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For the 25th time in the past 26 years, Eastern Kentucky University’s Honors Program boasted the largest number of student presenters of any honors college or program in the nation at the annual National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC).

The conference, held in Seattle Oct. 12-16, highlighted student and faculty research presentations from across the nation, and provided training and development for honors program administrators. The national submission process for the NCHC annual conference is highly selective, with hundreds of students and faculty submitting proposals each year.

Students explored Seattle through NCHC’s “City as Text Program, networked with other honors students and faculty from across the nation and world, and celebrated the unique community created by honors education. Sherman Alexie, a poet, filmmaker, and best-selling author, provided a plenary session. 

In all, 35 Honors Colonels presented at the prestigious annual event in formats ranging from research posters to workshops and roundtables. Five students from the EKU delegation also participated in the NCHC “master class” in drama, presenting a play that they had written and produced as part of the spring 2016 honors theatre seminar titled “The Battle of Shiloh: Drama for the Twenty-First Century.”

EKU student participants were:

Emily Adkins, Katherine Anneken, Autumn Baisden, Julia Barney, Kathryn Clark, Shayna Clark, Jacqueline Daviet, Jessica Dove, Caleb Dunn, Caridad Ecehvarria, Emily Fendley, Brandi Gibson, Halle Graham, Danielle Hachey, Madison Harris, Claire Kelley, Daniel Klapheke,

Rachel Lachut, Michael Mettey, Simon Mikulcik, Abriel Newberry, Bruce Northington, Ivan Olivas, Jennifer Paxtle, Mandie Peterman, Love Richburg, Emily Rose, Rebekah Rynerson, Omar Salinas, Nathaniel Schattner, Jessica Vaught, Carter Waugh, Jamie Witherall, Morgan Wood and Abagail Young.

The NCHC also announced the launch of its new peer-reviewed undergraduate online research journal, UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity. The inaugural edition includes two contributions from EKU Honors students: a piece from junior Emily Adkins titled “Educating the Outsiders: The Importance of Social Support in the Success of Latino Undocumented Students,” and a revised version of the honors thesis of recent alumna Lauren Moore, “Connexin-43 and Traumatic Brain Injury,” completed under the mentorship of Dr. Tanea Reed of the EKU Department of Chemistry. Both articles can be found at www.nchc-ureca.com/index.html.

For more information about EKU Honors, visit honors.eku.edu.