In this spring of 1988 I was a brand-new faculty member, I had a brand new PhD and
the then dean of instruction called me into his office and said they had an idea that
they wanted to start an Honors Program; and they wanted to know if I would be interested
and I thought why not?
The CCBC Honors Program is actually really special compared especially to a lot of other
honors programs because we don't just find honor students we create them.
Really my job is two things and that is to help students succeed and then to brag about
them after they've succeeded.
I am the senior director of sales in revenue at the Maryland Zoo but I've spent a career
working with various nonprofits and my experience at CCBC helped me to do that.
Because that's where I really learned the art of completing projects and getting projects
done.
And that's really translated into a great deal of success for me.
The program itself believes in everyone that comes through.
The teachers in the program are dedicated and as a teacher myself now, I'm
dedicated to making kids feel the same way that I felt coming through that program; that
is, you can do it, I believe in you, you should believe in yourself as well.
Currently I am a registered nurse I work at a local hospital, Good Samaritan.
The challenging classes that I took at CCBC Honors really prepared me for my educational
path I really enjoyed being in the Honors Program for that reason.
The quality of education that I got there was much greater than I expected and when
I transferred as a junior to University of Maryland in physics I was actually better
prepared than my colleagues who had spent the first two years at Maryland.
So I would say CCBC got me off to a great start.
I've been an adjunct faculty member for honors courses.
I'm part of the honors fundraising committee and I'm also on the
CCBC Foundation Board all so that I can make sure that I'm doing what I can to give students
the opportunity that I had.
Current students benefit from the honors program in lots of different ways, one of them of
course is the honors scholarship, which is why we've been raising so much money.
They have a faculty mentor assigned to them, but I really think the most important thing
that the current students gain whenever they're here is each
other.
The best thing in my opinion is the culture here at honors.
I think we all collaborate very wel, we do everything together, everybody's helping each
other and that's what we need to grow.
The best thing that I got out of the honors program was the mentorship from professors.
That was the best thing you got out of the honors program?
The best thing I got is him.
Oh that's what you mean?
We got engaged.
Yeah, we're getting married.
We were kind of outsiders really young, and before that we were home schooled.
So we've never really fit into any kind of school and
my brother was in the program, so he introduced us to everyone and that was seriously how
we got involved in the entire community of CCBC.
When I got into my honors classes that's when I really enjoyed being here.
I began making the Dean's List and being more involved in wanting to do more things, so
that's how it helped me.
Honors Program does give us that atmosphere that you know we need as students not only
to succeed, but also to excel.
So anything to say about the Honors Program?
One of the things I always think is it's absolutely amazing what 17 honors students can teach
an honors faculty member in one semester.
Working with the caliber of students that are in the Honors Program, they're motivated
they're excited they're engaged.
They bring their own ideas to the classroom and they challenge you as an instructor to
work harder to bring a higher level of material.
And then they go on to these fabulous four-year schools, some of them go to Cornell and Smith
and Brown and Yale and what have you.
They go on to do wonderful things and then even more important they give back to the
Honors Program and to the college so that's like my favorite thing, watching that cycle.
The Honors Program has been on an incredible journey of growth, obviously we started with
zero students and zero classes now we have approximately 700 students across the colleg.
Given the economics of the day, the fact that college is becoming less and less affordable
at four-year institutions.
That positions the Honors Program very well in the future going forward.
I started as the program director at Catonsville in 2011 and since that time we've not had
a permanent space.
So we're really pleased to have a home as wonderful as the Hilton mansion, certainly
our students deserve it and they're really excited about this
new home, home away from home as it were.
My main goal is to continue with growth but while also focusing on diversity, also focusing
on trying to bridge the three programs together and also thinking about growth as far as scholarships
are concerned.
And so the Mellon Foundation and the program that we have with Johns Hopkins Humanities
for All, allows students to have access to two different scholarship opportunities.
So the future is really bright for the Honors Program and I look forward to being a part
of it.
Well the CCBC Honors Program is one of the best things we do at this college, the person
to whom I give the most credit for this is Dr. Rae Rosenthal.
The structure the she has built, the faculty she has trained and the new leadership who
will take over the Honors Program, will actually just take the honors program to new height.
And actually I think the sky's the limit for the honors program and the honor students.
I'd really like to give my thanks to the entire honors community and to the administration
at CCBC and the Board of Trustees and the Foundations they've all just supported not
just the existence of the program, but the funding of the program and our vision for
the 30th anniversary and our vision going forward.
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