March 19, 2014 | honors.missouri.edu

For the Love of HumanitiesProfessor Stuart Palonsky on the Honors Humanities sequence

Making our mark

HC student involvement

Overcoming Tommy JohnHC sophomore Peter Fairbanks

explorateUniversity of Missouri Honors College Newsletter

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The other day, I was trying to schedule an appointment with a stu-dent to discuss revisions to her essay. We both got out our calen-dars, searching for a mutually convenient time. As I looked over at hers, I was astounded to see that the week was absolutely filled, the white pages covered in purple ink. She had meetings as early as 7:30 a.m., and as late as 9:00 p.m.

“When do you study?” I asked.

She laughed. “Well, it’s not easy.”

This situation seems to be true of nearly all honors students, which casts the topic of “involvement” in a somewhat troublesome light. In-volvement in extra-curricular programs and events is a key part of the college experience, no doubt. It allows you to develop new friend-ships; cultivate leadership skills; pursue a passion. But it seems as if, for some honors students, getting involved has superseded the pur-suit of true academic excellence. At the very least, it has managed to create such busy schedules that I wonder if students have the time to pursue their studies in the way that one should—i.e. through long hours of silence, devoted to nothing else but reading and understand-ing.

Despite all the emphasis on multi-tasking and connectivity, people

Dr. West on

Involvement

need silence in order to perform their work well. Silence must take posses-sion of us so that peace can order our thoughts, emotions, and academic inqui-ries. As you decide on which programs and events to get involved in this year, please remember the importance of si-lence and solitude. Leave some space on your calendars for these each week as you schedule your meetings and events. Consider, too, the possibility of cutting back on some of your activities. In the end, your life will be much fuller for it.

FULL-TUITION SCHOLARSHIPS to Study in JAPAN

FULL-TUITION SCHOLARSHIPS to Study in JAPAN for the 2014~2015 Academic Year at Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies

For most MU students it will be cheaper to go to Japan than to stay in Columbia for the year.. No previous knowl-edge of Japanese is required. You can start studying Japanese from zero (or at higher levels). Other courses—his-tory, literature, poli sci, business, management, art, etc.—are taught in English. ALL MIZZOU STUDENTS with a GPA over 2.8 WILL RECEIVE THE SCHOLARSHIP (and lower GPAs are possible). 3.5~4.0 GPA receives and ADDITIONAL $2400; 3.2~3.5 gets $1400 additional All this sounds too good to be true, right? But it IS true. This is your chance to study in Japan and for many students it will cost LESS than staying in Columbia for the year.

If you have questions contact Prof. Martin Holman, Coordinator of the Japanese Studies, at mizzoujapan@gmail.com AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Join our Facebook group for more info: Mizzou Nagasaki 2014

in this issue

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Announcements & Upcoming Passport Events

Sports: Overcoming Tommy JohnHC sophomore Peter Fairbanks

9 Faculty: For the Love of HumanitiesProfessor Stuart Palonsky on the Honors Humanities sequence

5 Making our markHC students’ involvement

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FacebookUniversity of Missouri Honors College

Twitter@MUHonors

explorate contributors

editorRachel Koehn

staff reportersSiyu Lei

Kate MaxcyJacob Renie

Kelsie SchraderCongrong Zheng

faculty advisorDr. Gregory Triplett

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explorateexplorate (ex-plo-raht) is a plural imperative form of the Latin verb explorare, “to ex-plore.” Drawing on the Hon-ors College motto, Explore. Dream. Discover., explorate invites students to seek out every opportunity available to them.

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1 Dr. West on Involvement

Cover photo by Clayton Hotze.

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AnnouncementsHonors College Summer Assistant Positions

The Honors College needs student assistants to join our 2014 Summer Welcome team! We are also hiring a sum-mer assistant to help with clerical and administrative tasks. If you are interested in one of these positions, please complete the attached application and send a resume to Megan Boyer at boyerm@missouri.edu by April 4th. We will be hiring assistants for both morning and afternoon shifts. Applicants must be able to work from May 27 to July 11.

Summer Welcome Assistant Description-Greet and check in incoming students at the Honors College-Answer student/parent questions-Assist students in registering via myZou-Other administrative tasks, e.g. photo displays, bulletin boards, miscellaneous office work, etc.

Honors College Student Assistant Description-Greet and check in visitors-Answer the phone and arrange appointments-Answer student/parent questions-Other administrative tasks

Honors Passport

Students who attended 10 or more events in the Honors College Passport Series are eligible for a $250.00 Amazon card and recognition at the Honors College Spring Awards Ceremony and Reception. Please remember that your stamped passport needs to be turned into the Honors College office, in 210 Lowry Hall, by this Friday, March 21st.

Honors Tutorials

Based on the Oxford style of teaching, “Honors Tutorials” pair a small group of honors students (typically two to five) with a distinguished MU faculty member to discuss a topic, author, book/s, or issue very intensely over the course of a semester. Meetings take place in the faculty member’s office (or other, non-classroom setting). Please find a description of each tutorial at http://honors.missouri.edu/courses/tutorials_fall_2014.pdf

If you would like to participate in one of these tutorials, please email a one-page statement to the tutorial professor about why you’d like to enroll in the tutorial, addressing the following questions:-Why does a tutorial method of learning appeal to you?-What do you think you’ll gain from the experience?-And why are you interested in the particular topic?

Make sure to indicate your major(s) as well as your overall GPA. Tutorial Applications are due Friday, March 21st. Honors Courses

There have been multiple updates to the Fall 2014 list of Honors Courses. A complete list of honors designated courses, along with course descriptions, can be found here: http://honors.missouri.edu/courses/catalog.php

Some additions include:English 4100H/Honors 3120H – Letters as a GenrePsychology 1000H – General PsychologyParks, Recreation, and Tourism 3185H – Sports Economics and FinanceHonors 3210H Section 4 – Human NatureHonors 3230H – Galileo and His WorldHonors 3120H – Survey of Brazilian Literature Germany in Europe: Blogging Contest

What is Germany’s evolving role within the European Union? $400 will be awarded to the best three blog posts ($200 for first place, $125 for second and $75 for third). All MU students, including undergraduates and graduates, are eligible. Posts should be between 500-700 words, and are encouraged to incorporate links to other pertinent website, blogs, videos, etc. Posts will be judged on content and design/layout. The competition will be judged by stu-dents in the course “Web Blogging in Cultural Context” (German/French/Russian 4820) and posts will be featured on the course blog (http://eurokulture.missouri.edu/).

Students entering the competition can either 1) submit their blog post drafts to the “Web Blogging” course, which will help them post their work on the course blog; or 2) send the judges a link to their own post on any blog – on a personal blog or one that they have created for this occasion. The three winners will be posted on the class blog. The deadline for submission is Monday, April 14th, and the prize will be announced Monday April 21st. Students entering the competition should address German’s political, cultural, and/or historical role in the European Union. All questions can be directed to Dr. Sean Franzel (franzels@missouri.edu). Crosby MBA Program

The Crosby MBA program at the University of Missouri will be hosting some upcoming information sessions, where you can learn more about the program, admissions and student life, and hear from current students about their ex-periences. If you’d like to increase your leadership, critical thinking and communication skills while gaining a solid business foundation, an MBA might be a great next step after graduation. We also have 17 different concentrations areas to specialize your program of study. All academic backgrounds are welcome and there are no prerequisites. Significant financial aid is available for qualified students and we are still accepting applications for Fall 2014. Lis-ten to our webinar on Wednesday, March 26 from noon to 1:00pm (you must register online here for the webinar). Email mba@missouri.edu for additional information.

Society of Fellows

The Society of Fellows is a competitive fellowship program exclusive to undergraduate students enrolled at the Uni-versity of Missouri. The Society provides a select group of undergraduate students with the opportunity to engage in a yearlong intellectual exploration of the historical and philosophical foundations of American constitutional democracy.

The Society of Fellows kicks off with a residential summer seminar housed at the University of Missouri. Qualifying applicants will spend four days and three nights at the historic Tiger Hotel, engaged in the interdsiciplinary inquiry into ideas foundational to the development of American constitutional democracy. Fellows then will continue their discussions through quarterly dinner debates hosted by faculty members throughout the academic year.

We are pleased to announce full funding for the 2014-2015 Society of Fellows. Application materials can be found at: http://democracy.missouri.edu/undergrad/society-fellows.shtml

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For a lot of students, attending college is about more than taking classes. In order to get the full college experience, many students keep themselves busy by joining organizations, clubs and niche communi-ties. Doing this not only allows people to educate themselves academi-cally, but also socially and worldly. Additionally, students can gain skills through involvement that they can’t necessarily gain in the classroom. Some students are seemingly involved in as many hours of activities as they spend on schoolwork (or more), in addition to being in the Hon-ors College. For these students, keeping busy drives their motivation to be productive in things besides schoolwork. “I’m not big on idle time,” junior Emily Donaldson said. “I appreciate having something to do.” Donaldson is President of Kappa Delta Sorority, a Site Leader for Al-ternative Spring Break and a Senior Team Leader for Tour Team. Another honors student, sophomore Anurag Chandran, is known for being involved in a variety of organizations. He holds positions as a Summer Welcome Leader, Dance Marathon Recruitment Chair, RHA Outreach Coordinator and Leadership Advisor at College Avenue Hall. “Being invested in an organization gives you a lot of experience and skills required to be successful in the real world,” Chandran said. “You

get to learn a lot; such as work-ing in a team, leading, taking ini-tiatives, listening, being on time and working under deadlines.”

With over 750 organizations to choose from at MU, students are bound to find a club or organiza-tion in which they fit in with peo-ple that share similar interests. Delia Cai, a junior majoring in

Journalism, found her place at The Ma-neater, where she currently holds a po-sition as Managing Editor. She believes working at the school’s student-run news-paper has allowed her to grow as a person. “In high school I put grades above every-thing else, but being involved makes you a more well-rounded person,” Cai said. “It’s made me love working in journalism.” Having a passion for certain organiza-tions is one of the key characteristics that guide students to become involved on campus. “I worked and volunteered at autism centers back home and was very passion-ate for that cause,” Chandran said. “When I came in to Mizzou, I found a similar, but bigger cause—Mizzou Dance Marathon—and standing up and raising money for the children’s hospital’s has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.” Donaldson believes involvement is part of the educational experience. “It’s shaped what I want to do in the fu-ture and the more I think people are in-volved, the more they realize what they want to do,” she said. Regardless of their reasons for joining campus organizations, Honors College students have used involvement opportu-nities to expand their horizons and con-tribute a little something to MU during their time here.

Honors College students contribute to campus organizations

Making our markBy Kate Maxcy

Top Left: Junior Emily Donald-son. Photo courtesy of Emily Donalson. Bottom Left: Junior Delia Cai. Photo by Nick Eh-rhard. Right: Sophomore An-urag Chandran. Photo courtesy of Anurag Chandran.

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Honors College MAB trip fosters service, friendshipBy Congrong Zheng

ects at the forest. They helped clean zones damaged by recent ice storm and cleared invasive species of plants since Beidler Forest is one of a few “virgin forests” that have never been cut down during human his-tory. During their volunteer week, all of the members stayed in one cabin and cooked for themselves. As a result, they developed strong bonds with each other. Senior Melissa Grelle’s best memory was talking with people in the cabin and listening to some trip members singing. Every night after work, the whole group would get together and have a “re-flection time,” a chance for everyone to express their feelings and show appreciation for the work and other trip members. It’s also a chance for them to laugh about all the good times. “It’s great to see them to take the experience home and continue to build on that service,” Townsend said. He believes the biggest accom-plishment for this trip is building a love of service for the participants. Grelle learned to be open to new experiences and new people during the trip. “You may find a lifelong friend in someone you never would have thought,” Grelle said. The Audubon Center & Sanctuary at Francis Beidler Forest was very supportive during the trip last year, Townsend said. As Townsend and Peterson expected before the trip, the impact they made extended be-yond their one week of service. “We consider them a part of our Mizzou family now,” Townsend said. “We even sent them T-shirts.” In a few days, Townsend and Peterson will lead this year’s Honors College MAB trip to volunteer at Francis Beidler Forest once again. To keep up with the trip participants and their experiences, follow them on Twitter at @MAB_Harleyville.

Evan Townsend, a senior Convergence Journalism student, will lead the Honors College Mizzou Alternative Breaks trip this year for the second time. Trip leaders Townsend and Adam Peterson, a gradu-ate student in Health and Informatics, will travel with a group of Honors College students to Francis Beidler Forest in Har-leyville, South Carolina, where they volun-teered last year. “We hope our impact goes beyond a week,” Townsend said. Mizzou Alternative Breaks (MAB) used to be called Alternative Spring Break. In fact, MU has the biggest Alternative Spring Break group in the nation. The organiza-tion started with sending students to dif-ferent service trips during spring break all over the country and in Central America. After years of growth, now students from MU can also go on one-week trips during Thanksgiving, winter, and summer breaks as well. The Honors College and the School of Health Professions are the only two colleg-es or schools at MU that have partnership trips with MAB. Townsend participated as a member of an environmental-themed ASB trip in his sophomore year. Last year, as an Honors College Ambassador, he came up with the idea to lead an Honors College trip to engage more with honors students. Last spring break was Townsend’s first year as a site leader and Peterson’s first ASB trip. “It is a lot of pressure on me and Adam, but the effort is definitely worth it,” Townsend said. The two trip leaders made the decision together to take an environmental trip to the Beidler Forest. The group worked to fulfill the need for large-labor proj-

2014 Honors College MAB TripBack Row: Taylor Wagner, Adam Peterson, Tyler Hessler, Evan Townsend, Nathan Dierkes; Front Row: Emily Wiechmann, Grace Gist, Sarah Darby, Kate Lowrey, Kristina Freund. Photo by Rachel Koehn.

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A pitcher’s arm is integral to every-thing he does, so when MU sophomore Peter Fairbanks learned that he would need Tommy John surgery, he knew that he was in for a long and arduous recovery process. “It was terrible,” Fairbanks said. “I don’t know if I know of a better word for it.” Tommy John is a procedure where the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow is replaced with a tendon from some-where else in the body. This procedure at one time was like a death sentence for pitchers, but thanks to advances in modern medicine, the recovery rate and number of successful procedures have risen quite dramatically. The sur-

gery lasts a few hours, but the recovery process can take upwards of a year. “You can’t do anything for at least four months before you can throw a ball,” Fairbanks said. “It’s pretty frustrating trying to come back, and it’s my drive every day to know that I can still come here, just trying to get back to the place where I once was.” Pitching is everything to Fairbanks. Just ask what he loves about base-ball and the reponse will be quick: “Pitching. Really, I mean, I love pitch-ing,” Fairbanks said. “I love the team aspect of it. I know it’s mostly indi-vidual, but it’s really very about the team. Even though you’re up there by yourself, you have eight guys behind you.” As a senior in high school, Fairbanks was an All-Conference infielder and was named to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch All-Metro Team as an in-fielder in 2012. He had a .393 batting average with six home runs and 21 RBI that season. Asked why he no longer plays infield, Fairbanks jokingly said, “’Cause they wouldn’t let me hit.” He then chuckled and elaborated: “I love to hit and played infield in high school, but pitching is what I like to do. I like to

Overcoming Tommy JohnBy Jacob Renie

SPORTS

Photo by Clayton Hotze.Peter Fairbanks pitches at the annual Braggin’ Rights series versus the Fighting Illini.

Photo by Ben Walton.

Peter FairbanksClass: SophomoreMajor: Mechanical EngineeringHometown: St. Louis, Mo.High School: Webster GrovesHeight / Weight: 6’5’’ / 205Position: RHPB/T: R/RW/L: 1-1IP: 9.2SO: 7

of intensity to the classroom. “I qualified for [the Honors College] automatically pretty much,” Fairbanks said. “And I wanted to push myself on and off the field to try to go as hard as I can. And academics was one of my main focuses.” Fairbanks, originally a Math major, is now considering Mechanical Engineer-ing. “I wanted to switch and apply it more,” Fairbanks said. “I started reading about flight mechanics -- stuff like that really interested me, and so I went and talked to a mechanical and aerospace advisor. We talked about it, and I felt like it was a good fit.” So far, his time in the Honors College has been a success. While he considers his Honors courses to be at the same level as the rest of his classes, he did notice a few things that set them apart. “[My] Calc III class… that one defi-nitely felt different ‘cause that was brutal,” Fairbanks said. “I definitely felt prepared for it, but his knowledge and all the stuff he added was good. It was very thought provoking.” For Fairbanks, what to do from here is clear: he’ll put in the extra work to suc-ceed. It’s what he did in the past, and it’s what he’ll do in the future.

throw hard and try to get people out.” Fairbanks loves testing himself against batters and seeing who will win the duel. “I love competing,” Fairbanks said. “Trying, just going man to man with the guy in the batter’s box.” Baseball is more than a game to him, it’s a passion, and Fairbanks has no problem putting in the extra work to improve. He’s just happy to be able to play the game he loves. “The rehab part took about four months, and then a four month throw-ing program,” Fairbanks said. “I started on the mound after those four months. Probably another two or three before I was throwing live again, and I didn’t fully recover until probably this past summer.” He said one of the biggest things to hurdle was trusting that his arm wouldn’t give out on him again. “Some of it was mechanical,” Fairbanks said. “I didn’t relearn them well, but part of it was just being comfortable with my arm again to know that I could put everything back into it and nothing was wrong.” In the end, it was his work ethic that helped him get over the wall. “It’s just a drive I have,” Fairbanks said. “Like my work ethic. If my arm is sore, I’m gonna work harder in the training room. If I’m feeling off me-chanically, I might go get in a pen and go through dry drills. And if my arm is not feeling well, I might go out and throw long toss.” According to Fairbanks, all his experiences with Tommy John and the re-covery that followed have made him more aware of his body and his arm. Currently, Fairbanks has hit a rough patch this season, but he doesn’t let it get him down. After all, he can still throw, and that means he can still work on improving. “I feel better,” Fairbanks said. “I hit a little rough patch for a couple games. My arm wasn’t feeling right. I was feeling a little off mechanically, but I had a good outing at out past intrasquad and feel like my mechanics are showing up again, and so I’m feeling better.” In the heat of the moment, Fairbanks has a little routine that he does. Whenever he gets in a hole on the mound or gives up a hit, he slows down, breathes in for six seconds, holds for two and exhales for sev-en. “That’s what calms me down and puts me back in my level of focus I need to be,” Fair-banks said. Coming to Mizzou was never an option for Fairbanks. His mom went to MU, his dad played baseball here, and his uncles, grand-father and great uncle all played football. He bleeds black and gold. “It wasn’t much of a choice,” Fairbanks said. “So I got the offer from Mizzou, and I was like ‘I wanna go there.’” Off the field, Fairbanks brings the same level

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Humanities s e q u e n c e , a course he has helped teach since 1991. Ac-cording to Palonsky, in his free time, he enjoys hi-jacking cars. Just kidding, but he does enjoy joking, t r a v e l i n g , reading and exercising. The Honors Humanities

sequence is a four-semester sequence that begins with the Ancient World, moves up through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, contin-ues on to the 17th through the 19th centuries and ends with the Modern Era. A dif-ferent course is offered each semester, with the entire se-

quence taking place over two years. Last semester, students studied the Ancient World. This semester, they are studying the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. For each course, stu-dents are assigned to a discussion section with a certain professor. All discussion sessions meet regularly for a large lecture. Palonsky leads one discussion section, and he occasion-ally gives lectures. Throughout the sequence, students

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Professor Stuart Palonsky on the Honors Humanities sequence

and faculty alike dis-cuss topics such as the nature of God, the na-ture of man, the nature of truth and the nature of wisdom. Students read many books, tak-ing a “chronological approach to the great books of the western tradition,” Palonsky said. Some of the books students read this se-mester for the Middle Ages and the Renais-sance include The Prince by Machiavelli, The Tempest by Shake-speare and The Canter-bury Tales by Chaucer. “It is for people who like to read and who can read difficult texts and like to discuss ideas,” Palonsky said. One freshman student, Lauren Taylor, said one of the reasons she has enjoyed the course so much is because she truly enjoys reading. The Humanities se-quence is geared to-ward mostly freshmen and sophomores. As a result, the professors have added unique el-ements to the course, including trips and presentations, that in-troduce students to

As a previous director of the Honors College, Professor Stuart Palonsky has taught at MU for 29 years. Pri-or to teaching at MU, he taught at Brown for two years and at Rectors for nine years. He has an interdisci-plinary PhD in History, Social Science and Education from Michigan State University. In the past, he has taught a variety of courses in the College of Education. Currently, Palonsky teach-es a discussion section of the Honors

FACULTY

For the Love of Humanities

By Kelsie Schrader

Photo by Kelsie Schrader.

h u m a n i t i e s - re l a te d places and events on campus—places and events Palonsky said “they may not stumble upon on their own.” For example, each semester they have a pre-sentation at Ellis library in the rare books collection, introducing them to a collection of books they may not have known existed. Additional-ly, students take trips to the Museum of Art and Archeology with their class and professors. Professors also make sure to inform students of humanities speakers, lectures and activities that take place on cam-pus, and sometimes they bring in special humanities speakers to class. In this sense, the course, Palonsky said, “extends to a limited extent, but a reasonable extent, beyond the con-fines of the classroom.” Another unique fea-ture of this course, as with many Honors courses, is its small size. Because students break off into smaller discussion groups, they

have more interaction with the profes-sor who leads their section, allowing for more student and faculty interac-tion. Palonsky says one of his favorite

features of this class is when stu-dents come up with ideas about or interpretations of the text that he had not thought about before. “I’m really ea-ger to see how new generations of students react to texts that have

been taught for hundreds of years and that I’ve taught for dozens of years,” Palonsky said. As Palonsky has been teaching at MU for many years, he has had much expe-rience with Honors and non-Honors courses alike. For Palonsky, it is diffi-cult to differentiate between his past non-Honors courses and the Honors Humanities sequence, as the latter is an elective. Therefore, the students choose to take the sequence, whereas in many of his past courses were re-quired. Nonetheless, he feels Honors students are more eager to learn. De-spite the large amount of reading and the large workload given to students in the course, the students don’t com-plain about it. “They like to talk and disagree with-out being disagreeable,” Palonsky said. According to Palonsky, the Honors students’ eagerness to learn is what makes them fun and easy to teach. “The kids that we get at Mizzou are the equivalent of Honors students any-

where, but they don’t have a lot of at-titude, so they’re really nice to teach.” However, Palonsky does believe that Honors students are more demand-ing, though in a positive way. “They like school, they’ve done well in school, they’ve had successful expe-riences with teachers,” Palonsky said. “They’ve had good instruction, and they’re used to good instruction.” This, he says, makes the students more demanding, for it puts pressure on the professors to make sure they are prepared for class. They must be sure to have meaningful activities and discussion topics planned. Though Palonsky does not have any plans for courses he would like to develop in the future, he developed many during his time as director of the Honors College, including the So-cial Science sequence and the Science sequence. Palonsky offers students an impor-tant piece of advice for their time at MU: “Mizzou is a place in which you can get superb education. You can get an education equivalent to the best education for undergraduates in the country. But you have to pick and choose wisely. You have to pick and choose those courses that guar-antee you will get a good education, because Mizzou is a very broad-based, wide-ranging school. You can choose, but just throwing darts at the course catalog doesn’t guarantee you will get a good education. Choose wisely and you will be comparably educated to the best-educated students in the country.”

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Lauren TaylorFreshman

Above photo by Kelsie Schrader.

March 19, 2014 | honors.missouri.edu

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.”

— Source Unknown