Honors Sells . . . But Who’s Paying?

Authors

Annmarie Guzy, University of South AlabamaFollow

Date of this Version

2014

Document Type

Article

Citation

Published in Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Spring/Summer 2014, Volume 15, Number 1.

Comments

Copyright © 2014 by the National Collegiate Honors Council.

Abstract

In my technical writing courses, I assign résumés and application letters near the beginning of the semester so that students who are preparing to graduate or to search for co-ops and internships will have sufficient time to revise and polish their documents before sending them to prospective employers. Recently, during a peer critique session in which I was helping the students review each other’s résumé drafts, I noticed that a student had listed a number of honors program activities and scholarships. She had not taken honors freshman composition with me, so I mentioned to her that I noticed she was in the honors program. Her immediate, rapid-fire, and completely unsolicited response took me by surprise: “Yeah, but the scholarship only lasts four years, and I have to do another year because I have to do a senior project for my major, and I don’t want to do an honors thesis on top of that, so I won’t be in the honors program anymore.”