Weekly (sort of) Newsletter

Tuesday, August 26th

Welcome back, everyone! This simple, bare-bones newsletter is designed to provide you with information about events, opportunities, student org happenings, and features about your peers. (Check out the Student Spotlights if you haven't already--we love to brag about you!) If you have something you'd like me to share in the newsletter, please contact me: athomas2@austincc.edu. 

For general questions about the Honors Program, including registration, please contact honors@austincc.edu. Our support staff members Professor Melissa Foote and Professor Marcel Pons Ventura are eager to help. 

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Bat Chats x Honors Program (Get a Leadership Credit)

After Zoila Walston's successful Bat Chat in Spring 2025, Student Life has once again invited eligible Honors students (must have taken or be enrolled in one Honors class) to create an Honors edition of Bat Chats. These are a lot like TED Talks, and students who participate will fulfill the leadership requirement for the Honors Scholar tier. You can form a panel with other Honors students (perhaps specific to material from a particular Honors course you've taken), or else you can conduct a solo chat. Zoila's chat was titled "Ambition without Exhaustion: Balance vs. Rhythm," a discussion that both challenged the myth of "balance" and--drawing upon Zoila's experience as a musician--proposed a new way to think about achieving our ambitions through a consideration of rhythm.

Here is the link for the application, which is due September 28th.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Past Bat Chats Titles & Descriptions

• Sample Bat Chat Topics

• Honors Program Topics for the Application:

  • Topics on subject matters they are discussing in their Honors classes

  • Discussing why they became an Honors student and how it has impacted their ACC career

  • Panel of Honors Program students discussing the program 

• BATCHATxHonors Program will be held on Thursday, November 13th at the Highland Campus Make-it-Center. Once the host is selected, they will pick a two hour timeframe between 12-4pm to hold their presentation.

When completing the form, make sure to select the “Honors Program” option to ensure your application is associated with our program.

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Honors Program Scholarship Is Open: Deadline 11/1

The ACC Honors Program Scholarship is open, and applications are due by November 1st. This scholarship is awarded in the spring only, and we will award at least 5 scholarships of $1000 each. 

In order to be eligible for the scholarship, you must 1) have taken or be currently taking at least one Honors course, 2) declared your intention to become an Honors Scholar with honors@austincc.edu (just email us and say you'd like to become one), and 3) have at least a 3.5 GPA. That does not mean that you must have fulfilled all of the Honors Scholar requirements at the time of application; you just need to be heading in that direction. (The idea is that the scholarship money can help you to complete your remaining requirements by paying for additional courses.) Students who have already received a $2500 ACC Foundation Open Scholarship for 2025-2026 are not eligible to apply, unfortunately.

What is the purpose of the Honors Scholar tier? We wanted to provide students with an "Honors portfolio," of sorts, which will make them even more competitive transfer/job applicants. Right now, everyone who takes an Honors course has that course designated as Honors on their transcript, but if you become an Honors Scholar, you'll receive what is known as an endorsement on your transcript (basically a fancy stamp that signifies completion of a special initiative/program of study). You will also receive a digital badge that you can use for LinkedIn, transfer applications, etc. The endorsement demonstrates a level of rigor and involvement that university admissions committees tend to find very attractive--especially when paired with an application essay that highlights your leadership and service activities as an Honors Scholar. Also, admissions offices are familiar with this kind of tier; Honors Scholars are common at many community colleges and universities.

Here is where you'll go to fill out the general application--make sure you check the box that asks if you are in the Honors Program--and here is the scholarship itself. You will not be competing with the entire ACC population; you'll be competing with Honors students who have registered their intention to become Honors Scholars only. (That's a relatively small pool! Seriously, we only had 18 eligible applicants last year!) The applications will be reviewed by a committee composed of Honors faculty and the HSO advisor. To register your intention to become an Honors Scholar, please contact honors@austincc.edu. You'll receive instructions about how to proceed.

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Paid Research Opportunity for SBS and Education Majors: Deadline 8/31

Texas State University has received funding from the National Science Foundation to provide paid opportunities for students to participate in undergraduate research in Human Development and Family Sciences (OUR HDFS). From Texas State: 

We are now recruiting students for the 2025-2026 academic year, with applications due August 31st. The OUR HDFS fellowship will provide visiting students a financial stipend ($5,625 plus meals and travel reimbursement) as well as support and guidance for engaging in research and learning about graduate school. Eligible students should be majoring in HDFS or related fields (e.g., psychology, education, sociology), can travel to Texas State University campus on Fridays throughout the academic year, and have a GPA of 3.0 or above. More information about the program can be found on the OUR HDFS Website.

For the 2024-2025 academic year, we had five Honors Program students participate in this program: Psychology majors Coral Brundige, Isabel Castillo-Rosatti, Renita Edward, Malka Negret, and Morgan Gaither. ACC profiled Morgan in a news item.  

If you apply for this position and are accepted, please let me know: athomas2@austincc.edu 

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NEW Honors Courses in Spring '26

• ARTS 1403, Art History I, "Loot! Stolen Masterpieces in Ancient Art History" (Kristina Elizondo, HLC/Hybrid) 

• SAPN 1412, Spanish II: "Ritmos del Caribe: The Music, Slang and Culture of the Caribbean" (Marcel Pons Ventura, HLC)

• BIOL 1406, Cellular & Molecular Biology: "SEA-PHAGES Genome Annotation" (Kisaaou Tchedre, EVC)

We also have plans to add A&P II (BIOL 2402) at EVC and RRC. This schedule is not yet finalized because it does not include all of the additions, but it's helpful nonetheless.

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Are You in NCAS or NASA L'SPACE?

If you recently finished a summer mission through NCAS or NASA L'SPACE, please send me your completion paperwork (attachment/screenshot) and we'll get you added to the student spotlights. 

ACC alum Julie Strickland, who designs space suits for NASA, will be attending the ACC Alumni Achievement Awards on September 11th and will be available to meet with Honors Program students, likely on the 12th! I'll provide details as I have them, but in the meantime, here is a short video about Julie. 

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UT LBJ Public Service Weekend

If you were on our social media platforms during the summer (IG; LinkedIn), you would have seen our Public Service Weekend Scholars featured: Aimee Bozoudes, Raghad Alhussein, Jonathan ("Jonny") Burke, Tianna ("T") Allen, Meggie Huggins, and Paulina Mendoza. Over the course of three days (July 18-20) at the UT LBJ School of Public Affairs, these six students explored public service careers, learning about topics in the field of public policy through academic research and policy training. Out of 50 students chosen nationwide to participate, ours were the only community college students...and they rocked! Meggie Huggins won an award for participation, Paulina Medoza's team won the Best Overall Proposal award for their project on criminal justice, and Jonny conducted a round of LBJ-focused trivia. 

Check out Aimee's newsroom piece on her experiences here. We will be sending six more students next summer, and--as we did last fall--we will likely be co-hosting a policy immersion day with the LBJ School. We'll keep you posted.  

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Summer Scholars Program at the Chautauqua Institution

Students Parker Garcia (left), Mia Mesta, and Natalie Jimenez (right, last two on the bottom row) spent an all-expenses-paid week in July in upstate New York at the Chautauqua Institution as part of the Summer Scholars Program. You can read ACC's feature on Parker here

Parker notes, "My time as a Chautauqua Summer Scholar was truly life changing. I went into the program not fully knowing what to expect, but left with a renewed sense of purpose, new knowledge, lasting friendships, and meaningful connections. It was a full week of feeding the mind, body (lots of walking!), and soul. I had the chance to engage with professionals thriving in the exact career I hope to pursue, and I attended powerful cultural dialogues and performances. Coming back, I feel more confident in my ability to network and continue growing my social capital. The experiences I had at Chautauqua will always hold a special place in my heart and I can’t wait to go back."

Since  2022, the Honors Program has sent 13 students to this program, an experience that has shaped their lives--and influenced their transfer journeys--well beyond the one week of enrichment in July.   

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 First Gen Fellowship

Are you a full-time first generation college student experiencing financial hardship? Consider applying for the First Gen Fellowship, which awards $1000 grants directly to students. Applications open on August 15th.   

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