The Honor Roll
Honors Program allows students to pursue diversity of interests
This article was originally published in the April 1999 issue of CLASnotes.
The Honors Program, Directed by Sheila Dickison (Classics) offers a select group of first and second-year students a variety of academic and social opportunities, from small classes to special housing. Honors professors, chosen for their expertise in and enthusiasm for their subjects, teach honors sections of regular courses as well as special courses designed specifically for the Honors Program.
The Honors Program also offers advising for its students and provides a daily List Serv to keep students apprised of academic opportunities on and off campus. UF honors students can be found in leadership positions all over campus and as winners of prestigious awards such as the Anderson Scholar award. Additionally, they are very successful in their applications to the most competitive medical and law schools.
Jim
Brady (right) is a renaissance student whose intellectual pursuits span
the reaches of CLAS. He's a linguistics major, a physics minor, and after
diving into an intensive immersion program in French last summer, he's enrolled
in second year French courses, to boot.
How did this Orlando honor student cultivate so many academic interests? He's insatiably curious—a natural for interdisciplinary studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "I knew all along that I wanted to study physics in college," explains Brady of his choice to pursue a science. But during a high school summer program at Harvard, he studied linguistics for the first time and was "blown away." Brady explains: "The course was called Historical Linguistics, and the teacher was amazing. He'd say things like 'conscious thought is just us talking to ourselves,' that I'd think about for hours after class. Linguistics is fascinating because it's an approach to psychology and getting a look at the mind that's very scientific and well-supported with evidence."
Last summer Brady's curiosity led him to enroll in the French immersion program at Middlebury. Without the slightest background in French, he found the first month quite difficult, but during the fifth week Brady had a breakthrough. "While walking home I saw a tree and thought to myself 'that's a nice tree' in French. It was incredible—after five weeks of struggling, all of a sudden I could understand and could talk to people. I began coming up with the words immediately instead of mentally translating everything."
"It's hard trying to keep up with all these diverse subjects," Brady admits. "When I learn a French rule, for example, it doesn't help me with a physics rule—they don't complement each other at all. But I've learned how to study in a variety of ways since each discipline is so different, and I'm learning how to organize my time and plan ahead to set priorities." He's obviously learned these lessons well, as he's maintained a 3.95 despite taking up to 17 hours a semester.
Brady feels his CLAS education will also help him in the business world. "I figure my CLAS degree will be great on my resume. If I apply for a science or technology job my languages will help, but my physics background will be an advantage, too."
Jim Brady's future is wide open—just the way he likes it. In the short term, he says, "I'd like to study other languages and take my junior year abroad. While abroad I hope to have the time to try more new things like art and writing." And his long term goals? "I'm giving myself 10 years not to worry about a specific career—to explore, learn and enjoy becoming the person I want to be. Eventually, I'd really like to get into education, and I'd like to teach or establish a school because I think many people underestimate kids' ability to learn."
