Honors Forum
This introductory class to the Honors Program—and to MSSU as a whole—included texts that pushed me to evaluate my priorities, goals, and time management as a student. I wrote personal response essays that allowed me to tap into a more creative writing style than in other courses at the time. One of these papers was over Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, a novella that encapsulates numerous perceptions of time. To see the definition I agreed the most with, click the fire to the left.
Art Appreciation
In this course, I learned the principles of design and chronologically studied art history. I was surprised to learn how much impact color, light, and placement has on our perception. For my final presentation, I presented Jeane-Honoré Fragonard’s “The Happy Accidents of the Swing” as though I was Fragonard trying to sell my piece to a museum. I completed focus assessments on the piece throughout the semester to share my analysis of the artwork through different artistic lenses.
Special Topics
The Honors program includes courses in special topics that step outside of traditional course material. Within these classes, I was able to study historical and contemporary issues through the critical analysis of graphic novels and banned books.
The World Illustrated
I studied world history through the lens of Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen in association with the Holocaust, the Iranian Revolution, and the Cold War, respectfully. Before reading any of these novels, I read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics to learn how to read comics. Studying history through this lens brought me to appreciate the authors’ chosen media more.
Global Censorship
“Why don’t you want me to read—to think?” I explored this question by analyzing challenged, banned, and censored literature from across the globe. Studies in this course included power and oppression, race and racism, and social class. In a group project, I presented on the contemporary context of “mental healthcare” during the publication of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” I wrote my final paper on the representation of Afghanistan through Hassan in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.
Research Seminar
In this class, I spent the semester studying immigration, borders, and refugee treatment. A survey of different media within literature—including graphic novels, short stories, and academic articles—helped me get a glimpse into the question of refugee care in the United States. I spent my final project writing on the need for adequate mental healthcare for refugee children due to the traumatic experience of migration and the following intergenerational trauma transmission.
Service Learning
In Spring 2022, I volunteered at the Pumpkin Patch Childcare Center. This center is a part of Lafayette House, which is a community resource that helps women who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and substance use.