Spring20_Mag_Combined_WEB_single_pages

SPRING 2020 // 21 MELANIE BILLINGS-YUN ’76 scraped together savings from a minimum wage job for 18 months to take a few classes at Portland State. Then, she was invited to join the university’s honors program. “Feeling like a nobody, I was shocked,” she said. “In that moment, my life changed.” The Honors College nurtured Billings-Yun’s self-confidence along with her interest in history. Faculty encouraged her to press on even when she had to drop out every few terms to earn money to cover tuition. Billings-Yun was the first in her family to graduate from college—with honors, no less. She went on to get a doctorate in diplomatic history from Harvard and then spent 33 years seeing the world. Now she’s an author and international negotiation consultant for some of the world’s top companies and also works as an adjunct professor for PSU’s School of Business. This year, the University Honors College (UHC, formerly the University Scholars’ Program) is celebrating 50 years of changing lives like Billings-Yun’s. Since its humble beginnings in 1969, the Honors College has grown from a program of fewer than 30 students into a leader in educating first-gen- eration college students and students of color. “Our goal in Honors is to give students the tools to transform their own lives,” Brenda Glascott, the program’s director, said. “They’re the ones who have agency to actually do the transforming, but by giving them these experiences and this community, we’re hop- ing to catalyze and support that process.” The Honors College provides high-achiev- ing students from diverse ethnic, social and economic backgrounds with a rigorous liberal arts education and extraordinary research opportunities, all within a close-knit commu- nity of resident faculty and supportive peers. “I applied to the Honors College because I was looking for some sort of academic com- munity amidst the large number of students at PSU; and I found exactly that,” Benny White, a junior English major, said. He likens the Honors College to a “kind of scholastic family.” LIBERAL ARTS WITH AN URBAN FOCUS The interdisciplinary Honors curriculum is designed to provide students with writing, research and critical thinking skills that prepare them for graduate or professional school. “We’re trying to demystify the ways researchers and scholars read, write and think together,” Glascott said. The program’s core curriculum replaces students’ general education requirements. Honors students develop research skills and deep knowledge of the social sciences, natural sciences and humanities all presented within the context of the city of Portland. “One of the amazing advantages of Portland State is its location in this incredible city where there’s so much opportunity,” Glascott said. This urban-focused curriculum may take the form of measuring trees, setting up cameras to monitor urban wildlife, or sifting through the archives at the Oregon Historical Society. In their third year, Honors students can get credit for experiences outside of traditional courses, such as research opportunities and internships. Since fall 2016, Honors students have completed 242 internships with organizations including the Northwest Film Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Immigration Counsel- ing Service, the U.S. Embassy in Norway, the American Councils for International Education in Azerbaijan and many others. Two study-abroad trips are available through the Honors College: a spring break sustainability seminar in Borneo and a month- long summer program in London. For many students, these study-abroad opportunities are their first time out of the country. In their final year, Honors students apply what they’ve learned by designing their own in-depth thesis project. All Honors students conduct a research project, present their research and write a thesis that is published in PDX Scholar (pdxscholar.library.pdx. edu), the PSU Library’s online journal. “My experience in the Honors Col- lege was so valuable because it offered PSU’S HAVEN FOR HIGH ACHIEVERS CELEBRATES A LEGACY OF CHANGING LIVES B Y SUMME R A L L E N The Honors College has transformed from a program of fewer than 30 students into a leader in educating first-generation college students and students of color. University Honors College, past and present. Top: tutoring and advising in the Honors College lounge; Professor Lawrence Wheeler; Professor Michael Reardon in the 1974 yearbook; field trip; Bottom: students in the lounge; Professor Judah Bierman, an Honors founder; peer tutoring in action; students in the field. Photos from NashCo, Kelly James and the PSU Archives.