Honors Day Celebrates the Liberal Arts
More than 135 Alma College students will share their original research, creativity and talent with an audience of their peers during the 11th annual Kapp Honors Day, Thursday, April 5. Read more.Honors Day kicks off Wednesday, April 4 with the keynote address by American theoretical chemist, poet and author Roald Hoffmann. The winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Hoffmann will discuss “Science and Ethics: A Marriage of Necessity and Choice for This Millennium” at 8 p.m. in the Remick Heritage Center. The talk is free and open to the public.
On April 5, students perform music, stage dance productions, deliver oral presentations of scholarly research, and lead poster discussions in sessions spanning eight hours at various locations around campus. Some of the presentations are outgrowths of senior theses, and some are presented by underclass students.
The $1,000 Ronald O. Kapp Honors Prize will be awarded to the student team that produces the most compelling video on how the “Alma Experience” transforms and challenges students. The presentations take place at a special Honors Day session at 5:30 p.m., April 4 in Dow L-1 with the prizewinner announced during Honors Convocation.
Academic presentation sessions begin at 8 a.m., April 5, with a break at 9:30 a.m. for the College’s annual Honors Convocation in the Remick Heritage Center, Presbyterian Hall. The Convocation recognizes individual and collective achievements. Seniors reveal their choices for outstanding professors, and the top students are recognized.
The Barlow Trophy, Alma's most prestigious academic honor, tops the college life of one graduating senior. Erin Bernethy of Linwood, Melissa Hanson of Manistee and Marcus Hong of Charlotte, N.C. have been nominated as most representative of the liberal arts philosophy, successfully blending academics with an active role in campus life.
Honors Day sessions resume at 12:30 p.m. and continue until 5 p.m. Topics run the gamut of liberal arts education, including muscle cell behavior, college spirituality, women in Judaism, French cinema, turtle movements, origins of U.S. politics, and college ranking systems.
Other session research topics include the physics of acoustics, fetal alcohol syndrome, regional trade agreements, protecting rural communities, body image, affects of dehydration, human rights barriers, conservative politics talk radio, freedom of information act, owls and spiders. In addition, students will display artwork and perform dances.
Honors Day Schedule
Wednesday, April 4
Wednesday, April 4
- 5:30 p.m. — Kapp Honors Dy Prize presentations, Dow L-1
- 8 p.m. — Keynote address: Roald Hoffman, Remick Heritage Center
Thursday, April 5
- 8 a.m. — Concurrent Session I
- 9:30 a.m. — Honors Convocation, Remick Heritage Center, Presbyterian Hall
- 11:15 a.m. — Luncheons
- 12:30 p.m. — Concurrent Session II
- 1:40 p.m. — Concurrent Session III
- 2:50 p.m. — Concurrent Session IV
- 4 p.m. — Concurrent Session V
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Posted: Tue, April 3rd, 2007 at 7:50AM
