Michael David Franklin, associate director of Honors in the Major, celebrating faculty mentorship at the Beth Moor Lounge during the Honors in the Major Faculty Appreciation Reception.
Florida State University hosted the Honors in the Major (HITM) Faculty Appreciation Reception on March 5 at the Beth Moor Lounge to celebrate the faculty mentoring HITM student researchers.
“This celebration was a time to gather a number of inspiring faculty members together and acknowledge them as instructors and researchers who embody the best of FSU by sharing their unique insight and perspectives with our students,” said Michael David Franklin, associate director of Honors in the Major. “Faculty mentorship is integral to the Honors in the Major experience, and we’re so grateful to the dedicated professors who help our students shape their work.”
Approximately 50 professors attended the event, which included research mentors across disciplines, from linguistics and history to chemistry and environmental science.
“Our faculty care so deeply about their students and their academic development,” said DeOnte Brown, dean of Undergraduate Studies. “The Honors in the Major program shows how FSU professors nurture students’ intellectual growth, connect them to opportunities, and equip them with the research tools they need to explore the subjects that spark their curiosity.”
Craig Filar, associate dean of Honors, Scholars, and Fellows, addresses attendees during the Honors in the Major Faculty Appreciation Reception recently held at the Beth Moor Lounge.
Part of the broader FSU Honors Program, the HITM program helps students in their junior and senior years to engage in graduate-level research by completing an original thesis or creative research project produced under the direction of a faculty mentor. Currently, 220 students are active in HITM.
HITM faculty mentors guide undergraduate students in the program to develop their topic, produce their project and complete their final thesis. Although HITM students do not have to be enrolled in the University Honors Program, they will still be conferred with a “with honors” designation upon graduation.
This year’s HITM students are exploring a wide range of topics of their choosing, including analysis of resolutions from the historic influence of the game Dungeons & Dragons to the work of French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir to the venom variations in the Florida bark scorpion.
Linguistics professor Antje Muntendam said one of her students developed an interest in European linguistics during her participation in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and then continued to explore her interest with an HITM project studying the Italian linguistic influences in Uruguayan Spanish.
“Watching that transition between projects and it being fulfilling for her was nice to see,” Muntendam said. “I watched her excitement grow, and now she is applying for her master’s degree.”
More information about HITM can be found at the University Honors Program’s website at honors.fsu.edu/honors-major.