Cover Profile: With Honors

     Similar to how the "What Florida Students Think" survey responds to student leaders' toughest campus dilemmas, the Florida Collegiate Honors Council executive board develops solutions for honors students' problems. The FCHC e-board, which consists of three student reps, listens to members' concerns and then reports back to administrators and other e-board members to vote on suggestions.
     While there are many facets to FCHC, encouraging academic excellence and growth remains the focus. "Many students are concerned with only studying and don't realize that involvement in this type of program offers even more opportunities for students to excel," says Collin Gray, a Miami-Dade Community College sophomore and FCHC's student representative for two-year colleges. "We schedule scholarship recruiter visits, introduce members to counselors to help them plan for the future, and provide service-learning projects. We try to make students aware of the council and that there's a voice they can use to their advantage."
     The council has three branches—two-year college, private school, and four-year state university divisions—to ensure all members have an outlet to express their ideas. Other than being a voice for members and offering scholastic support, the FCHC e-board tries to help students with personal and professional development. Each spring semester, FCHC hosts a convention in which participants present their academic research papers for school administrators and other honors students. "It's an opportunity for growth," says Marian Conklin, a University of Tampa senior and FCHC student rep. "Community college students gain valuable university contacts. It's also a chance for networking and enlarging academic and personal experiences." To become involved in the council, Conklin suggests submitting a proposal to the honors department to present a research paper at the annual convention. At this conference, students and administrators vote for which of the speakers they feel would be influential FCHC student reps.
     The University of West Florida's Tyler Merritt, the rep for public universities, says FCHC not only provides services for members, but to the community. "We're sponsoring a statewide blanket drive for homeless people, we instituted a mentoring program to help children with reading, and we do several beach and campus clean-ups."
     Merritt also says the group tries to increase awareness and involvement for the program by teaming up with younger students. "We work with high schools—we try to incorporate many generations in our projects, because people will remember the projects and they'll last."
For more information about FCHC, visit www.uwf.edu/uhp, or call your school’s honors program.