Honors News Archive

News in Brief

(Archived Article)

From the Director

Dec 13, 2013

The University Honors Program values community engagement and academic risk taking.  While people on and off campus sometimes think of honors programs and colleges as ivory towers to which privileged students retreat, UW Honors envisages itself as a dynamic incubator of gutsy ideas in search of courageous and innovative faculty, staff, and students ready to bring education out of the classroom and, as it were, into the streets. 

This autumn’s newsletter features examples of former and current students and faculty who both study and practice outstanding service to local and international communities.  I find myself continuously amazed and humbled by the remarkable work that those associated with Honors take on, work that is as inspirational as it is bold, effective and transformative.  The stories you read here should offer insight into some of the ways in which Honors education at the UW models best practices and as such serves the whole university.

Jim Clauss
Director of Honors
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Professor of Classics


Alumna Justice Bobbe J. Bridge's Remarkable Story of Commitment, Engagement, and Service

“My father-in-law, Admiral Herb Bridge (also a proud Dawg), frequently lectures on public service, describing it as ‘the rent we pay for the space we occupy on earth.’ I couldn't agree more. We are individuals, but we are all members of a family, residents of a community, citizens of a state and country, occupants (as Herb notes) of the world—we are connected to one another and obligated through that connection to assist each other as we are able.” (Justice Bobbe Bridge) Read more »

Huskies for Opportunities in Prison Education (H.O.P.E.)

“In Your Name: Education Inside Prison” is an Honors seminar that met weekly this past summer at the Twin Rivers Unit, a medium security facility at the Monroe Correctional Complex, a state prison less than an hour from the UW campus. The class was made up of UW Honors students and inmates at Twin Rivers who together explored the ways in which post-secondary education might play a significant role in helping individuals in the prison system make a successful and productive return to society. Read more »

Make a difference, change the world, get involved and make an impact in your community

The UW has been named on several occasions, the year 2012 included, to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement. However, it is important to ask: is our service really making a positive difference in our communities? What does it mean to be civically engaged? Read more »

Indian Classical Dance, Kenya, Public Health, Computer Science, Android Apps, Skype Calls at Two in the Morning? Meet Saloni Parikh.

When Saloni Parikh (senior, public health and computer science) arrived at the UW Honors Program in 2010, her family background in medicine predisposed her toward the medical arts. But she also had a passion for dance, having trained in classical Indian dance for over a decade, and felt that a course of study in preparation for medical school would limit her natural inclination to “be all over the place.” Read more »