Coming up in the Honors College

ANNOUNCEMENTS & OPPORTUNITIES    

Grand Challenges Forum
The New Grand Challenges Forum encourages students to think critically, discuss openly and learn unequivocally. The New Grand Challenges Forum offers students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the local community a time to hear a wide range of lectures dedicated to a compelling theme. Fridays from 1-2 p.m. in the Honors College Commons.

Friday, Nov. 8, 2024
Amanda Stronza, Ph.D. Environmental Anthropologist, Texas AeM University
"More than Conflict: Insights on Human-Wildlife Coexistence from Social Science and Indigenous Knowledge"

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Critical Language Scholarship Workshops
If you want to dive into an immersive language and cultural learning experience overseas through the Critical Language Scholarship, attend these virtual workshops aimed to increase the competitive nature of your application. Each workshop will begin at 4pm and requires registration beforehand.

Coogs Without Borders: Spotlight on UH Global
Join the Coogs Without Borders on Oct. 17 at 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion, who will showcase the wide range of opportunities that exist to explore and connect with the world beyond campus. Hear how Learning Abroad programs have broadened students’ global perspectives and enriched their academic journeys. Important research projects that address global challenges and engaging in global partnerships and exchanges contribute to UH’s vibrant intellectual community and promotes collaborative research.

Presentations will be interspersed with free-flowing opportunities to view research activities, learn about financing learning abroad programs, and getting the Global Citizen Credential. Faculty and staff can discuss visiting scholar opportunities, setting up a COIL or a partnership abroad, or developing a faculty-led learning abroad program. UH aims to cultivate a globally aware and culturally competent community, preparing students and faculty to thrive in an interconnected world. Come to Coogs Without Borders to find out how!
Lunch available to the first 40 attendees!

CLASS Honors & the Institute for Global Engagement present Antigone (Dir. Sophie Deraspe).
This is a co-curricular event in collaboration with Human Situation. Professors Amanda Vredenburgh & Casey Dué Hackney will introduced and have a discussion after the film. This 2019 film is a French-Canadian adaptation of the ancient Greek play Antigone by Sophocles, transposing the story to a modern-day refugee family in Montreal. It won the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film and five Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture. This free screening will take place on Oct. 17, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. in the Honors College Commons.

Demystifying the Literature Review Webinar
Join Rikki Bettinger, Ph.D. and Livia Garza from the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards to learn what a literature review is, why it’s important for your research, and tips to get started. This webinar will take place on Friday, Oct. 25 from 2-3 p.m. Register Here

Language Tutors (Spanish, French, Latin)
Kscholastic Inc. is a Houston-based tutoring company providing in-person and virtual tutoring services to pre-K through college students. We are looking to hire in-person tutors for the upcoming 2024-25 school year, particularly for languages (Spanish, French, Latin, Mandarin), STEM subjects, history, and English/writing. Pay starts at $33/hour. Tutors must have a vehicle, be available at least three days a week Sunday through Thursday after school, and be able to tutor through May 2025. We are looking for committed, passionate tutors who can teach these subjects at a middle and high school level.

If interested in this position, please send a brief statement of interest and a current resume to karla@kscholastic.com.

STEM Tutors
Kscholastic Inc. is a Houston-based tutoring company providing in-person and virtual tutoring services to pre-K through college students. We are looking to hire in-person tutors for the upcoming 2024-25 school year, particularly for languages (Spanish, French, Latin, Mandarin), STEM subjects, history, and English/writing. Pay starts at $33/hour. Tutors must have a vehicle, be available at least 3 days a week Sunday through Thursday after school, and be able to tutor through May 2025. We are looking for committed, passionate tutors who can teach these subjects at a middle and high school level.

**Physics tutors needed!
If interested in this position, please send a brief statement of interest and a current resume to karla@kscholastic.com

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TRAVEL & SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Argentina: Lithium Tango
June 2025
Trip Leads: Ognjen Miljanic and Eduardo Aleman
On this trip, explore Argentina and its dynamic capital city of Buenos Aires - one of the world's most vibrant cities in terms of culture, cuisine, architecture, and diversity. The trip will focus on the role of lithium, material critical to the lithium-ion batteries and electric cars, plays in Argentina, and on the role which Argentina will play on the world's stage as one of the countries with the largest lithium reserves in the world. Visit government agencies that regulate lithium mining, communities that are affected by it, and companies that do the mining and processing of lithium into batteries. In addition, you will explore Buenos Aires, its fascinating immigrant neighborhoods, tango clubs, local markets, and soccer stadiums. The trip will be led by Profs. Eduardo Aleman (UH political science) and Ognjen Miljanic (UH chemistry). 

Dominican Republic: Political Ecology
Spring course and June 2025 travel
Trip Leads: Jonathan Williamson and Nicolas Jacobsen
This interdisciplinary course and trip consider how the study of politics and of the environment intersect. The lenses of political science and local ecology will be focused on questions of sustainability and community and economic development using the community of Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic, where we will travel, as our case study. Las Terrenas’ natural springs, Atlantic coastline, beautiful beaches, mangrove-lined wetlands, and teeming coral reefs provide the ecological laboratory for students’ community-engaged research and study. How does this biological regime interact with local, national, and global political forces? What are the difficult choices that communities face when prospects of long-term environmental degradation are put into tension with immediate community, economic, and political needs? In partnership with local communities, we will consider how to manage natural and community resources through tenets of sustainable development. Instructor permission is required to enroll, and enrollment in the course is required for the trip.

Rome, Italy: Learning Abroad with the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics & Human Rights
Spring course and May 2025 travel
Trip Leads: Arlene Macdonald and John Lunstroth
From the ancient temples of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, to L'Ospedale di Santo Spirito, the earliest hospital in Europe, Rome has been important to the practice of medicine for millennia. This Honors College Learning Abroad trip will allow students to engage with the city of Rome, with cutting-edge issues in bioethics, and with medical humanities from a global, cross-cultural perspective. Partnering with the international bioethics faculty that make up the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights, students will take part in a site-based learning program that allows them to simultaneously participate in the bioethics initiatives of the UNESCO Chair and the histories and cultures of Rome. Join us for an exciting introduction to the global engagements of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics & Human Rights and the city of Rome!

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RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

2025 Energy Scholars Program
Offered by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards (OURMA), the Energy Scholars Program is a year-long research program that provides undergraduate students the opportunity to work on an energy-related research project under the direction of a UH faculty mentor. Participants will receive a $6,000 scholarship to work on their project for six to seven hours per week during the spring and fall semesters, and full-time during the summer.

Students of all majors and disciplines are welcome to apply, but applicants must be working on an energy-related research topic. The application deadline is Nov. 4, 2024. Apply at: http://uh.edu/energy-scholars

Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholarship (PURS) Program - Spring 2025
Offered by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards (OURMA), the Provost Undergraduate Research Scholarship (PURS) provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to participate in a semester-long research project in Spring 2025 under the direction of a UH faculty mentor. Recipients will receive a $1,000 scholarship to conduct part-time research (six to seven hours per week) with their faculty mentor and two points toward the Honors in Co-Curricular Engagement transcript designation.

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors of all majors are eligible to apply. The application deadline is Nov. 4, 2024. Apply at: http://www.uh.edu/purs