Frances McCue, Honors Program writer-in-residence and instructor, was recently awarded a 2011 Washington State Book Award for poetry and national Grub Street Book Prize for her most recent book of poems, _The Bled_, published by Factory Hollow Press.
Category: Academic resources
Posts that relate to programs in the academic resources menu.
Computer models to fly you to the moon*
Each year, thousands of 天美影院undergraduates participate in research with faculty. As these undergraduate researchers graduate, they bring the critical thinking and problem solving skills they learned to graduate school or right into the workforce. For Undergraduate Academic Affairs and aeronautics and astronautics alum Peter Norgaard, 鈥04, research was an integral component of his undergraduate years.
Robinson Center alumni and friends connect over chocolate
Last February, the Robinson Center for Young Scholars hosted an open house for Robinson Center students, parents, alumni, and parents of alumni. Conversation was bright, friendships were formed and renewed, and chocolate flowed freely from the chocolate fountain. Enjoy a few alumni, parent, and student reminiscences on their favorite memories of the Robinson Center.
Honors freshmen perform interpretations of poems in the 天美影院Common Book
At the end of autumn quarter, students from the Honors Program Peer Instructor Seminars gathered together to perform poems from the Common Book. Each group of students choose a poem from the Common Book and performed their interpretation of it. These ranged from creative readings and photographs to skits and musical pieces.
China Earthquake Relief on UW360
Learn about Honors student Geoffrey Morgan and Honors alum Steve Margitan whose international research projects took a different course when the 2008 Sichuan earthquake hit.
Expanded Role for Honors Program Director
James J. Clauss, director of the Honors Program, has accepted an expanded his role in Undergraduate Academic Affairs and is now associate dean. For Jim, the new role is 鈥渟tructurally logical鈥 but is also recognition of the importance of Honors as an integral part of the University.
The Rhodes to Yale Law School

When Allyssa Lamb, 鈥04, earned her bachelor鈥檚 degrees in classics and Biblical and near east studies, she had her future pretty well mapped out: earn a master鈥檚 in Egyptology from Oxford University on her Rhodes Scholarship, then on to a Ph.D. for a career in academia furthering the fields of classics or Egyptology. Her love of the subjects began when she was a child and deepened at the 天美影院 through campus-based classes and international opportunities in Rome and on an archeological dig in Israel.
鈥淭hat interest in travel,鈥 says Allyssa, 鈥渁nd seeing and experiencing new things is part of what made me excited to go to Oxford in the first place.鈥
At Oxford, Allyssa learned to navigate an educational system unfamiliar to her in which master鈥檚 students work one-on-one with their faculty adviser as well as traditions unlike any she鈥檇 encountered before鈥攆rom for taking exams to 鈥渢rashing,鈥 post-exam celebrations that include showering exam-takers with confetti, glitter, flour, yogurt and octopi. 鈥淎nd I鈥檓 not making that up,鈥 says Allyssa. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a world-class academic institution but at the same time it has all these quirks.鈥
Allyssa wrote her master鈥檚 thesis on images of magical practitioners in Egyptian, Greek and Latin literature, a topic of interest since her undergraduate work. While Allyssa鈥檚 work centered on the ancient world, her friends were scholars with a global, contemporary focus, which helped her maintain her interest in politics and current world affairs.
After Oxford, Allyssa began her doctorate program in classics at the University of Chicago. While she enjoyed the classes, professors and students, she began to question whether this was the path she wanted to travel after all. An unexpected interruption in her Ph.D. program required her to return to Redmond, Wash., to care for her mother and grandmother who were both ill.
At home, she began to reflect on her future. She took a departure from antiquity and decided to channel her growing frustration with U.S. politics into 鈥渟omething more proactive鈥 and applied to law schools. A visit to Yale Law School solidified her interest in the field and in that school.
Now in her second year at Yale, Allyssa is keeping an open mind about the kind of law she may want to practice. A stint with the Innocence Project in New Orleans piqued an interest in wrongful convictions but she says she doesn鈥檛 鈥渒now if I want to be a proper lawyer.鈥
As for the radical switch in disciplines, her work as a classicist trained her well for the lawyerly need to research, analyze and pick apart arguments. That said, legal research and writing is quite different than academic writing and an area in which Allyssa continues to refine her skills. However, 鈥渙ne thing I have a leg up on everyone else is that I can read the Latin terms.鈥
In Memoriam: Ran Hennes, University Honors Program
Ran Hennes, our dear colleague and former associate director, passed away Monday evening, September 13. Ran had been dealing with lymphoma for several years. He was still teaching part-time and enjoying his retirement. During the last six months he had some setbacks and toward the end he choose to go on his own terms.
Congratulations Robinson Center students inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
What do seventeen presidents, 38 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 136 Nobel laureates, fashion consultant Carson Kressley, actor Glenn Close, poet Rita Dove, broadcaster Tom Browkaw, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and guitarist and singer for Weezer Rivers Cuomo have in common with ten students from UAA’s Robinson Center for Young Scholars?
2010 Bonderman Travel Fellows named
Fourteen 天美影院 students recently received word that they鈥檝e been awarded a Bonderman Travel Fellowship. Students traveling with this $20,000 fellowship set off on solo journeys that are at least eight months long and take them to at least two regions of the world. While traveling, students may not pursue academic study, projects, or research.