New Honors Program participants.
The new Honors Class of 2030 met for Orientation on Aug. 30 in the Williams Center.
The class of 68 new selected students includes majors from all three colleges and 23 different majors, who came to SUNY Fredonia from as far away as California.
As Honors Program participants, they will engage with a program that supports academically motivated students by connecting them to meaningful opportunities to learn, lead, and live amid a community of like-minded peers.
The Honors Program, established by Professor Emeritus Minda Rae Amiran of the Department of English in 1985, has a 40-year history of unique interdisciplinary courses, such as Environmental Justice: Water Resources this semester with Dr. Courtney Wigdahl-Perry, a faculty member in the Department of Biology.
First-year student Rhiannon Harper from East Rochester, NY, plans to major in Biology and minor in Public Health and Art, with the goal to be certified and able to work in the lab. She is looking forward to “becoming my family's first PH.D. I would like to be ready to achieve a Ph.D. in virology and immunology, [and] by my 4th year, [figure out] how to get on that path and achieve the best I can.” She is excited for how Honors can help her achieve these goals.
Another new Honors program student, Ethan Candee, from Oneida, NY, is majoring in Drawing and Painting with a minor in Theatre Arts. He noted, “My big goal in my life is to be an art professor. I have always loved art and I want to be able to continue teaching people about the joy of art, especially during a creativity crisis due to AI.”
Eva Sanchez, from West Seneca, NY, another Honors program student, is double major in Molecular Genetics and Music Composition, noting, “One of my main goals as a Music Composition major is to write my own musical that will one day make it on Broadway.”
Program participants are frequent recipients of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence and the Lanford Presidential Prize, system and campus awards for students. They also have received national awards, such as the Goldwater Scholarship.
Honors Program Orientation was sponsored by the new student orientation program. Honors scholarships are funded in large part by the Fredonia College Foundation. Many Honors activities during the year are made possible by the support of the Office of Residence Life, and by the Steinberg Honors Endowment and the Dr. Virginia Horvath Endowment for Honors through the Fredonia College Foundation.
More information is available about the Honors Program on its website or by via email at honors.program@fredonia.edu.
