Published: November 12, 2008 08:11 am      

EKU sends students to National Collegiate Honors Conference

For many years, Eastern Kentucky University has routinely fielded more student panelists at the National Collegiate Honors Conference than any other institution.

That was true again Oct. 22-26 in San Antonio, Texas, where 30 students participated on panels and 22 more attended the conference. In fact, EKU’s participation represented approximately 6 percent of the national event, titled “Crossing Frontiers.”

The number would have been higher except for some last-minute family emergencies that kept a few students from attending. Also, 18 EKU faculty and staff joined the students, many participating on panels as well.

Tina Lefta, a senior from Albania, was selected along with nine other honors students nationwide, to participate on the annual “Fishbowl” panel on teaching and learning. Emily Gilbreath, a junior from Shawnee, Kan., was one of 16 student presenters at the entire conference chosen to present on one of the interdisciplinary student panels. She based her presentation on an Honors Civilization class assignment on the bombing of Dresden in World War II.

“Every EKU student presented with a passion, intellectual breadth and professionalism hard to come by just about anywhere,” said Dr. Linda Frost, in her first year as director of the program. “I was very, very proud indeed.”

EKU’s Honors Program is designed for intellectually promising students who seek a strong grounding in the liberal arts along with their more specialized majors. The 28-credit-hour program includes course work in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, with an emphasis on effective communication, development of critical thinking skills and integration of knowledge across academic disciplines.

Students from Madison County who presented were: Joseph Ramsay and KaSandra Barnes, both of Berea; and Ray Arnold, Amber Crutcher, David Anderson, Ray Arnold, Amber Crutcher and David Anderson.

Others Madison County students attending were: Michael Luckett, Renae Bishop, Shanna Deerfield, Bethany Bowling and Connie Parker, all of Richmond.