First Annual Honors Symposium

Scheduled for the first day of Research Week, the first annual Honors Symposium offers a forum in which honors students present their original research to a community of their peers. In addition to resarch presentations by 25 UT honors students, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, noted writer and journalist Richard Rodriguez, and Interim UT President Jan Simek will also lead sessions during the day. All students and members of the UT community are welcome to attend. For detailed information about the day's events, see the complete schedule below or visit http://honors.utk.edu.

All sessions of this daylong event take place in the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.

8:00-8:30 a.m. Breakfast
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander hosts breakfast in the Baker Center's Rotunda.

8:30-9:00 a.m. 'Research and the Public Good'
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander speaks in the Baker Center's Toyota Auditorium.

9:05-9:55 a.m. Student Presentations and Research Q&A

Classroom 204-205:

• Ellen Epley, senior in College Scholars - Art and Anthropology
• Britta Johnson, sophomore in College Scholars - Chemistry
• Todd Skelton, senior in College Scholars - Business

Classroom 207-208:

• Jaclyn Barnhart, junior in Global Studies
• Craig Bleakney, senior in College Scholars - Public Health
• Allison Thigpen, senior in College Scholars - Health Policy

Conference Room:

• Mark Walker, sophomore in Nuclear Engineering, speaks on how he got involved with research in his field, followed by a question-and-answer session. This session is geared for freshman and sophomore students interested in doing research in the sciences.

10:10-11:00 a.m. 'The University in Crisis'

Interim UT President Jan Simek leads a discussion in the Baker Center's Toyota Auditorium. The discussion addresses issues such as the inevitable additional budget reductions approaching in 2011 and offers critical analysis of the situation of public higher education in the U.S. and in Tennessee but also positive thinking about the future of the UT even in such challenging times. Student participants include Jenny Bledsoe, former editor-in-chief and current opinions editor of The Daily Beacon; Anne Buckle, member of the Provost's and Dean of Arts and Sciences' Student Advisory Councils; Todd Skelton, SGA commuter senator and editor-in-chief of Pursuit, UT's new Undergraduate Research Journal.

11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Lunch
A light lunch will be provided in the Baker Center's rotunda.

12:20-1:10 p.m. 'Late Lessons of a Scholarship Boy'

Richard Rodriguez, noted writer and journalist, delivers the keynote speech in the Baker Center's Toyota Auditorium. In his first book, 'Hunger of Memory,' Rodriguez wrote about the painful but necessary experience of assimilation and of his difficult Americanization in the classroom, as a Hispanic 'scholarship boy' at Stanford University.

1:10-1:25 p.m. Book Signing

Three of Richard Rodriguez's books will be available for purchase: Brown: The Last Discovery of America, Days of Obligation, and Hunger of Memory, on which Mr. Rodriguez's speech is based.

1:25-2:15 p.m. Student Presentations and Research Q&A

Classroom 204-205:

• Kathryn Dabbs, senior in Mathematics
• Shande King, senior in Mathematics
• Chelsea Plaut, junior in Mathematics

Classroom 207-208:

• Camille Crumpton, sophomore in Economics and Accounting
• Catie Karczmarczyk, senior in Political Science
• Lindsay Merriman, senior in College Scholars - Religious Studies

Conference Room:

• Jenny Bledsoe, junior in Religious Studies and English Literature, speaks on how she got involved with research in her field, followed by a question-and-answer session. This session is geared for freshman and sophomore students interested in doing research in the humanities.

2:30-3:20 p.m. Student Presentations and Research Q&A

Classroom 204-205:

• Rachel Grubb, senior in College Scholars - Music
• Samantha Senn, senior in Theater

Classroom 207-208:

• Laura Grese, senior in Exercise Science
• Kevin Kuo, senior in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Jenna McKinnie, senior in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Conference Room:

• Catie Karczmarczyk, senior in Political Science, speaks on how she got involved with research in her field, followed by a question-and-answer session. This session is geared for freshman and sophomore students interested in doing research in the social sciences.

3:35-4:25 p.m. Student Presentations

Classroom 204-205:

• Michael Jungwirth, senior in College Scholars - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Jonathan Lockhart, senior in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Chemistry
• Jeff Malik, senior in Geography

Classroom 207-208:

• Jenny Bledsoe, junior in Religious Studies and English Literature
• Michelle Jeu, senior in Classical Civilizations
• Shande King, senior in French

Conference Room:

• Heather Tran, junior in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Jessica Welch, senior in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Suneeta Acharya, senior in Microbiology