Current Honors Students

Welcome! This page serves as the home for all current undergraduates on track to earn Albion College Honors or Departmental Honors. In this area, you will find information regarding events and requirements that specifically address your needs. Honors now has a Facebook page – join us today!

Fall 2023

  • Come be a “Albion College Honors Student” for day – schedule with Renee or Martha from Admissions
  • Game Nights – September & October
  • 1st Year Retreat – Saturday, September TBD
  • Ice Cream Social – September TBD
  • Trivial Pursuit Students vs. Professors – September
  • Tie Dye Party – October
  • Haunted House & Ice Cream Trip – October
  • Pumpkin Painting, Carving, Decorating Party –
  • Escape Room – November
  • Study Pizza & Desserts – Last Day of Classes

More events are being planned throughout the semester – Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Spring 2024

  • Come be a “Albion College Honors Student” for a day – schedule with Renee or Martha from Admissions
  • Game Night – March
  • Trivial Pursuit Students vs. Professors – March
  • Tie Dye Party – TBD
  • Escape Room – February
  • Movie Night at the Bohm Theatre
  • Study Desserts & Pizza – Last Day of Classes
  • Elkin Isaac / Honors Convocation – Thursday, April  TBD
  • More events are being planned throughout the semester – Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Current Honors Student Research and Projects

Marcelle Collares ’23 – My project is focused on how to teach and apply the ludic (also known as playful) method of education. During the last 10 weeks, I have been reading important books and articles about this method and planning a way to apply it to a Social Studies 6th-grade class at Mar Lee Middle School taught by Professor Chris Henke. I have also watched movies and shows in which this method is used, and had structured conversations with educators.   My goals were to understand the ludic method of education and the reasons to apply this method instead of the traditional one, write a rationale to explain the ludic method and how it can be implemented, develop a curriculum project for the social studies classes.

Noah Flint ’23 – I am currently interning with Albion’s director of planning and building. I have been able to get to do some networking, learn more about the day-to-day functions of city government, and I will soon be helping rewrite the Guide to Development.

Madison Brilley ’25 – I am currently helping start up our first Pre-Veterinary Medicine Club.  Through this club pre-vet students or prospective pre-vet students can learn what veterinary medicine is by club shadowing, workshops, and more!

Saige Jost ’23– Over the summer I worked with my advisor Dr. Lee-Cullin to conduct a biogeochemical experiment through Albion’s undergraduate research program. This great opportunity gave me the research to write my honors thesis – The evaluation of the storm event export of dissolved organic carbon from an urban environment to the Kalamazoo River. I just presented this as a poster at a Geology conference in Portland, Oregon and am going to present this at our Elkin Isaac Symposium.

Emily Abramczyk ’23 – My Summer FURSCA project, I started analyzing how ping pong proved to be an important catalyst in establishing relations between the U.S. and China during a time when the two countries had no formal diplomatic relations with each other and attempts by Chinese and American leaders to use traditional, high level political channels to try to establish talks with each other kept resulting in failure. Although some may argue that sports play a divisive role in international interactions due to highly competitive attitudes intensifying rivalries, through my research, I argue that ping pong diplomacy was beneficial to fostering positive U.S.-China relations, both politically and culturally, as the 1972 ping pong exchange intertwined political and athletic competition in order to elevate sports to a level of diplomacy. I wanted to demonstrate that sports competitions create mutual empathy between two groups of people and ease political tensions through people to people interactions, which in turn leads to the greater impact of two governments establishing political relations on the basis of friendship. Therefore, ping pong diplomacy created specifically sports based international contacts between the U.S. and China, and in doing so, sparked diplomatic conversations about global partnerships, efforts to bridge cultural differences, and the importance of athletic empathy as a central element in U.S.-China relations that transcended traditional political negotiations.”

 

Fadwa Kamari ’23 – I’m working on a directed evolution research project with Dr. Streu, Rayna E, and Irene C. We’re trying to find an antibody for the Nipah virus, which the World Health Organization listed as one of the top ten most deadly viruses.

Where a Few of Our 2021 Graduates Are Headed

  • Working for Dana Incorporated as a Financial Analyst
  • PhD program at Penn State University in I/O Psychology
  • I plan on joining the work force now
  • Masters at University of Detroit-Mercy for clinical mental health counseling
  • I will be attending medical school at Central Michigan University.
  • Attending Michigan State University for a Master’s in Social Work, specializing in addiction treatment and veterinary social work.
  • I’ll be attending grad school at Western, and am currently working at SAFEPlace, a domestic violence shelter.
  • I plan to go to graduate school for genetic counseling. If I don’t get in this cycle work for a year and re apply.
  • I plan on working during my gap year while studying for the LSat before going to Law School
  • gap year working at the U of M hopefully!!
  • Will be attending MSU for a Masters in Social Work, specializing in addiction therapy and animal therapy
  • I start working for Ernst and Young LLP in their tax division in La Jolla, CA starting January 2021 until then I plan on studying and passing the CPA exams
  • I’m doing a service year with City Year DC
  • I will be taking a gap year. During that time, I hope to work as an English tutor or participate in internships for relevant career skills such as copywriting, editing, etc. I will also be pursuing the possibility of publication in journals relevant to my discipline and academic interests, whether they be peer-reviewed open journals, journals dedicated to undergraduate research, journals of literary criticism, etc. After that, I hope to pursue graduate degrees in English Literature, Education, or Advertising/Technical Writing.
  • Peace Corps
  • Attending The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
  • Next semester I will be attending a Marine Science Masters program through San Francisco State University’s Estuary and Ocean Science Center known as RIPTIDES (Research Intensive Pedagogical Training of InterDisciplinary Estuarine Scientists). I will be studying the great white shark population at the Farallon Islands off the coast of California and looking into the effects of tourism and chumming.
  • Law school at Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law