Honors students should mark their calendars, as the Honors Spring Convocation will be held at 7:30 p.m. today at the Ford Center. The event will include a speech from Mireya Mayor and will hold the first Honors Poster Symposium.
Interim Dean Ethel Scurlock views the bi-annual Honors Convocation as a time for honors students to gather and learn together.
“It is important for our students to attend because when students join the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College they are joining a community of citizen-scholars,” Scurlock said. “Because of our growth, it is challenging to bring this community together, so we can only come together across classes twice a year.”
Students will have a variety of opportunities to interact with their peers and professors.
“They will engage with one another, learn more about the research of their peers, hear about the dynamic work proposed by our Barksdale Award winners, and celebrate our Honors Professor of the Year,” Scurlock said.
Honors students are expected to attend. The event is not limited to members of the honors college. All are welcome. Following university guidelines, masks will be required indoors.
This year’s guest speaker will be renowned primatologist Mireya Mayor. Mayor is a successful TV host and author, with credits including the documentary series “Wild Nights with Mireya Mayor” and the National Geographic published autobiography “Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer.”
Named the “female Indiana Jones” by the New York Times, Mayor has explored and researched in remote places all over the world. In 2001, she traveled to Madagascar and co-discovered the world’s smallest known primate, the mouse lemur.
Mayor is also a Fulbright Scholar. The Fulbright Scholarship, a program that provides students with the means to conduct research in over 130 different countries, is an award many honors students are working toward right now.
Mayor is currently working as the Director of Exploration and Science Communications at Florida International University and appears in the Travel Channel series “Expedition Bigfoot.”
This year’s convocation will hold the inaugural Honors Poster Symposium, an event designed to showcase the research of honors students from several different fields. Guests can walk through the symposium from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m.
“Most of our student researchers will be present to answer questions about their research,” Scurlock said. “This is excellent professional practice for presenting research at national conferences and helps provide novice students with answers about how to start developing meaningful research.”
In addition, the winners of the Barksdale Award will be announced. Every year, the Barksdale Award provides two students with $5,000. This money assists the students with creative projects during a study abroad program.
From primates to posters, the 2022 Honors Spring Convocation promises to be an unforgettable experience.
“I hope that people will come with their imagination open and ready to have an evening of dynamic engagement,” Scurlock said.
