Boo-U students enjoy honor of education

By Matthew Ryno / News Republic

Students taking full advantage of their unique opportunity in the UW System, capped off a semester of in-depth research this Tuesday as part of their honors level classes at the University of Wisconsin - Baraboo/Sauk County.

Thomas Pleger, campus dean, and about 20 parents, students and faculty attended the 2008 Honors Symposium to hear about topics ranging from a glass ceiling at Subway restaurants, to the current state of women's rights in Afghanistan to media coverage of the Vietnam War.

Honors level opportunities are not offered at every University of Wisconsin two-year-college, and some like UW-Rock County are still considering starting honors programs like what UW-B/SC started about five years ago. Funding is the major limiting factor.

At UW-B/SC, officials are noting a doubling in attendance in the last few years, as instructors continue to volunteer their time to make the program run. Officials estimate there are about 25-30 honors students who enroll through at least a semester of the year - an increase from when the program started.

Of about 445 full-time equivalent students enrolled on campus, 30 students make up 7% of the population. This approaches the approximate 10% enrollment figure an advisor of the University of Wisconsin — Madison's Letters and Sciences honors program, Jennifer Kaufmann, says is about the average for her program.

In addition to informing students of honors opportunities in Freshman year, there is still more work to be done to increase students' knowledge of the program, honors director Annette Kuhlmann said. She said a new Web page to promote the courses is coming.

The hope is to reach out to more students like Emily Wunderlich, who is just glad she found out about the program from an instructor.

Wunderlich, a student interested in literature, researched the realities of women in Afghanistan after reading a book by Khaled Hosseini. She said she has been inspired to succeed in school ever since she got started on her honors level research.

She thought the personalized attention she got from instructor Lisa Martin renewed her interests in English and helped her make it a mission to graduate with honors and good grades. This was not always the case for her, especially after a rough time adjusting to bigger colleges like Madison Area Technical College and Edgewood College.

"When I'm given the opportunity to work harder and get recommendations from instructors, I can do better," Wunderlich said.

Her parents, Deb Day and Allison Else attended her presentation and also praised the work the honors program has done. They agreed that in addition to an already small campus, the honors program makes the classroom even more accessible.

"She's been really more engaged. The individualized attention has really changed her goals and she starts thinking about the future more," Day said.

That is exactly what instructor Marc Seals said he allows the program to do, and in Baraboo's program, he liked that every student could choose to try the program.

"In my class, the project is an expansion of a project they're already doing in class," Seals said. "A lot of the students read an author they like and I say, if you would like to learn more about the author, why don't you take this class?"

By offering students the opportunity to dabble into something they like, there is no pressure for students to take an honors course. Often he said, once they find they can complete an honors course, their general grade point average also goes up.

Students at UW-Baraboo are guaranteed a transfer into any UW System school like UW-Madison, as long as they maintain a certain grade point average. They are also unable to transfer their honors credits to UW-Madison, as are other honors students from colleges and universities nation-wide.

Though it might seem this lessens the desire to take honors courses, Kaufmann of the UW-Madison's Letters and Sciences honors program, said there is no doubt the experience will help students prepare for Madison's honor program which transferring students can finish in two years.

She said the intimacy provided by honors courses is mirrored at Madison and in general upper level courses -- making a transition easy.

Kuhlmann said students also find specialized fields of study through honors courses to prepare for a career, while practicing better research skills.

"They practically apply their research methods learned in class to something they're interested in and they can have much more control over what they pursue," she said.

UW-Baraboo honors students have the option to take honors courses with their instructors as they see fit, or they can take a required 12 credits of honors courses in order to receive an honors distinction on their associate degree.