It’s nice to be back at Rowan, but the semester just started and the semester is already looking like a crazy one!

This week the Honors concentration welcomed its freshman to the program with a meet and greet ice cream social at the new Whitney Center. Everyone talked and played games. The table I sat at played Dominoes. I kind of forgot that Dominoes can be used for something other than demonstrating Newton’s Laws of Motion.

The honors class I have this semester is African American Science Fictions, which looks like it is going to be interesting. For example, the first book I am reading for the class is called Black No More, which is  a social satire about a black man who undergoes a treatment to become white.

While this does not anything to do with honors, I have an internship this semester at Philadelphia’s 6abc. I have only been there two days, but it is already keeping me busy.

No matter what happens this semester. It looks like it’s not going to be boring!

My Preview of Bossypants

I have already started reading the Honors Book Discussion Group’s selections for the 2011-2012 school year. So far, I have completed Bossypants and The Outsiders. Currently, I am reading Dracula and the Hitchhikers series. Let me know in the comments how your reading is going.

For those who need a reminder, this is the list of books that Francesca McClay sent to everyone.

Fall of ’11
1. The 5 People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
2. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
5. Dracula by Bram Stoker
6. Bossypants by Tina Fey
Series -  Dan Brown novels: The DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol

Spring of ’12
1. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
2. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
6. Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo
Series – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Random Group of Honors Students

On March 5, Professor Keith Adams, his Honors History of Photography students, a few other honors students, and me went to New York City. The purpose of the trip was to go to the Museum of Modern Art, but we also got to explore Manhattan.

Professor Keith Adams

I would have loved to get some pictures inside MoMA. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to turn my camera’s flash off. I had to settle for a picture of Chris Ferrante’s bag.

Outside of MoMA, the group I was with saw Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios, News Corp, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and a hot dog cart. The only place we actually went into was FAO Schwartz. Apparently, Kelly, Liz, Joy, and Beth wanted to relive their childhood. 

Before we got on the bus and headed back to Rowan, everyone on the trip had dinner at the Rock Center Cafe. The food was good and we watched people fall on the Rockefeller Center Ice Rink as we ate.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. The past few weeks have been crazy with midterms and spring break. While things have not slowed down, (It’s project time!) I will do my best to keep the blog up to date.

On February 18, I participated my first ever Zumbathon. I had never done Zumba before so this was a completely new experience for me. While I am a horrible dancer, I enjoyed listening to the music. Everything from the Spice Girls’ “Spice Up Your Life” to Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” was played. I will definitely do Zumba again. Hopefully, I will see you there.

For more information about specifics, check out Ashley Super’s blog post about the event.

Check out the article I wrote about Dr. Elyssa Ford on the honors homepage. It is under Spring 2011 Hollybush Fellow Dr. Elyssa Ford.

Since I am a Journalism/RTF double major. I have decided to highlight some of the other bloggers in the honors concentration.

Danielle Tamburilla writes Campus Lookbook. Danielle describes it as “A blog about current fashions on campus with tips to help college student positively expand their wardrobes.”

Dominic Trombino writes Gay Boy Meets Straight World.

Kristen Connor gives helpful to on how to combat senioritis.

Ashley Super gives helpful tips on how to de-stress.

Curious where your food really comes from? Noreen Kohl tells you at Jersey Eats.

Do you have a blog you want to share? Post in the comments below.

Unfortunately, I am unable to embed the video. However, you can view it here.

Last semester Rowan launched its own version of NBC’s Minute to Win It, which is hosted by Guy Fieri. Our version has been modified and is called Win it in a Minute, which is hosted by Senior Secondary Ed/History major Charles Kuski.

Win it in a Minute was held approximately once a month at Rowan After Hours, which provides fun activities to those Rowan students who do not party. While Rowan After Hours starts at 9pm, Win it in a Minute started at 10pm and last an hour to an hour and a half.

Unlike Minute to Win It, Rowan’s version is limited to 4 Rounds. If a contestant completes the first round, he or she wins a 10-dollar gift card to Barnes and Noble. For the second round the amount goes up to 25 dollars, 50 for the third round, and 100 dollars for the final round.

Since I was lucky enough to be the second grand prizewinner, the other one was Alex Kristopovich, I will use my game as an example.

It all started when Charlie picked my name randomly out of a brown paper bag. Once he called out my name, it was game time.

The first round was Bobblehead. I had a pedometer strapped to my forehead with the goal of making it read 125. The first time I attempted the challenge I didn’t make it. Fortunately, I reached the goal the second time. Hint: do not headbang. It doesn’t work.

Round 2: Nervous Nelly, which meant more convulsing on stage. This time I had four pedometers strapped on, two on my arms and two on my legs. The goal was to have the total of all five pedometers over 500. I completed this successfully on first try.

Round 3: Extreme Hanky Panky. Those of you who have watched Win it in a Minute are probably familiar with this game. The player, in this case me, has to get tissues out of two tissue boxes, each containing 130 tissues, simultaneously. Again, I completed the game successfully in one try. Now it was time for the final round.

Round 4: Drop, Sink, & Clink. The goal is to drop three quarters into three different shot glasses, which are placed in three different fishbowls filled with water. The quarters had to be dropped from at least 36 inches off the ground. Mission accomplished. That is how I won 100 dollars at Rowan After Hours.

Rowan After Hours is held every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9pm-1am in the Student Center.

Each year, 4 people from the Bantivoglio honors concentration are chosen to attend the National Collegiate Honors Council Conference. The 2010 conference was held in Kansas City, Missouri from October 20-23.

Junior Secondary Education and English major Amanda Kaley and Junior Law and Justice major Rob Sauter both attended the 2010 conference. At the conference, they attended several presentations about how to improve the honors program and what other colleges are doing. Amanda and Rob also participated in something called City as Text, which provided them with the opportunity to learn about Kansas City and find out more about their partners who were from a different university.

So how does Rowan compare to other universities when it comes to the honors program? Rob said, “We are way more awesome! We have many opportunities that are not present in other places. We also have much easier conditions to satisfy.”

His favorite part about the Bantivoglio honors concentration is, “Our unique classes.  Most other colleges have you write something extra to make a regular class an honors class.  Rowan’s honors classes allow for a unique experience that is not available at other colleges.”

Unlike Rob, Amanda attempted to be more unbiased: “I can’t really say how Rowan as a whole compares to other colleges/universities, but I can say that I think as an honors program, we are really great compared to other programs. We have a lot of unique offerings that set us aside from many other institutions. Going to the different sessions and hearing from other schools made me realize just how great our program really is and how lucky we are to get all the benefits and perks we get.”

She also said, “I like the freedom our program offers. I saw that a lot of other programs have very specific or extreme course requirements, and I like that we can choose what classes we take. We also have a lot of social activities, such as our honors groups and trips that allow us to bond and have fun as an honors program.”

The National Collegiate Honors Council Conference 2011 is going to be held in Phoenix, Arizona on October 19-23. You can find out more information here.

Francesca or Dr. Zake will send out an email for all of those interested sometime during the first week of classes. The honors program pays for all travel expenses and reimburses students for any for expenses incurred during the trip.

Dr. Zake said, “This year we would like to send to the conference at least two students who will either present their research at an interdisciplinary research panel or will have a poster presentation of their Honors papers. In order to submit their proposals, students should contact me by February 1st. If we have more than two good papers that could be presented on a panel or made into a poster presentation, we will have to run a competition.” All interested in presenting can contact Dr. Zake at Zake@rowan.edu. To find out what type of proposals should be submitted for this year’s conference, click here.