By Skye Stewart ’17
Social Media/Features Editor
Students from the Honors Program recently traveled to Chicago where they attended the National Collegiate Honors College Conference (NCHC).
Six students — Michael Santoro, Alison Tobin, Kate Culverhouse, Molly Malinowski, Joe Fisher, and Megan Carignan — were in attendance, as well as Program Manager Lisa Cavallaro and Program Director Kerry Johnson.
While at the NCHC Conference, the students presented twice. In one presentation, labeled “Branding an Honors Program through Intentional Marketing,” the students presented about student-led public relations and marketing initiatives. The other presentation, titled “Managing the Cubs and the Bears: The Importance of Peer Mentors for First-Year Students,” was about the Honors Program Peer Mentoring Program.
In addition, Social Media Coordinator Alison Tobin, and Print Editor Megan Carignan accepted a second place award for best student-run newsletter for their Honors Program newsletter “In Company of Friends.”
“I was able to connect with people from honors programs from schools all over the country by seeing them present their ideas or ways that their honors programs do things,” Tobin said. “I talked to people about their online newsletters since I am trying to get that up and running and I got so many good ideas for different honors program events we can have, different classes, and newsletter ideas. I was also very glad to be able to be there to accept our newsletter award.”
Along with learning how to better the Merrimack Honors Program through several different learning sessions, students and faculty were given the opportunity to travel around the city.
Santoro expressed, “We got to explore the city in a program called City as Text put on by the conference and go to several different tourist destinations, architectural landmarks, parks, and museums! We saw Mamma Mia! The Musical one evening, as well.”
Attendees will meet together next week to gather their notes, discuss what they learned at the conference, and how they can use their gained knowledge to improve the Honors Program.
Photos by Alison Tobin & Michael Santoro
