Honors Link

By Eryn Reeder, Honors College Student Ambassador

The Honors College Student Association (HCSA) was the first club that I joined at Oregon State. Because I lived in the Honors Living-Learning Community in West Hall last year, I saw flyers for HCSA’s first meeting of the year and that there would be ice cream. The ice cream was what sold me.

I distinctly recall that first meeting: at least 50 first-year students living in West Hall came, like me, for the ice cream – and many of them stayed to learn more about HCSA. The club is the student leadership of the Honors College. Officers and members plan events for the entire Honors student body: trivia nights, study breaks, Fall Family Weekend, service trips, and more. One of the best activities we’ve done is creating the Honors College t-shirts: we hosted a design competition, created and sold t-shirts, and used the proceeds to fund an Honors College differential tuition scholarship.

At that first meeting, the president mentioned an officer position, and I leapt at the opportunity for my first leadership experience in college. Thus, I became the second public relations chair. While I had managed social media and advertising for my high school, this was a new realm; I had to design flyers myself, using artistic creativity that I do not naturally possess. Fortunately, I learned a lot from the other PR chair – a senior marketing major – and most of my flyers came out looking respectable.

This school year, I am channeling my non-artistic abilities elsewhere, into my 98 wpm fingers as the club administrator. I take the minutes, manage club documents, and work with OSU’s office of Student Leadership and Involvement.

The most exciting project I’ve worked on is the inaugural Honors College Gala! This event replaced the Spring Picnic this year and was a more formal way to present faculty awards, acknowledge student performance, and spend time with honors friends eating Mediterranean food. It was fun to watch our vision come to life, and I can’t wait for another year with the Honors College Student Association!