This semester, the Honors Program and its students were hard at work promoting our message of thriving in the world as it is and developing the world as it should be.

In September, the new class of Honors students moved into the Honors Floor in Arend Hall, introducing new traditions and jumping into college life. Honors Lunch Networks kicked off with rousing discussions on Democracy and Discourse over Costco pizzas and cookies. Students debated how to best engage with those who disagreed with them and how to work together civilly to solve problems. We heard about students’ summer internships and activities that enriched their minds and hearts, ranging from law firms to government work.

In October, we covered how Community Building Day brought together Honors First Years with efforts to register fellow students to vote. The Computer Science department had its first annual Community Building Week, where students built apps centered around helping kids learn. STEM Night took place, allowing students the opportunity to showcase their summer research both on campus and at other institutions. Alex Peters presented his research on C. elegans in preparation for the Murdoch Science Research Conference. We also explored new opportunities in the Computer Science department for interdisciplinary degrees that go hand-in-hand with the Honors program.

In November, we briefed Honors course offerings for Jan Term and Spring semester, which included interesting classes from just about every department on campus. We broke down the 2024 Presidential Election, the candidates, the stakes, and what was most important to voters this year. The Whitworth Summer Fellowship Program’s application opened, and we spoke to several students who participated last year to let us know how cool the program really was. Whitworth’s Ethics Bowl team went to the Regional Competition at Pacific Lutheran University and brought home gold, going undefeated in every round. They eagerly await nationals in February in Virginia.

In December, the Honors Showcase was a hit with over 50 participants. Research topics ranged from AI in nursing to the troubling connections between slavery and Whitworth. Five Creative Writing students read poems they’d written in class, and it was overall a very academic and interesting atmosphere. Students in participating Honors classes got to have a low-stakes presentation experience with peers and professors. The Showcase represents the first step to building skills necessary for the conference presentation, like the Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference (SIRC) and Honors Exhibition, the capstone of the Honors Program.

All in all, this semester has been a busy one. And we can’t wait to see what Spring 2025 brings!