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Honors students and alumni attend Mount Vernon Leadership Fellows program

Honors students and alumni at historic Mount Vernon

Honors students and alumni attend Mount Vernon Leadership Fellows program

Honors students and alumni at historic Mount VernonThis month Honors College students and graduates Alyssa Norris, Savannah Rogers, Matthew Winchell, and Garrett Kalt gathered at the historic site of Mount Vernon for the alumni weekend of the Mount Vernon Leadership Fellows program. Each year since the leadership program first began in 2014, WSU has been represented by a student fellow from the Honors College. This year, Matthew Winchell attended the six-week leadership program and Garrett Kalt was selected as the student intern for the summer.

Restoring a musical relic

Thomas LeClair

Restoring a musical relic

Thomas LeClair sitting at the pipe organ
Thomas LeClair and the Webster pipe organ

Sophomore Thomas LeClair is trying to fix a 91-year-old theatre organ languishing in the basement of the Webster Physical Sciences building on the Pullman campus.

A biology and music double degree student, LeClair discovered the instrument while thumbing through old files in the WSU Libraries Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections. » More …

Ryan Fick: Handpicked for China International Experience

Ryan Fick: Handpicked for China International Experience

Ryan Fick holding cougar flag

Ryan Fick already had a passion for traveling and international business when he was a high school senior considering which college to choose. Since his sister attended WSU, he was familiar with the campus and drawn to the University’s family atmosphere and strong alumni network. But he was still undecided until visiting campus and meeting Finance Professor David Whidbee, then interim dean of the Carson College of Business. » More …

Honors College student achievements recognized by President Schulz

Honors College student achievements recognized by President Schulz

Newsletter from the desk of Kirk Schultz

Dear Faculty and Staff:

I hope all of you enjoyed some well-deserved time off over the Thanksgiving break. I had the opportunity to represent the University at several Apple Cup events in Seattle last weekend, including at a WSU Alumni Association event Friday evening. More than 300 enthusiastic alumni and friends turned out to hear about some of our university-wide successes this academic year and to cheer on the Cougar football team before we took on the University of Washington in the Apple Cup game Saturday evening. » More …

Honors’ Samantha Case, Double Major at WSU

Samantha Case

Honors’ Samantha Case, Double Major at WSU

Samantha Case
Case atop Ben A’an Mountain in Scotland

As a little girl, Walla Walla High School graduate Samantha Case was up early collecting eggs and feeding chickens on her family farm. Her efforts soon grew to a business where Case would sell eggs at the local farmer’s market and restaurants throughout the valley.

Samantha is now about to graduate from Washington State University with a double major and has been accepted to a prestigious master’s program at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) where she will specialize in information management and preservation. » More …

Aug. 25-26: Musical comedy ‘First Date’ at Bryan Hall Theatre

First Date

Aug. 25-26: Musical comedy ‘First Date’ at Bryan Hall Theatre

Casey (Mikalah Barem) and Aaron (Bogdan Theo Mynka) are on their first date (photo l-r), but they are joined by various personifications of the voices in their heads including parents, siblings, friends and exes, played by Kristina Gaumnitz, Michael Adams, Lauren Kaleikini-Torrez and Daniel Jinguji.

PULLMAN, Wash. – “First Date,” a Broadway musical comedy, will performed by the WSU School of Music Aug. 25-26 in Bryan Hall Theatre.

When blind date newbie Aaron is set up with serial-dater Casey, a casual drink at a busy New York restaurant turns into a hilarious high-stakes dinner. As the date unfolds in real time, the couple quickly finds that they are not alone on this unpredictable evening. » More …

Alyssa Norris appointed to Board of Regents

Alyssa Norris appointed to Board of Regents

Alyssa Norris was appointed to the Board of Regents July 1, 2017, by Washington Governor Jay Inslee. A WSU senior, Norris is majoring in civil engineering and minoring in mathematics, ethics, and East Asia Studies. She is a member of the WSU Honors College.

Norris was a finalist for the prestigious national Harry S. Truman scholarship during her junior year. Last year she also was named the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges Scholar student representative, the Outstanding Junior of the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, and was awarded the WSU President’s Leadership and Engagement Award of Distinction. » More …

Honors Students Inventing for the Future

Honors Students Inventing for the Future

Read original post at Washington State Magazine >>

A safe and sterile needle seems to be a basic idea when preventing infections. But how that needle is sterilized, especially in places where reuse is a common practice, spurred a good idea for a pair of Washington State University student entrepreneurs.

Emily Willard (left) and Katherine Brandenstein with their winning SafeShot sterilizer, at the University of Washington Health Innovation Challenge (Photo Matt Hagen)

Emily Willard and Katherine Brandenstein came up with the idea of SafeShot, a lid that sterilizes a needle each time it enters the vial of medicine, as part of an entrepreneurship class. The two students started a company, won a health business contest last spring, and headed to Tanzania early this year to research how their product could be used in a real setting. » More …

Summer’s Internship

Summer’s Internship

Read original story at the Voiland College >>

WSU’s Ryan Summers spent last summer building autonomous submarines and interning at SpaceX, a company that’s planning to send a space ship to Mars.

We recently spoke with the computer engineering major and Goldwater Scholar about his experience working at the aerospace company, and how WSU is preparing him for the future. » More …

WSU Honors College sends 8 students, 2 faculty to present at national honors conference in October

WSU Honors College sends 8 students, 2 faculty to present at national honors conference in October

PULLMAN, Wash.—With poster topics from parallel computing to the Nipah virus, eight students and two faculty members from the Honors College at Washington State University will travel to Seattle Oct. 12-16 as invited presenters at the annual meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC).

The submission process for this 51st NCHC conference was highly selective, with hundreds of students and faculty submitting proposals, according to its website. The WSU Honors students’ posters will be available to the nearly 2,000 students and faculty who are expected to attend. » More …