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Table of Contents:

End of Quarter Review...............1Honors Highlander Spirit............1Laugh in Peace..........................2Movie Night..............................2Dance Marathon.....................3-4Student Profiles........................5CTS..........................................6UH Applications........................6

Volume 1, Issue 10

H O N O R S Outlook

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University Honors2316 Olmsted HallRiverside, CA 92521

Tel: (951)827-5323Fax: (951)827-5320

H O N O R S H I G H L A N D E R S P I R I T

Winter quarter is widely considered to be the most fast-paced quarter of the year. However, this did not stop the Honors community from participat-ing in a wide array of fun and enrich-ing activities. One of the most memo-rable events this past quarter was UC Riverside’s return to Quiz Bowl. The Honors students who participated in Quiz Bowl were able to socialize with students from other universities while gaining experience for future competi-tions.

Other noteworthy events were the continuation of new Honors traditions led by the Foodies Club, TED Talks and Game Night. Some of the places that the Foodies Club visited this quarter were Koreana BBQ, Punjab Palace and Pho Vinam. Meanwhile, TED Talks were held every other Monday and featured

student-led discussions after the view-ing. The intellectual undertakings of TED Talks were also evident in numer-ous enrichment activities including the “Miss Representation” documentary screening, the Clark Kerr lecture on higher education and the Sum of All Equals Change conference.

With so many thoughtful discussions and food outings held on Mondays, any event on Tuesday faced a tough act to follow. This was accomplished by weekly Game Nights held at the Hon-ors lounge. Game Night attendees were able to take some time off from their studies by playing a range of fun games including Settlers of Catan and Mo-nopoly. A different sort of game night was recently held by the Social Com-mittee, which took Honors students to cheer for the UC Riverside basketball

team. Honors’ involvements also extended

to participation with the greater com-munity; this quarter witnessed Honors’ second year of involvement with the Sunrise Living Center’s Senior Prom. Participants helped organize and host the Valentine’s Day dance for the living center’s residents while being able to partake in the evening of dancing. An-other example of local involvement was an Honors student’s role in Riverside’s Chinese Lunar Festival.

Spring quarter will undoubtedly strive to keep up this momentum with its own series of fun gatherings, com-munity service events and enrichment activities; it’s up to you to become in-volved! The Honors Outlook wishes ev-eryone a safe spring break.

E N D O F Q U A R T E R R E V I E WA LOOK BACK AT WINTER WITH HONORSBY: CORINNE VERGHESE

HONORS CHEERS ON UCR’S BASKETBALL TEAMBY: ANISSA MONTEON

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On Wednesday, Feb. 15, Honors students showed their Highlander spirit as they rooted for the UC Riverside men’s basketball team in their game against the Titans of CSU Fullerton. “I wanted to go with students from Hon-ors and I wanted to show off some school spirit,” stated Honors student Xinyin Bi, who was among the Highlander supporters. The men’s basketball team has been looking to improve their ranking in the Big West Conference, cur-rently placed as the fi h team out of nine. Unfortunately, this wish didn’t come true as the Titans maintained a ten-point lead for most of the game and won with a fi nal score of 77-64.

Honors students made a splash during the event as they appeared on the court’s big screen during the fi rst half. During one of the breaks in the game, fi rst-year Hon-ors student Lourdes Coria won a prize for her performance in a free-throw compe on. Honors staff Sco Silverman was also in a endance and provided face paint for a end-ees. Several of the Honors students even had the privi-lege of si ng alongside Chancellor Timothy White and his wife, Karen. “Honors along with other school organiza- ons showed what school spirit [should look like],” stated fi rst-year Honors student Gabby Juan. Despite the High-landers’ loss, Honors students had a great me and were able to expand Honors’ involvement with the campus by a ending athle c events. Go Highlanders!

A COMEDY REVIEWBY: TOWNSEND GALLINGER‐SCHOLZ

L A U G H I N P E A C E

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On Wednesday, Feb. 22, a group of Honors students led by Dr. Perry Link at-tended UC Riverside’s fi rst Laugh in Peace comedy show, a stand-up medley that sought to u lize the power of laughter to unite students of varying religions and cultures. The event, which was planned and organized by an astoundingly diverse collec on of campus organiza ons (in-cluding Hillel, the Muslim Students Asso-cia on, Highlanders for Israel, the Cop c Club and Students for Jus ce in Pales ne, to name a few), featured three stand-up comedians from very diff erent back-grounds.

Susan Sparks, a Bap st minister, joked about the colloquial habits of the South-ern culture in which she grew up as well as her experiences as a leader in her reli-gious community. A erwards, Bob Alper, a former Rabbi, regaled students with droll anecdotes from his family life and his rela onships with his faith, friends and peers. The star of the show was un-

doubtedly Ahmed Ahmed, an interna- onally syndicated comedian who had

the 500-student audience doubled over in laughter for the en rety of his rou ne. Ahmed, a Muslim, spoke o en of his fa-ther, who moved their family from Egypt to Riverside when Ahmed was only a boy. The comedian recalled asking his father why he had chosen to se le down in Riv-erside– his reply: that he wanted to go somewhere that reminded him of home.

The show was not only excep on-ally entertaining, but also very poignant. Though we may not all share the same tradi ons, customs or worldviews, we can always fi nd common ground in our collec- ve sense of humor. Honors students in

a endance that night not only witnessed great stand-up performance; they also watched 500 individuals of varying faiths laugh in unison for over three hours. Per-haps our diff erences are not so great a er all.

J U S T “ I N T I M E ” F O R A M O V I EA NEW HONORS SOCIAL EVENT!BY: AARON TOOP

The Social Commi ee is at it again, bringing new and excit-ing things to do here at Univer-sity Honors. The newest of these events is Honors Movie Night. At least fi een students showed up for the late night viewing of the ac on-thriller fi lm, “In Time.” The movie, which stars Jus n Tim-berlake and Amanda Seyfried, is set in a future society where no one ages past 35 and me has re-placed money as a form of curren-cy—when your me runs out, so does your life. In this society the rich can aff ord to live for countless years while the poor usually die very young.

The fi lm concludes with the main protagonist re-distribu ng me to the poor, thereby dis-

rup ng a world order that relied on the oppression of those who lacked suffi cient me. Everyone

seemed to enjoy the movie while indulging in chips, popcorn, soda and ice cream (root beer fl oats quickly became the most popular item of the night). The event last-ed from around 9:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. If you are a fan of watching interes ng movies amongst good company, consider joining us for movie nights next quarter!

DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY... LITERALLY!BY: ERIC GAMBOA

D A N C E M A R A T H O N 2 0 1 2

On Saturday, Feb. 25, UC Riverside hosted its inaugu-ral Dance Marathon in support of the Guardian Scholar’s program. Members of the community donated a total of $14,734.14 for the charitable cause (exceeding the ini al $10,000 goal), which helps soon-to-be emanci-pated foster youth achieve their college aspira ons. Teams Honors made its presence felt with the involve-ment of numerous Honors students and staff who came together for six hours of nonstop dancing. “Dance Mara-thon was for a good cause and I am glad to be a part of this fi rst-ever philanthropic event!” exclaimed Honors student Claire Cuenca, who a ended the event as part of Team Golden Key. The DJ’s kept dancers on their feet with music ranging from Michael Jackson’s greatest hits to a Zumba workout. Even in the midst of over one hun-dred dancers, Honors students—especially Jason Elder and Chris Hughes—stood out with their “special” dance moves (a sight that everyone ought to witness).

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The event, which took place at the Student Recre-a onal Center, set aside space for fun games and ac- vi es that gave par cipants the chance to win raffl e ckets—prizes included an Apple TV console, In-N-Out

gi cards and t-shirts. Keeping a feather airborne for 60 seconds, trying to fl ip a cup to land on top of a water bot-tle and balancing balloons were among the most popu-lar games of the night. When a endees were not busy dancing or playing games, they could also watch perfor-mances by UC Riverside’s 909 Dance Troup, Taiko band (Japanese drums) and the Not So Sharp Acapella group.

With the great success of Dance Marathon 2012, it is no surprise that event organizers are already planning ahead for next year. With the epic combina on of danc-ing and suppor ng a deserving organiza on, we can be sure to expect an even bigger turnout for years to come.

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Honors student Victo-ria Senechal has recently earned admittance into the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Exception-al Research Opportunities

Program (HHMI EXROP). The program, which allows undergraduates students to spend their summer at a participating university, is intended to promote un-dergraduate involvement in research experiences. Senechal selected Dr. Rich-ard Huganir’s lab at Johns Hopkins University as her primary choice due to Dr. Huganir’s research that fo-cuses on molecular mecha-nisms in the brain–a topic which Senechal is currently researching at UC Riverside. “I am passionate about all opportunities that aim to advance knowledge, devel-op new treatments for dis-eases, and pushing back the boundaries of the unknown. My goal is to utilize modern methodologies to study

biological mechanisms to discover new treatments for diseases that still elude scientists,” stated Senechal, who wishes to pursue a dual M.D./Ph.D. degree upon completion of her bachelor’s degree in neu-roscience. “I see this expe-rience as one that will help me in my aspirations to be a leader in my community as a servant-leader who serves first then aspires to lead.”

Senechal’s admit-tance into the competitive program comes as no sur-prise to those who are aware of her highly impressive achievements. Senechal’s involvement with the cam-pus and local community include leadership positions with the California Alliance for Minority Participation,

CNAS Science Circle, Health Professions Advising Center, Student-run Health Clinic and University Honors. “At UCR I had the opportunity to do many remarkable things during my under-graduate studies including discover a new species of fish, compete at statewide symposiums, and present my research at several sym-posia and conferences,” stated Senechal in an inter-view with the Honors Out-look. Senechal’s summer plans remind us of the ex-ceptional talents and dedi-cation that define Honors students. The Honors com-munity is certain that Ms. Senechal with thrive during her summer program and we all wish her the best in her studies.

H O N O R S P R O F I L E SAN INTERVIEW WITH VICTORIA SENECHALBY: ERIC GAMBOA

With the advent of HNGP 150 and the drive for crea ve ac vity in Hon-ors, it’s not uncommon to see third or fourth-year Honors students involved in research or working on their theses. However, not everyone waits un l their junior year to start par cipa ng in re-search; second year physics major Da-vid Tran always knew he wanted to be involved in research so he began work-ing in Dr. Chun Ning Lau’s lab to study nanodevices. Tran’s research topics ini ally focused on micromechanical exfolia on and later switched to Ra-man Spectroscopy. Tran has con nued to progress further in his research and was even involved in the Dean’s Sum-mer Research Program, where he not only received a generous s pend but was also able to work with fellow stu-dent researchers and scien sts.

One of the main mo va ons be-hind Tran’s passion for research lies in the fact that he wants to become a professor–specifi cally, with a research emphasis on experimental condensed ma er physics.. “One of my goals is to push the limits of what we know of the universe,” stated Tran in an interview with the Honors Outlook. Tran also noted that he valued the teaching as-pect in sharing his knowledge and pas-sion with others.

Outside of being an Honors Peer Mentor and doing research, he also devotes a lot of personal me to mar- al arts (4 hours a week on Aikido) and

learning how to cook. Tran hopes to con nue with his research endeavors and has his sights set on Caltech’s Sum-mer Undergraduate Research Fellow-ship (SURF) program this summer.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID TRAN AKA TRAN‐OSAURUS REXBY: SCOTT MANIFOLD

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Last issue, we asked readers to provide a cap on for this picture!

C T S Q&A

entries voted on by the MCC

As most of you know, University Honors (UH) is now a four year program. The majority of Honors students join the program in the 1st year, but there are some limited opportunities to join in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year for those students looking to be chal-lenged and to distinguish their academic record. Applications are now OPEN at honors.ucr.edu/admissions for current UCR stu-dents who will be going into their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year to join UH. If you know any students who would be interested in apply-ing, please refer them to our website. Deadline is Friday April 13, 2012.

Minimum admission and eligibility requirements:• 3.50 CUM GPA• Demonstrated leadership • Interest in undergraduate research, scholarly work, or

creative activity

Program information for each year:• 2nd year students will participate in a civic engagement

curriculum and learn the steps to create and implement change in the community and on campus. Students will also be required to enroll in Honors seminars and/or sections. (3rd and 4th year requirements to be completed in successive years as well)

• 3rd year students will examine research methodology across the disciplines and begin your Senior Thesis project re-search. (4th year requirements to be completed in successive year as well)

• 4th year students must have a strong foundation of re-search, scholarly work or creative activity that will result in the completion of a Senior Thesis.

Good luck to everyone on their finals! As you head into Spring Break, please encourage fellow students to join our UH Comunity!

U H A P P L I C A T I O N S