service activity their first day on campus, before classes even begin.  We want students to know that Penn State Brandywine is committed to its land-grant mission of serving the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and around the globe.  Let's show Philabundance that we have Penn State Pride in our volunteering activities now and throughout the year!



Click here to visit the slide set and meet some of the campus faculty and staff!

Sara Neville and Labanya Mookerjee both presented their Google Earth research projects at the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) conference, held in Philadelphia June 26-29, 2011.  Dr. Laura Guertin, Earth Science, is the faculty mentor for each project.

Both students presented their research through poster stations.  As only 35% of the people that submitted abstracts were selected to present at ISTE 2011, this is a significant honor for both students to be able to present their work in front of an international audience.

Sara Neville, Laura Guertin. Teaching STEM with Google Earth: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Geospatial Technology.  Session description, website  (top photo)

Labanya Mookerjee, Laura Guertin. Teaching World Music with Google Earth.  Session description, website  (bottom photo)

You can read about their conference experience through a Storify of their tweets:  ISTE 2011 Through the Tweets of Undergraduate Researchers

How do honors scholars spend their summer?  Sophomore Cooper Honors Scholar Megan Kawamoto is working on a global project to examine changes in climate and pollution levels.  You can read more about her project on Penn State Live.  After the marble tombstone weather rates are calculated over time for our region, Megan will be writing up her results to submit to a journal for publication.  Megan is working under the supervision of Dr. Laura Guertin, Associate Professor of Earth Science.

In Spring 2008, the honors scholars created a Vision Awareness Campaign for that semester's National Collegiate Honors Council's National Honors Service Day project.  The students invited two organizations to campus to share how they assist those that require assistance through audio books and guide dogs.  At the event, the scholars collected funds to help sponsor the training of a puppy through The Seeing Eye, the oldest existing dog guide school in the world.  We were thrilled to learn that our funds helped support The Seeing Eye puppy Otis (pictured above).

Recently, we learned that Otis has officially graduated from his training program!  (His graduation photo is below.)  Otis passed the program with flying colors and has been placed with a 47 year-old man from New Jersey.  Otis is his first Seeing Eye dog.

Several of our honors scholars are featured in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Brandywine Pride, a publication of the campus Office of University Relations.  Be sure to check out:

• Finding the Sound of Music (page 3), an article about Schreyer Scholar Labanya Mookerjee's undergraduate research project on teaching world music with geospatial technology.


• Students Put Arboretum On the Map (page 5), a summary of the GPS mapping project conducted by Schreyer Scholar Lauren Orner and Cooper Scholar Zanya Stephenson on the Green Trail at Tyler Arboretum.


• It's All in the Spices (page 8), a description of a murder-mystery party with Schreyer Scholar Sara Neville as one of the actors.


• Pursuing a Life of Public Service (page 9), a recognition of Cooper Scholar Taj Magruder's earning of the gold level President's Volunteer Service Award.


• Finding a Voice for Global Change (pages 20-21), an article describing Dr. Tom Yannuzzi's CAS 100H: Effective Speaking course.


• A Mountain of Hope (page 22), a summary of Cooper Scholar Jackie Glace's summer volunteer work that led to her writing of a children's book.