'Geek' is Chic
Honors students find a home in the heart of campus
By Megan Harding, ’83

On any college campus in America, students who qualify for and enroll in an honors program run the risk of being considered geeks and nerds by their nonhonors classmates. In reality, however, honors students more often pursue a wide range of interests, participate in international travel and form close social ties with peers. Plus, in this era of Web surfing and instant messaging, geek has become chic.

The Honors College at Kent State University recently boosted its already prestigious image with a move from the outskirts of campus to a new residence hall complex in the heart of campus. The new Honors Center is located at the juncture of Stopher and Johnson Halls, which have been rebuilt from the ground up, following the footprint of the original buildings in order to preserve the historic May 4 site. The Honors Center was dedicated on Oct. 14 in conjunction with the Homecoming Extravaganza.

A major advantage of the new, central location is the revitalization of the Honors Living Learning Community. Kent State now has 13 learning communities devoted to student interests ranging from science to entrepreneurship, but the honors community is the first and oldest, dating back to the late 1960s. Honors began as a program in 1933 and became a full-fledged college in 1965.

“People have put up with the distance for three decades,” says Honors College Dean Larry Andrews, of the now infamous treks back and forth from the former honors residence halls known as Small Group. Last academic year, honors students occupied less than 32 percent of the beds available for the Honors Living Learning Community. This fall, the new Johnson Hall is filled to capacity with more than 200 honors students. Research shows that college freshmen are more likely to excel academically when they can live in residence halls among peers with similar interests and aptitudes.

“All of the friends I made while living in the honors plaza are still my closest friends now,” says Dennis Boyd, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio, who received The Allison Beth Krause May 4th Memorial Honors Scholarship. To make his honors experience more like home, he and another honors student began a free “movie night” tradition in the Honors College, focusing on offbeat and international films that students would not ordinarily see.

“The new honors center will help us build a stronger community,” says Danielle Sherritt, an education major who is president of the Honors Community Council, which plans social activities for students in the college. “With this new facility, honors students are being rewarded for working hard in our classes.”

Honors student Dennis Boyd STUDY ABROAD BROADENS HORIZONS Dennis Boyd recently traveled to Romania and Moldova to research his honors thesis, which he is writing in German. Boyd was one of 15 honors students to receive a Bengier Study Abroad Honors Scholarship last year. “Travel gives you a chance to observe your own culture,” he says. “No matter what country you visit, you are going to come back and see your own culture and society from the perspective of another.” “International travel fills in your mental map of the world, with real people and different ways of living. It is a true education on so many levels. This education is critical in the increasingly global world in which we live,” says Gary Bengier, a 1977 graduate of the honors program who, along with his wife, Cynthia, also a former honors student, provided a generous endowment to assist students who wish to study abroad.

“Students are going to want to hang out here,” says Andrews. The 10,500-square-foot Honors Center occupies a prime piece of campus real estate, along the new pedestrian esplanade and close to the Kent Student Center and University Library.

The new building doubles the amount of space devoted to honors, adding four classrooms that enable the college to offer most of its Freshman Honors Colloquia on site. The center also features a spacious lobby, administrative offices, art gallery, student lounges and a new library — all with wireless Internet access.

“The Honors Center is a highly visible symbol of the value we place on academic excellence at Kent State,” says University President Dr. Lester A. Lefton. “A high priority now is to increase the number of scholarships for high-achieving students. Currently, only six of the 1,100 students in the Honors College receive full-ride scholarships for their four years at Kent State.”

The Honors College holds to a time-tested philosophy: recruit high-ability students, challenge them with a rigorous curriculum and support them with close advising and co-curricular programs. Honors classes are small and encourage students to become active learners, who often debunk the popular stereotype of honors scholars.

For information on donating to the endowed fund set up to provide May 4, 1970, Memorial Honors Scholarships and on other opportunities to give, call Diane Ruppelt at 330-672-0456 or visit the May 4, 1970, Memorial Honors Scholarship Web site.

Learn more about the Honors College, Honors Center and related programs on the Honors College Web site.