For my fourth honors experience with UC’s University Honors Program, I served as a UHP Welcome Experience Mentor for a group of incoming UHP students during the Fall semester of 2021. Although this was the second time I have held this role as a pre-approved honors experience, this semester presented a unique set of challenges and opportunities for growth.

 

When I joined the UHP as a first-year student in the Fall of 2019, I attended the last in-person “honors retreat” at Camp Kern. This was a very important experience during my first few days as a UC student because it allowed me to learn about opportunities offered through the UHP and begin building my circle of friends inside the UHP and UC community as a whole. Some of my closest friends now are ones that I met at my first honors retreat! When deciding how to utilize my time in the UHP and complete my honors experiences, leading the honors retreat stuck out to me as a great way to give back to the program, help build community for incoming UHP students, and enjoy a weekend of camping with friends.

 

While the Honors Welcome Experience has changed a lot since I attended as a freshman, serving as a mentor has still allowed me to fulfil these goals. During the Fall of 2020, all of my meetings with my group of new UHP students took place remotely. This was a time when most UC students were feeling isolated from the community, so holding regular meetings and offering resources and advice to students was essential to build the UHP community even while separated by distance. This semester, the goals were still the same: introduce students to the UHP and its opportunities, encourage them to bond with one another, and help them brainstorm future honors experiences. With most of UC’s classes and events in person, however, my group members’ busy schedules (and my own!) became the largest obstacle to connecting with one another. Most meetings with my group members ended up being 1-on-1’s instead of group meetings, but this gave us a unique opportunity to brainstorm ideas for honors experiences without being preoccupied by the larger group.

 

Ultimately, I believe I was able to uphold the mission of the Honors Welcome Experience despite the challenges of meeting with students during an especially busy fall semester. Each new student that I mentored has exciting ideas for future honors experiences, and many of them have already taken up leadership roles within the UHP as program ambassadors. It has been a gratifying experience to give back to the UHP by supporting new students as they start on their journeys to becoming global citizen scholars.

 

I selected the image on the Welcome Experience t-shirt as an example of this honors experience. Even though new UHP students weren’t able to meet as a large group at any point, each new student received a shirt with this design to represent the new community that was formed. Each time I see someone wearing the shirt around campus, I’m proud that I played a role in supporting the UHP community!