John Martinson Honors Program

April 7, 2025

Newsletter link: https://mailchi.mp/538ee1139136/this-week-in-honors-april-7-2025

It's a busy week, and a busy April in general.  We kick off the Life of the Mind speaker series this month starting with the Shark Tank competition!  Everyone is invited to join us Wednesday, April 9th at 4pm in the library Helion Gallery (next to the rare books room) to support fellow students, listen and judge as students pitch ideas for new honors courses in competition with each other.  Snacks and drinks will be available, but don't fill up too much, because right after, we've got the Martinson reception, where we'll welcome our namesake John Martinson with excellent food and company. 

After that, we welcome Dr. Andrew Ravanelli, an SIUE honors alumnus, speaking on "Navigating a Scientific Career in Industry" on Tuesday,  April 22nd at 6pm.  Dr. Ravanelli is the head of Cell and Molecular Biology R&D for BioMonitoring at MilliporeSigma in St. Louis, so if anyone knows how to take an honors STEM education and make it successful, it's him.  But don't take my word for it.  RSVP to attend a meet & greet at 2pm and network for insights face-to-face.

On Wednesday, April 23rd at 1pm, judge your honors professors for best pitch at "10 Books That Will Change Your Mind".  Listen as each prof presents their pitch and vote to choose the book that piqued your interest the most.  There will be attendance prizes and desserts, of course.

Finally, April 29th at 7pm, our own Dr. Evelyn Malinowski will present "Interdisciplinarity, Sound Studies, and Honors Learning".  In addition to being an interdisciplinarian and dedicated Virginia Woolf scholar, Dr. Malinowski is a DJ, musician, vinyl collector, and musical critic.  They have actively participated in underground and experimental music for over 25 years, from radio DJing, throwing raves, and running an independent, vinyl-only label, to contributing over 90 music reviews on European and North American platforms. As a scholar and DJ, they hope to open up new horizons for sound studies, music and literature, and aural philosophy.  They are currently working on a book on panorama, anxiety, and music culture.

• From the Director
• This Week in Honors
• Advising Updates
• Service Updates
• Honors Student Association
• Outside of Honors

From the Director

From the Director

Apologies for being AWOL the last few weeks. I took a few days off so that I could travel to visit friends in Seattle over Spring Break. On the flip side, I got sick at the end of the week back and have been behind ever since and often feeling under the weather—not 100%.

I hope that registration went well for most of you and that we could help and assist when appropriate. I know that some honors courses closed quickly, and some folks didn’t get into sections that they had planned for. I just want to say that it will be all right. When there are urgent needs, we adjust. But the JMHP doesn’t delay peoples’ graduation. If your schedule looks a little different than you had planned, I urge you to look at that difference and divergence from your plan as an opportunity to experience something of the mystery of human life. Human life doesn’t unfold as a blueprint, following the optimal and most efficient path. And we know this. Actually, we feel this in our souls and our bones, even as we try to optimize and to create more and more efficient techniques and processes. We feel that “there is some beauty left in mystery,” as John Koenig writes. When things go a little sideways and plans fall apart, we often end up in silence and “that silence reminds you to pay attention to the nature of things. Calibrating your senses, learning to recognize a glimmer of something real, turning in the deep. You have no idea what’s going to happen” [The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (2021)]. Koenig calls this unspoken love of and longing for mystery, yráth. Sit with it.

Mr. John Martinson will be visiting us this week on Wednesday, 9 April. John is an engineer, leader in the software business, and venture capitalist. He has given generously to support eight honors programs and colleges around the country, including ours. You can read about him here. Everyone will have an opportunity to meet him late in the afternoon, starting at 4pm. At 4pm, the JMHP will be hosting a ‘shark tank’ event, during which current honors students will be pitching potential honors courses to a group of judges, including Mr. Martinson. Come and support your fellow honors students and see a real course that may be offered in Spring 2026. I am currently holding some slots in the Spring 2026 schedule for the winner. The Shark Tank (Honors Course Pitch) will be held in Lovejoy Library’s ‘Helion’ Lightwell—the Southwest Lightwell on the 2^nd-Floor. The Shark Tank will provide current students an opportunity to direct our attention to a topic that is of pressing interest to current students. It provides an opportunity for JMHP students to be co-creators of the curriculum with the faculty and to participate in the life of the program and the university in a meaningful and collaborative way. It is one of the things that John was impressed with and that he wants to learn more about.

Following the Shark Tank, we will reconvene in the Legacy Room in the Morris University Center for a reception. There will be good food (promise!). I hope you join us and take the opportunity to talk with Mr. Martinson. He is always warm with students—enthusiastically and authentically interested in their lives and endeavors. And he is an exemplary human—a servant leader (former Air Force officer, amongst other things) with interests that align with many of yours. Please come and talk with him about the remarkable things you are doing and are dreaming about doing.

We have pulled off the full cycle of a shark tank once before (from student pitch to course offered, with the student in the classroom as a near peer mentor). In Spring 2022, Leslie Kupferle pitched an Honors 250 course on ‘horror and humor.’ Leslie was a chemistry major on a Provost’s Scholarship. She wondered why horror and humor are often woven together. Why, she asked, can humor sometimes give way to horror and, conversely, why horror can devolve into laughter. It was a superbly well thought out sketch; every faculty member in attendance that day said they could teach the course withing a month. Dr. Zach Riebeling took up Leslie’s challenge and worked with her to design a section of HONS 250, which he offered in Fall 2022. Leslie joined him in the class as a ‘near peer mentor,’ helping lead discussions of the course that she created. She received credit for HONS 420 (Honors independent study). Leslie will be back on Wednesday, and I encourage you to meet her.

Finally, a big thanks to Dr. Zach Riebeling who has been planning the ‘Shark Tank’ and a set of other events that we will be offering as part of the John Martinson Honors Program, ‘Life of the Mind,’ series. As many of you can attest, Zach is a superb teacher—intentional, thoughtful, challenging, and warm in the classroom. He is also interested in helping us deepen the JMHP’s sense of community; this event is the first of a series of work he and others have begun to realize that. When you see him, give him a big thanks!

This Week in Honors

• Graduation Regalia- There will be a thing, medallion or otherwise, and it will be announced in the newsletter.  Keep your eye on future publications of This Week in Honors for details and instructions.

•  Save the Date: Fly High workshops will prepare you for  life-skills, not just classroom skills.  Employers want people who can get the most out of what they are taught and can communicate effectively what they know to other people.  It doesn't hurt to be ready for your classes, either. :D

Advising Reminders

• We have returned to our regularly scheduled Walk-In hours.  Drop-In Advising for quick questions and support with your advisor can be done in-person or virtually.
  • Ian In-Person Wednesdays 9:30-11:30
  • Carol & Meagan Digital Drop-In Wednesdays 1:30-4:30
  • Everyone In-Person Fridays 2:30-4:30

Service Updates

• Attention SENIORS! The deadline for service submissions for graduation is 18 April at 11:59 PM! Submit your hours here.
• April 26th: An opportunity through an Honors alumnus!  We're happy to share a service opportunity with Waigand Wheels, a community service organization in Kirkwood, MO. They are hosting an event called the Speedway Spectacular on Saturday, April 26th, and are asking for JMHP volunteers! Volunteer work they are asking for ranges from setting up and breaking down the event, helping guests park at the venue, helping operate various raffles, tending bar, and helping with the derby races. This is a great chance to get service hours for a great cause! If you are interested, please send an email to Hannah Sheahan at hannah667@gmail.com.

Honors Student Association

• Nominations are now open for executive positions! If interested in running for president, vice-president, treasurer, or secretary, please fill out the following form: https://forms.gle/ciUdRSQqRhmhuHki6
  • Nominations will remain open until Friday, April 11^th at 11:59 PM. 
• Have questions about upcoming events, HSA, or college life in general? Come talk with an HSA Representative at our Kimmel desk! Reference this calendar for specific times and representatives: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/2?cid=c2l1ZWhzYUBnbWFpbC5jb20

Outside of Honors

• Nothing this week.  Please enjoy a picture of flowers outside of Evergreen Hall.