ALUMNI

The Honors Forum was never just a set of requirements for me; rather it was a community, and it was a conversation. I spent all my years at Skidmore living in honors housing, literally beginning and ending my days in the Forum. From the first day moving in, our shared membership gave us a bond that other floors lacked. The events specific to our floor, like the annual haunted house, helped us to really know each other and strengthen our community. In honors housing, I was surrounded by people who loved learning as much as I did. This went beyond quiet hours before midterms and finals; it was an atmosphere that encouraged us to discuss our thoughts on lecture topics after class, to keep up with and debate current events, and to share our academic and intellectual discoveries with each other. Whether I researched the intricacies of Japanese gift wrapping or gene transcription, I was but a few steps from others who would share my wonder. A friend's enthusiasm with the latest exhibit at the Tang led me to wander through the galleries. Chance encounters in the hallways led to extensive discussions of political philosophies, our favorite short stories, or even impromptu lessons on Romanian geography. Through the add-on Honors sections to my courses, I engaged in in-depth conversations on topics far outside of my Biology major. I gained the confidence to join in discussions about topics I was not expert on and not to be afraid to ask for the information I lacked. Co-curricular events like the Shades of Gray or Ramsey Lecture series engaged me in conversations with the larger Skidmore community on all kinds of topics. The Honors Forum truly became my forum to discuss, question, and explore any topic I came across. By being a part of the Honors Forum, I developed a habit of discussion, which fed my curiosity across a wide array of disciplines.

Adam Epstein, Class of 2008

During my time at Skidmore College (and what a time it was!), I was the primary author of the Citizenship Project requirement for the Honors Forum and served as the HF's first Citizenship Project Coordinator for the last two years of my college career. During my senior year, I also served as the HF Vice President. Throughout the course of my first two years as an HF student at Skidmore, I grew to believe that HF students (if not all students) had a duty to use their academic gifts to promote the welfare of local and/or global communities. I believed--and continue to believe--that an honor appended to one's name, resume, or degree only has value insofar as it represents a skill, proclivity, or talent that can be put into practice to contribute to society in a positive way. Thus, I, with the support of fellow students and faculty, created the Citizenship Project requirement in order to encourage HF students to find creative ways to turn their academic work into positive community service. In so doing, I was simultaneously attempting to echo Lucy Scribner's concept of "mind and hand"--that is, the balance of thoughtful, private study of theory/philosophy (mind) with the practical applications of such work (hand). The former means nothing without the latter. I believe that the Citizenship requirement successfully promoted a number of excellent projects during my college career that students may have never undertaken otherwise: a children's creative writing workshop, a film showing and panel discussion on the future of electric cars, local (and free) musical performances, social justice efforts, voluntarism at medical and nursing facilities, the creation of useful databases for HF students, the creation of a nutritional information system for dining services, etc. I see on the website that new projects continue to take form, and I am proud that this legacy live on in the HF.

Having graduated over four years ago, I still try to live the value of "mind and hand." After finishing my BA in Religious Studies and South Asian Studies at Skidmore, I earned a Master of Music degree at The Boston Conservatory. Now, I am a licensed, professional public school music educator in the Somerville, MA Public School district. In my job, I constantly have to stay in tune with the latest research in my field and think very deeply about curriculum and educational philosophy. At the same time, I need to be able to put those big ideas into direct practice by designing and implementing quality lessons for my students at every level.  My Skidmore and HF education acted as great practice for this kind of thinking. Creative thought DOES matter, it turns out. In addition, while an HF member at Skidmore, I felt encouraged to pursue my interests and goals, no matter how difficult they might have seemed. The independent studies I did and co-curricular events I designed with HF support were particularly useful in this regard. When I came to the HF with an idea, the answer was always, "cool, how can we support you?" This positive attitude of finding ways to make my interests and motivations a reality has been a great model for me to continue to do this in my professional life and also to find work settings where that kind of attitude is the norm. I am honored to have been an HF member during my time at Skidmore College.
 

The Honors Forum would not have made its indelible mark had it just been about getting a 3.4 GPA and having one’s name printed on a list. For me, HF came to be about a sense of community, engagement in an intellectual life outside of the classroom, and new challenges.  By living on the Honors Floor in, then, Weicking Hall and attending the HF events—Shades of Gray, Fridays @ 4, field trips—I found friends within a community of likeminded learners. And the plethora of these academic lectures and discussions organized by the HF—often outside my own discipline—encouraged me to have a life of the mind outside of my English Literature novels and gave me the opportunities to do so (a daunting pursuit to shape on one’s own at that age!).  

We often learn to swim in the winter and ski in the summer; and so it goes, through reflection, I have come to see that the qualities the HF initially set out to foster—self-initiative and a willingness to be in dialogue—are those I’ve come to value in myself and my students. 

David Steinberger, Class of 2009

When I arrived at Skidmore College, I knew that I wanted to be challenged intellectually, but I also knew that I wanted to connect with my community.  As a native of the Saratoga region, I had a strong connection with the surrounding area and had engaged in numerous community-based projects in Middle and High School.  I wanted to continue this service in college, and the Honors Forum provided me with the perfect outlet for my ambitions.  With its core focus on connecting highly rigorous academics with community-based outreach and leadership, the Honors Forum was a natural outlet for my passion.

Within my first year in the Honors Forum, I began my community service by embarking on my Citizenship Project.  As an avid birder studying biology and ornithology at Skidmore, I wanted to share my knowledge and passion of birds with others, and contribute to science through the process.  I was able to do this by organizing the Great Backyard Bird Count, a citizen science-based initiative founded by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology aimed at engaging everyday people with bird counting, while simultaneously helping conservation scientists.  Participants count birds in their backyards and neighborhoods, and submit their results to the Lab of Ornithology for analysis, where ornithologists track the movement and population shifts of various wintering bird species.  As the leader of this event at Skidmore, I was able to get several of my peers and community members interested in bird watching and conservation, and I continued to conduct this count and numerous other community-based bird walks and lectures throughout the rest of my undergraduate career.

In addition to providing me with a community-minded outlet for my undergraduate endeavors, the Honors Forum challenged me intellectually at a level that I would not have received otherwise in my undergraduate studies.  My honors-level classes demanded the highest level of dedication in my studies, challenged my viewpoints, and demanded that I think critically and innovatively.  Vigorous discussions and debates were a daily staple in these classes, as well as highly structured and insightful presentations and literary compositions.  I owe a great amount of my academic and professional abilities today to the time spent in my honors classes.  And my serve as Trip Coordinator and Vice President on the Honors Forum Committee taught me the invaluable skills of teamwork, compromise, planning, and organization.  All of these skills have proven invaluable in my post-Skidmore life, including the numerous collaborative projects required of me in graduate school, and the daily management, teamwork, documentation, and organizational skills needed in my current occupation as an assistant at an environmental consultant and management firm.