Sandra Via, Crystal Hutchens, and Sabrina Tribbett with banquet speaker Dr. Sandra Ballard.
At Ferrum College's 88th Commencement on May 3, the Boone Honors Program graduated its first three students. Crystal Hutchens, Sabrina Tribbett, and Sandra Via received the Boone Honors Medallion during the Commencement ceremonies to mark their achievement. All three women completed their degrees at Ferrum in three years. To graduate from the Boone Honors program, the students needed to complete 15 hours of honors seminars as part of their general education program, 12 hours of other honors enriched courses, and maintain a 3.4 GPA. Dr. David Howell, Associate Professor of Religion and Director of the Boone Honors Program commented, "I am proud of the accomplishments of these first graduates from the program who exemplify Ferrum's motto, "Not Self, But Others." Not only are these women disciplined students in the classroom to be able to complete their degrees early, but they have all been active outside the class in service to the surrounding communities through their hard work with groups like Alpha Phi Omega, a National service fraternity, and the Bonner Scholars program." Two of the students, Tribbett and Via, completed their Ferrum course work with a 4.0 average.
Crystal Hutchens is from Patrick County, VA and majored in Environmental Science with a Religion major. After graduation, Crystal is planning to move to Charleston, SC to work for a period before beginning graduate studies in Environmental Science. Sabrina Tribbett is from Pocahontas County, WV and majored in English with a minor in Religion. She will enter East Tennessee State University in the autumn to begin a M.A.T. degree with the goal of becoming a high school English teacher. Sandra Via of Patrick County, VA was a political science major with a minor in history. She said of the honors program, “It’s helped us prepare for our future endeavors and allowed us to broaden our perspectives of various fields.” Via plans to work after graduation before attending law school.
Dr. Sandra Ballard, Professor of English at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC and Editor of the Appalachian Studies Journal, visited Ferrum to address students and faculty on April 27 for the Boone Honors banquet. Ballard's talk, "Seeing Ourselves a Little More Clearly, with the Help of Appalachian Writers," drew from the poetry and prose of women writers in Ballard's recent book Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia (University of Kentucky Press, 2003). In her address, Ballard encouraged students to cultivate their sense of identity, sense of place, and sense of humor while they are in college. If the the number of books that were sold and autographed by Dr. Ballard at the end of the evening are an indication of success, students and faculty enjoyed the evening a great deal! Student successes throughout the year were also celebrated at the dinner, and the program's first three graduates were specially recognized.
Gospel Concert and Theater Trip Highlight Spring Activities
During the Spring 2004 semester, students and faculty from the Boone Honors Program had an eclectic mix of cultural events. A small group of students went to Roanoke on Tuesday, February 10 for a "Soul Gospel" concert by the Grammy award-winning group The Blind Boys of Alabama. Only two nights before the group had won their 3 Grammy in Los Angelos, but the long trip from California to Virginia did not diminish the energy that the group brought to the concert. Founded in 1938 at the Talladega Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind, the group still contains three original members who are now into their 70s. The audience was on their feet a number of times, however, as the Blind Boys combined tight vocal harmonies with "gut-bucket blues."
On Friday, March 12 a group of honors students and faculty traveled again to Roanoke to see the play "Searching for Eden: The Diaries of Adam and Eve" by James Still at the Mill Mountain Theatre. Before the play, the group enjoyed a Chinese dinner at the Red Palace Restaurant. Still's play was divided into two acts. The first act was based on Mark Twain's novella "The Diaries of Adam and Eve" whereas Still fast-forwarded from the Garden of Eden in the second act to a modern resort where a contemporary Adam and Eve explore the relationship between the sexes.
Dr. Todd Fredericksen visits with honors students.
Kaitlin Peterson, Amanda Chitwood, and
Carrie Vest enjoy a laugh before dinner.
David Hurt, Franklin County Supervisor, meets with students in capstone seminar.
Capstone Seminar Offered for the
First Time
Honors 435: Values and Vocation, the Capstone seminar for the Boone Honors program was offered for the first time in Spring 2004. The seminar combined both the practical with the theoretical. Students explored what it means to have a vocation and how that calling can be expressed in their work. They worked through and discussed readings from such diverse disciplines as theology, psychology, sociology, and biography from the Reformation period to the modern period in addition to participating n activities through the Career Services Office. Twice during the semester, students met with community leaders and businessmen for dinner to discuss their experiences of having a vocation. Roanoke attorney Broadus Fitzpatrick and Franklin County Supervisor David Hurt each enjoyed an evening of discussion and food with the students and faculty.
Religion and Science Seminar Offered in Fall 2004
Dr. David Johnson, Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science, and Dr. David Howell, Associate Professor of Religion, will teach their honors seminar "Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives" in the autumn. The seminar was first developed with grant assistance from the Center for Theology and Natural Science and the Templeton Foundation. Students taking the interdisciplinary seminar will receive general education credit either in religion or science for their course work. Howell and Johnson look at a number of topics where religion and science interface and ask students to consider ways in which the two disciplines can learn from each other rather than engage in conflict.
Museum of Natural Science, Oxford
This was the site of the 1860 debate between T.H. Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilburforce about Charles Darwin's theory on human origins.