As a Reaud Honors College student, you are among the brightest students a university has to offer. Your propensity for being goal-focused and achievement-oriented, however, tends to put you in a future-oriented stance that may result in social isolation. The First Year Honors Experience is a holistic journey of self-reflection, empowerment, and communication that will help you gain an appreciation for the mantra, “Think. Feel. Be.”

In seven monthly discussions, your honors peers and you will work together to learn the importance of language, self-perception, agency, self-talk, self-presentation, interpersonal communication, and critical thinking to build a vibrant, connected honors community filled with students who are not just deep thinkers in their respective fields, but also students who appreciate contemplation as a form of connection to others that results in the ability to “be” comfortable in the present.

Your experience will be divided into the following sections, each leading into the next and guided by a specific quote. We are excited to mentor you on this journey of deciphering the story of you and how to best empower yourself as you discover your place in the world.  

AUGUST 31, 2023

Did You Really Just Say That? The Power of Language

Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.

– Abraham Joshua Heschel (Polish-American rabbi)

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Who Am I? Self and Symbolic Interactionism

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

– George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright, critic, and political activist)

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

It’s Showtime! The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Choose your self-presentations carefully, for what starts out as a mask may become your face.

– Erving Goffman (Canadian-American sociologist)