Irvin D. Reid Honors College
"The Irvin D. Reid Honors College is city-based and service-oriented; we promote excellence and challenge our students to engage the world around them as problem-solvers and leaders. Our curriculum requires that students inform themselves about what it means to be citizens, of this city, this country, the world; we give our students tools, tools to be catalysts for innovation and improvement, and the skills necessary to create powerful solutions. The women and men who are students here — with the generous support and guidance of faculty, staff, friends and alumni — are inventing our shared future."
Mission Statement: The Honors College provides Wayne State University's highest achieving undergraduate students the opportunity to become members of an engaged and dynamic academic community through a curriculum that is challenging, innovative and interdisciplinary. Honors courses enrich undergraduate education, providing a unique set of experiences that integrate our four defining pillars: community engagement, service-learning, undergraduate research and career exploration.
Mission Statement: The Honors College provides Wayne State University's highest achieving undergraduate students the opportunity to become members of an engaged and dynamic academic community through a curriculum that is challenging, innovative and interdisciplinary. Honors courses enrich undergraduate education, providing a unique set of experiences that integrate our four defining pillars: community engagement, service-learning, undergraduate research and career exploration.
The quoted paragraphs and mission statement on this and the linked pages are taken from the Wayne State University Honors Website.
Year One: Communitity
The first year of Honors at Wayne State University is focused on spending time studying and understanding the city of Detroit as a Literary Classic. This is done through research and exploration of Detroit. Classes required for the first year of Honors are HON1000: The City and PS1010: American Government. These classes focus on history and growth; helping students develop in the community as citizens.
HON 1000: The City
Students are required to write essays to answer the questions: Who Are We? Where Are We Going? and What Should We Do?
I have chosen to showcase my second essay for the class, answering the question "Where Are We Going?"
I have chosen to showcase my second essay for the class, answering the question "Where Are We Going?"
In reflection of this essay, I have become a better researcher. Before the start of this essay, I had not ever gone out to a location to do research. It was a requirement for this piece though, as pictures had to be included of the site. It was a new experience that I was grateful for. Not only did this project broaden by skills as a researcher, it expanded my experiences of the city of Detroit. As the first year of Honors at Wayne State is supposed to accomplish, I am becoming a student that is integrated into the city. I have had experiences that shape who I am as a student, researcher, and a person, and I believe that is good.
As for the essay itself, my writing has changed from the diagnostic at the beginning of the semester. I am better able to form coherent thoughts that link to my thesis. I am able to utilize the library system at the university to find scholarly articles. I do recognize that this essay is not perfect. For one, I forgot to double space lines. The upload of the essay caused a change in page number, so the works cited seems to be missing, when in reality it is further down on the page. I could have looked for broader research in regards to not just the site, but the overall importance and history of the city, as well as how people perceive the city itself, which would have displayed a deeper understanding of the research and all the connections the site has to everyday life and the whole city. I believe that this essay has helped me improve as a student and researcher in not only the research and writing of the paper, but also in reflection.
PS1010: Honors American Government
Whats Wrong? What Works? What Wins?
Students spend the semester working in groups to evaluate a problem in Detroit, research attempted solutions, and proposing a new solution based on evidence. Students research the influences of agency, structure, and the four spheres of social action on their determined problem, and what efforts have been made to solve the problem.
I am choosing to showcase my groups' final paper, as it was the culmination of our research in regards to issues revolving around education.
Students spend the semester working in groups to evaluate a problem in Detroit, research attempted solutions, and proposing a new solution based on evidence. Students research the influences of agency, structure, and the four spheres of social action on their determined problem, and what efforts have been made to solve the problem.
I am choosing to showcase my groups' final paper, as it was the culmination of our research in regards to issues revolving around education.
This paper for honors has been the greatest research challenge I have faced thus far. Never before have I had to write a paper with a group, and I am proud of our results. I have learned things about education and the people of Detroit that I would not have expected. For example, as noted in the research paper, only three percent of fourth graders met the national math standards in the 2011-2012 school year. This, and the underlying cause of lacking resources, is shocking and more upsetting than I anticipated at the beginning of this project.
While working in a team came with unique challenges, it broke up an immense workload. The biggest challenge was, naturally, communication and figuring out who was responsible for what tasks. Once we established the basis of the plan, things went smoothly, even though we had to repeat the process for each part of the analysis and brainstorming. In the end, our research worked together to provide a very clear solution, even if we each did not always know what the other group members knew. I will say that I think this was the most effective means to truly learn the material, even if it was extraordinarily overwhelming at the start of the semester. The idea of breaking apart a large, intimidating project into smaller, manageable pieces will stick with me, as will the skills I learned in working with a group.
After completing this course, I feel that I have a more open perspective to politics, because what I learned in this course was how to make a change to a problem that I found. This course was not the stereotypical “lets learn about the branches of government and the Constitution”, or “let us look at government types and how they function in the world”, or even “what can we learn from the history of American politics”. This course focused more on identifying the problem and its source, looking at past attempts to fix it, and discovering how, as American people, to make change to our system and improve or solve the problem at hand. I think that, overall, this is the best way to learn about politics, because not only are we learning about how government operates, but how we fit into that process.
I think that this course has influenced me to become more engaged in politics, as it not only affects me, but is also imperative for the future of the nation, if not the world.
While working in a team came with unique challenges, it broke up an immense workload. The biggest challenge was, naturally, communication and figuring out who was responsible for what tasks. Once we established the basis of the plan, things went smoothly, even though we had to repeat the process for each part of the analysis and brainstorming. In the end, our research worked together to provide a very clear solution, even if we each did not always know what the other group members knew. I will say that I think this was the most effective means to truly learn the material, even if it was extraordinarily overwhelming at the start of the semester. The idea of breaking apart a large, intimidating project into smaller, manageable pieces will stick with me, as will the skills I learned in working with a group.
After completing this course, I feel that I have a more open perspective to politics, because what I learned in this course was how to make a change to a problem that I found. This course was not the stereotypical “lets learn about the branches of government and the Constitution”, or “let us look at government types and how they function in the world”, or even “what can we learn from the history of American politics”. This course focused more on identifying the problem and its source, looking at past attempts to fix it, and discovering how, as American people, to make change to our system and improve or solve the problem at hand. I think that, overall, this is the best way to learn about politics, because not only are we learning about how government operates, but how we fit into that process.
I think that this course has influenced me to become more engaged in politics, as it not only affects me, but is also imperative for the future of the nation, if not the world.
Year Two: Service
Honors 3000: Service Learning Requirement
In either semester of the second year, students are required to complete a service project to give back to the community we spent studying in the previous year.
As both a University Honors student and a Biomedical Engineering student, I have been allowed to complete my service learning through the BME program, as it is spent not only learning how to be engineers, but spent working on projects so solve real-world problems. In my freshman and sophomore years, I have worked on several biomedical projects in class that qualify for my service learning requirement, which is detailed on the Biomedical Engineering page of my website.
After completing my year of service, I feel that my contributions to
As both a University Honors student and a Biomedical Engineering student, I have been allowed to complete my service learning through the BME program, as it is spent not only learning how to be engineers, but spent working on projects so solve real-world problems. In my freshman and sophomore years, I have worked on several biomedical projects in class that qualify for my service learning requirement, which is detailed on the Biomedical Engineering page of my website.
After completing my year of service, I feel that my contributions to
Year Three: Research
Year Four: Career