Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
You're listening to the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM, the podcast by students for students. Now this week's episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Spartan Orientation Station. On today's edition of the Spartan Orientation Station's living community series, we are speaking with the Honors College. The Honors College at MSU is home to high achieving scholars dedicated to academic excellence and personal growth. I'm Kirsten, and I'm a student coordinator at NSO, and I'm one of your hosts for today.
Speaker 3:My name is Miles McGee. I'm a student coordinator at NSO as well, and I'm also one of your hosts for today. Joining us today are Melanie and Noah, who are here to chat about all things Honors College. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Happy to be Thank
Speaker 5:you for having us. Of course.
Speaker 2:So can you first start by introducing yourself and what you do for the Honors College?
Speaker 4:Yeah. My name is Melanie Brender. I'm actually an Honors College alum. I graduated about a decade ago and returned home to MSU in 2023 to be the communications manager over at the Honors College.
Speaker 5:Hi, everyone. My name is Noah Forman. I'm a third generation Spartan from South Florida. I'm majoring in economics, minoring in entrepreneurship and innovation. Within the Honors College, I'm an active participant in HR, which is our recruiting organization.
Speaker 5:I also participate in the Dean's Advisory Council, advising on policy or hearing updates about the Honors College, like the Campbell Hall project, which is gonna be the first Honors only dorm on MSU campus.
Speaker 3:Alright. Well, it's nice to meet both of you. Can you tell us how students can be become a part of the Honors College?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. So when you apply to Michigan State, that is also your Honors College application. All you need to do to be considered is apply to Michigan State as an incoming high school student. Otherwise, I mean, there's still a chance to get invited later on if you have a really strong first semester at MSU. We'll reach out and invite you at the end of the fall.
Speaker 4:And then once you're in the Honors College, we have so many opportunities to get involved. We have events. We have our own scholarship opportunities. We have our own student organizations. And so I would just say, don't be a stranger.
Speaker 4:We have so many ways that you can connect with us, and we want to get to know you.
Speaker 5:Yes. 100%. Being a part of the Honors College is as simple as showing up. Follow the Honors College on social media. Look on the Honors College website.
Speaker 5:Find things that interest you and show up, learn, participate. And then from there, grow. Embrace this community that you have within the Honors College, making a huge campus much smaller and really take advantage of every opportunity that's presented.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, Melanie, you touched on this a little bit, but what are the benefits of being in the Honors College, and why should a new student say yes if they're invited?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. So if we wanna get a little a little technical, if you're saying yes, you're saying yes to very unique academic freedom, flexibility, and community. So on the academic side, you can wave a ton of prerequisite courses and really explore what you're passionate about. You will have more opportunities in research with faculty. You can carve your own very custom academic path and explore a lot of passions.
Speaker 4:On the flexibility side, I know a lot of our students enjoy the perk of priority enrollment, you know, getting to get into the courses you want before a lot of other students can enroll. You have the flexibility to take graduate level courses, which is which is huge as an undergraduate student. And on the community side, I mean, we're a community of over 4,000 scholars in every undergraduate college at MSU. And the commonality there is just a common passion to just excel in and explore. Excel and explore the things that you care about.
Speaker 4:And just so many special things happen when you take a ton of passionate people and throw them into a room. I mean, that's when the coolest ideas come to be, the coolest clubs. I mean, so it's just an opportunity to be part of a community of incredible students doing incredible things.
Speaker 5:Yes. Exactly. Incredible students doing incredible things, and there's no downside. I would encourage everyone who has the opportunity, say yes, and figure out all these opportunities. Take advantage of everything that you're given by saying yes.
Speaker 5:You touched on some excellent points being able to deep dive into your interests coming on campus instead of being burdened with some of the university requirements, getting some of those exceptions through the honors college. In particular, for me, I was able to explore an interest of mine outside of just my major or minor coming onto campus through the honors college, doing undergraduate research in the marketing department as an econ major, and and really just saying yes to the Honors College is saying yes to one of our assistant dean's favorite words, multipotentiality. Being able to explore your potential in everything you're interested in all at once.
Speaker 3:Wow, there's a lot of great perks that come with joining the Honors College. So Noah, you touched on this earlier, but is there an option for students to live in an Honors College community and where is that located?
Speaker 5:A large number of the residence buildings on campus offer an Honors College floor. So one floor in that building is gonna be just Honors College students. You're able to opt into that as you come on campus and again for your second year on campus. For the first time, we are opening up Campbell Hall, which is going to be the only dorm on campus that is 100% made out of honor students. I think it's about 300 students that are all in the honor scholars.
Speaker 5:They'll be living together, learning together. And then we're also using some of the spaces in that dorm as areas for Honors College students to get together regardless of if they live in that dorm or not. It's really a great opportunity. I would recommend people join their Honors College floor or living community because you're living and then learning with like minded people who wanna explore their potential and take advantage of all the opportunities on campus.
Speaker 4:And I will say so Campbell Hall, which is being completely renovated right now, it's located right across from the Union off of Grand River. I mean, that was incredibly intentional. We have very engaged students, and we have very community engaged students. And so it's to also connect them with the greater Lansing and East Lansing community.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Campbell Hall's in a super great spot right by the Union, right by Grand River, a super fun spot to live. So moving forward, what academic requirements are specific to the Honors College?
Speaker 4:Once you get into the Honors College, you need to get in your eight Honors experiences by graduation. Not so much need to, but more of like you you get to. You get to experience your personalized program in your personalized way. And honors experiences can either be an honors college course or a section or an option or a graduate level course. And the honors courses tend to be much smaller.
Speaker 4:You're working at a faster pace. You're going way deeper into material. And if you're just taking any class that you really, really, really love, you can offer to your professor to do an honors option, which is, you know, I really love this material. I'm super interested. Here's a project I think would help me dive deeper.
Speaker 4:And that's just another way you can really customize your academic path at Michigan State.
Speaker 5:Yes. Honors options, honors courses, those aren't meant to burden students. They're meant to encourage them to seek out their passions, their academic interests, and really participate in scholarly work or work that aligns with their future goals. So really just take that as an opportunity to explore. It's not a burden.
Speaker 5:Though it is a requirement to have three honors credits or options done by the end of your sophomore year and eight done by the time that you graduate, it really is just another opportunity.
Speaker 3:I love the fact that you highlighted that. It's not a burden. Some people do get a little intimidated by the Honors option, but it's an opportunity for you to dive deep into your interest. So now moving on to welcoming students. Does the Honors College host welcome events for new students?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Can't build community if you don't build a place to to meet and engage. We have a few events every fall. One of those is our resource fair, which is before classes start. It's for first year students for them to meet our staff, meet our all of our student organization leaders.
Speaker 4:We've got snacks and just to interact with each other. We also have an annual picnic that's usually early September for the entire Honors College. It's usually right by the rock. We have yard games. We have, like, a huge catered cookout.
Speaker 4:We have giveaways. And it's just it's just casual and and super fun to help people build community right away and learn, like, you belong. We're so glad you you're here. And here's all the ways that you can continue to get involved and get connected with your new Spartan community.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 5:The the picnic is my personal favorite welcome event. Just seeing all the administrators there and then students having an opportunity to connect for the first time with students that may be on campus from out of state, in state, international students, and meeting everyone in that one spot allows you to really connect and have a good basis of friends going into that first semester to explore campus with.
Speaker 4:And with Campbell Hall opening in the fall, we are going to have an official ribbon cutting. Ton of event ideas are being formulated and are in the works to commemorate that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Obviously, at NSO, we're very big on building community right away, so I really loved that. But once students are here, do they have resources specifically to help new students with the academic rigor of the program?
Speaker 4:We provide new students with access to Honors College advisors. So that's just like a whole extra layer of advising on top of the advisors you already have access to in your unit. We also have Honors Navigators, which is a peer mentorship program. So first year student. Okay.
Speaker 4:I just got plopped into a university with tens of thousands of people, and I don't know where to start. We will pair you with somebody, with an upper level Honors College student, to connect you to the resources you need as an individual and the groups that you're interested in getting involved with. And then we also do have about a dozen of our own Honors College student organizations. And for example, we have our First Generation Honors Association. That's really helpful for those who might be the first in their families to pursue a college degree.
Speaker 4:We also have our International Scholars Advisory Board. So if you're here from another country, if you're seeing snow for the first time, or you're the only one on campus during certain holidays that you are not accustomed to, I mean, our international scholars advisory board is incredible at community building and hosting events that anyone would would wanna be a part of. They are so fun.
Speaker 5:Yeah. For me, personally, the biggest resources are going to be your honors college staff and your other honors college students. Honors college students are always willing to talk to first years, answer any questions you may have, and and really just help you to be involved on campus and navigate any challenges you might have. Really just helping you to navigate academic rigor.
Speaker 3:Alright. I love the fact that there's resources not only for students to help with their academics but also to find community. How can students stay up to date with Honors College happenings and do you have any social media or physical office that students can visit?
Speaker 5:I have to jump in here because Melanie does an amazing job with making sure students are in the know as to what's going on on campus for the Honors College, putting out the Honors College weekly, which is our email newsletter to students what's going on on campus, but then also all of our media pages.
Speaker 4:Our Instagram is targeted specifically toward our current and prospective students. You can find us at MSU Honors. Something we're also always open to is if you're in a student group or Noah reached out when he was on his study abroad. If you're an Honors College student doing an experience you wanna share, we also have a system set up for Instagram takeovers. So you reach out to me, you sign our takeover agreement, you get a temporary password, and you can take us through.
Speaker 4:Noah took us through his his time in Paris. We had one of our student groups took us through the Honors College ball that they throw every year. You can find us also on LinkedIn and Facebook and X. But Instagram is really, really tailored to our students. And in terms of physical space, we're at Eustis Cole Hall on East Circle.
Speaker 4:That's our beautiful red brick building. If my door is open, you can come say hi. And then Campbell Hall next year will also be a physical space for our students to visit and and gather.
Speaker 2:You mentioned student groups throwing a ball. What student groups are there through the Honors College?
Speaker 4:We have about a dozen based on so many different topics. For example, Noah mentioned our HC Impact, where you're really getting engaged with helping different charitable groups and nonprofits throughout Lansing. If you feel called to community engagement, we have groups like the Honors College Service Club. Or if you like events and you like throwing events that people wanna come to, we have our Honors College activities board that throws our annual ball and annual ice skating. We have a first year council for our first year students.
Speaker 4:Noah mentioned the Dean's Advisory Council. We have groups like Mosaic for our multicultural students. We have the Mental Health Collaborative. So have a whole slew of groups tailored to a lot of different interests and needs of our students.
Speaker 3:Those are a lot of great groups, for students to find community and meet each other. So now on to our last question. What is your absolute favorite part about working with or being in the Honors College?
Speaker 4:My favorite part is that I get to be around these multidimensional, dynamic, passionate students on a daily basis. And just interactions with our students leave me wanting to be better and do better and continue to, like, explore and excel just as we ask them to do. I I could give you just so many examples of just student interactions and students that just make my job so fun. So it's just like, how can you not talk to these students with all this multipotentiality, customized, has a study, and just not get so inspired?
Speaker 5:I would have to say my favorite part about being in the Honors College is two things. One, the opportunities, and two, the people. Think of Michigan State as a giant spider web. The Honors College is at the center of that spider web, able to connect students to opportunities all around campus, and that's backed up by the staff. I think every single time I go to the honors college, at least weekly at this point, there's there's always doors open.
Speaker 5:And it's a welcoming environment. Students can just walk into administrator offices, talk, express any interest that they have, places they wanna get involved on campus. And the Honors College kinda serves as that connector between students and opportunities because the staff care.
Speaker 2:I absolutely love that spider web analogy. That's a really great way to think about it. That's all we have for this episode of the Spartan orientation station. Thank you, Melanie and Noah, for hanging out with us today, and make sure you guys tune in next time. Go green.
Speaker 3:Go white. Go white.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at MSU underscore NSO.