Extramural Education and Honors

Modified: 2025-09-01 8:16 PM CDST

Extramural education is a major facet of honors education. The SAU Honors College has improved that part of its program. However, the Covid epidemic delayed many opportunities. Now, those opportunities are reappearing. Here, we will look at past extramural student experiences and anticipate future efforts. NOW is the time for you to think about extramural education. Use your contract course projects as the key to getting out of town. Starting this year Dr. Odendaal and I will attempt to find and secure nationally competitive scholarships.

Undergraduate Research

Research and other scholarly activity are necessary components of the academic experience. Honors students, especially, will have chances to closely interact with faculty as they engage in such activity.

• Undergraduate research:
  • Can be fun
  • Can lead to excellent letters of recommendation
  • Can teach things not possible in the classroom
  • Can make you stand out as an applicant for graduate or professional school
  • Is the natural outcome of many contract courses
  • Is something you should think about
• NSF REUs
  • Mills
  • Shakya
• SAU Student Research (2010)
• Funding for research
  • SAU grants
  • External grants
    • See our list of those monies on our BlackBoard page
    • We plan to first look for scholarships for STEM students (Goldwater) and funds for Pell Grant recipients to study or intern internationally (Gilman)
    • But, we are not averse to looking for funds in other academic areas as well
      • Video on nationally competitive fellowships
  • Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program
    • Essays
  • Goldwater Scholarship
  • Undergraduate fellowships

Internships

I was once told, "there are two types of students, those that go on internships and those who wish they had." How true.

• Internships can be paid or voluntary
• They provide students with hands on experience in their field
• They provide early connections for networking
• They make students more likely to secure paying jobs after graduation
• Wikipedia on internships
• Search for internships
• SAU Internships
  • Gabrielle Davis
  • Rachel Wetherington

Community Service and Honors

• Is "required" community service really community service?
• Also, if a little community service is a good thing, why is longer community service used as a punishment?
• Honors College and Community Service
  • We believe that honors students should engage in community service
  • However, it should truly be service and not something designed to fulfill a requirement
  • Honors students should seek out projects and carry them out on their own
  • What projects might you come up with?
  • Get ready, I'll be asking you for ideas soon.
• Reasons to engage in community service

Past Student Travel Experiences (Bob Seger, Travelin Man)

• Clinton Library 2009
• Pharaohs and Heifer 2009
• SRHC 2010 Greenville, SC
• Ft. Worth Museums 2010
• SRHC 2011 Little Rock, AR
  • SRHC Day One
  • SRHC Day Two
  • SRHC Day Three
• Carter Jones Report on Russia Trip 2010
• Cuba Idea
  • Tweet to Fidel
• NCHC 2011
• Clinton Center, Heifer, Zoo 2011
• Grand Canyon Semester 2012
  • Deana Hughes to Attend
• Darrell Gray Interns with Detroit Lions
• NASA Stennis Space Center 2012
• APS-Washington, DC 2013
• Shakya-Smithsonian 2013
• Arkansas Arts Center 2013
• Lee-London 2013
• NCHC-NOLA 2013
• McNeel-South Africa 2014
• SRHC-Savannah 2014
• Mills-North Carolina State U. 2014
• Sci-Port Shreveport 2014
• NCHC Denver 2014
• NCHC Chicago 2015
• UAMS 2015
• Cuba 2016
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art 2017
• Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge 2017
• Paris 2017
• Nash-Cameroon 2017
• McNeel-Havana-2018
• NCHC Boston 2018
• Dallas 2018 Medieval!
• Italy 2019
• NCHC NOLA 2019

  • Creativity Crisis
    Siobhan Lowther, Southern Arkansas University
    Jordan Scrivner, Southern Arkansas University
    Kameron King, Southern Arkansas University
    This presentation aims to raise awareness for the importance of nurturing and reinforcing creativity. The centerpiece of this display will be a student-made graphic novel. This poster will detail both our process in making the graphic novel and our findings while researching the history of creativity.
    Determination of Label Accuracy of Common Vitamin B Supplements by HPLC
    Yassamine Ghazzali, Southern Arkansas University
    This presentation objective is to determine the concentrations
    of Riboflavin and Pyridoxine, more commonly known as B2
    and B6 vitamins respectively, in four different over-the-counter vitamin supplements found in multiple stores across the country. The experimental concentrations were then compared to the concentrations listed on the labels.
    AI-Based Nutrition App: A Smarter Way to Manage Your Diet
    Aziztitu Murugan, Southern Arkansas University
    William Lacalle, Southern Arkansas University
    Kristopher Johnson, Southern Arkansas University
    We will present a phone application that uses artificial intelligence to detect what food the phone’s camera is looking at and display its nutritional information. We plan to show the viewers a demonstration of the app, explain how the app works, and talk about its applications in society.

• Cuba 2020 Universidad 2020 Meeting (February, 2020, just before Covid hit)
  • Agri Chair Jeffry Miller, and Honors Student Chinedu Okeke
• Student Travel Reports-Josie Webb and Neha Shrestha
• Southwestern Psychological Association-Jonathan Mitchell (April, 2022)!
  • This was our first trip since 2020
• NCHC Dallas 2022
  • Dr. Odendaal's first NCHC
• 2023
  • Dallas
    • Sixth Floor Museum
    • Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum
    • Perot Museum of Nature and Science
    • Arkansas College Hunger Summit Little Rock, Wednesday, October 11, 2023
  • Little Rock
    • Grand reopening of Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (A/MFA)
    • Multimillion dollar renovation preserved the original facade

• Arkansas College Hunger Summit

• Rohwer, AR Japanese Internment Camp, Saturday October 21, 2023
• Rocky Horror Picture Show, Friday, October 27, 2023
• NCHC Chicago 2023 (November) We took the sleeper train from Texarkana to Chicago
  • Four students are presenting two posters
    • Isabella Bernard, Darcy Ellerbee, and Jonathan Parker (ChatGPT)
    • Zane Johnston (Title IX)
  • Ed Kardas presented a poster on how he teaches contract honors General Psychology
• 2024
  • NCHC 2024 Kansas City (October 30 to November 2, 2024)
    • Dr. Odendaal and Dr. Kardas presented a poster on the effects of Covid on honors courses
• 2025
  • Arkansas College Hunger Summit (October 16, 2025, UCA)
    • Faculty, staff, and students will attend
  • NCHC 2025 San Diego (November 6 to November 9)
    • Five faculty and three students will attend
      • The students will present posters of their honors work
      • The faculty will host a panel discusssion on SAU's new full honors courses
• Where have you traveled?
• What did you learn?
• Where to next? And when?
  • We are trying to get back to Cuba to re-establish our relationship with the University of Artemisa. Stay tuned.

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