Category: Uncategorized

Check out this volunteer opportunity from fellow UHPer Clara Mucci! Have volunteer opportunities of your own that you’d like to share with the UHP public? Click here to submit a post of your own!

Hi there! Are you a fan of museums, children, or volunteering? If yes, you’re in luck! Come get a sneak peek of the new National Children’s Museum by volunteering at our holiday Family Celebration on December 14th. Perks include free pizza, free museum swag, and a chance to play in super cool children’s exhibits! Details: Volunteers needed on December 14th from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm Morning shift is 11:30-2:30, afternoon shift is 1:45-4:30 Please email events@nationalchildrensmuseum.org if you’re interested!

A Sophomore student enters Gelman library. She’s looking for a place to sit comfortably and lay out her study materials. Floor 2? The computers are taken, the couches are taken, the study rooms are taken. She ascends the stairs to Floor 3 – no luck there either. After spending a half hour searching for a place to study, finally, a study room is open. She settles in, grateful to have finally found a place to study…only to be kicked out 10 minutes later.

Have you ever experienced this? I certainly did when I was a student here. But there is a solution, dear UHPers! The Honors Townhouse!

From 9am – 5pm on Mondays through Fridays, you can come in to the townhouse at 714 21st St NW and make use of our space! It has a lot of components though – so pay careful attention.

Part 1: The Club Room

The Club Room is the communal hub of the townhouse. It’s our most popular study space and where most of our events take place. It’s a great place to study, eat lunch, and just generally hang out. It’s also an excellent “home base” on Foggy Bottom for you Vern-folk! In the words of Trey (SEAS ’20), “When I was a first-year…it was kind of my ‘home away from home.’ And now, again, that I live off campus, it’s true again.”

Part 2: The Kitchen

It is in the kitchen that the true perks of being in the Honors Program come to fruition. If you don’t already know, there is a Keurig machine with tea, coffee, and other delightful drinks to which all UHP students have free and unlimited access! [Edit from 2021: we used to have a water cooler in there as well, but we’ll be getting a new one soon].  The only requirement? Bring your own mug/water bottle. You can always fill up the mug and then sit around and study in the Club Room or basement!

Part 3: The Basement

Not everyone knows about the basement. It’s a unique sort of place. It’s very rare that we have events down there, so it’s almost always open when the townhouse is. It’s usually quiet, secluded, *and* it’s got two whiteboards with an avalanche of markers! Right now, the basement is empty. Fill it with your presence, dear UHPers! In order to access the basement, go down the stairs across from the kitchen, and go to the right!

Part 4: The Front Office

And finally we come to my domain: the front office. The front office isn’t fundamentally a communal space like the Club Room or the Basement, but you’ll often run into faculty, other students, and of course myself here. Feel free to drop by anytime to say hello – I love meeting new students!

Quite often though, the relevancy of this office is the free food! Pro tip: we announce when we have free food on Instagram, so follow us below!

Part 5: The Thoughts of the Community

And finally, for the thoughts of others within our UHP community:

“My favorite part about the townhouse is…besides the free Keurig drinks, it’s a welcoming and warm place to study and have good discussions, to see people from class that you wouldn’t otherwise hang out with.” – Anna Peacher-Ryan, CCAS ’20

“Coffee, food, a place to study. What more could you need?” – Bridget Carl, GWSPH/CCAS ’21

“I love the townhouse, it’s the place where everyone knows your name. I thoroughly enjoy the free coffee, and recently I’ve been also really enjoying the sparkling water. As a former La Croix addict, I really enjoy the sparkling aspect.” – Jason Rucker, SMPA ’22 [Edit from 2021: Again, this comes from an era when we had a water cooler. I promise, we’re getting a new one soon!]

“I love the water and snacks.” – Marshall Deng, CCAS ’21

“[The townhouse is] a locus of intellectual activity on this campus…I spend oodles of time here throughout my week. It’s a very productive place, both intellectually and in terms of my…work.” – Jared Bulla, CCAS ’20

Tereese Smith, UHP alumna and current 2nd-year Presidential Fellow, discusses the Presidential Fellowship and how she has gotten the most from her time at GW!

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Hi UHPers! Similar to many students at GW and the typical “honors kids,” prior to and throughout my time at GW, I constantly searched for ways to get the most from my GW experience. This desire for more, drove my decision to apply to GW, the University Honors Program, and in my senior year, the GW Presidential Fellowship.
After my time studying abroad, I wanted to ensure I was prepared to enter development work, so, I decided I wanted to pursue a master’s degree after I finished undergrad. As I was researching various programs and funding options, I found the GW Presidential Fellowship. I attended an information session and realized it was an amazing opportunity to not only get my graduate degree, but to be a part of a program that is invested in the fellows, both personally and professionally.
The Presidential Fellowship, established in 1989, is a highly selective program, providing graduating seniors the opportunity to pursue a fully-funded master’s degree full-time at GW. Presidential Fellows also work in a GW office as a staff member and provide the student perspective while contributing to substantive work in the office. Through its pillars of ambassadorship, professional development, and academics, the Presidential Fellowship is able to provide the Presidential Fellows with a unique opportunity to not only pursue a master’s degree, but to interact with senior GW leadership to share ideas. Further, the program provides a supportive group of people, in both the advising team and the other fellows, to work towards a graduate degree and prepare for post-graduate life.
I am a second-year fellow, pursuing my Masters in Public Policy with a focus in International Development while also obtaining my Nonprofit Management Certificate through the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration (the HIGHEST ranked Public Policy/Administration program in the DMV). Through the fellowship, I am placed in the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service and am a Coordinator for Database Management and Outreach. In the Nashman Center, I have gained experience in multi-stakeholder engagement, database management, data analysis, and have been able to hone skills I am learning in my academic program.
As a Presidential Fellow, I have been able to not only pursue my graduate degree but also really work to develop both hard and soft skills that will make me an even better development professional. Moreover, I have been able to reflect critically about the skills and knowledge I have gained through my time here. With a vast alumni network of over 150 alumni, the program ensures time at GW and beyond is meaningful. For more information about the fellowship and the application, go to paf.gwu.edu. The application closes at 11:59pm on October 15. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or want to know more about the fellowship, tereese_smith@gwmail.gwu.edu. Hopefully, a fellow UHPer will be in the 2020-2022 cohort!

“What are you passionate about?” It’s a question that has been asked all too often at college and one that I hate. I don’t have a passion. I have interests, sure. Hobbies? Maybe not; it’s not like I have a stamp collection or any extraordinary fascinations. I have a few favorite sports teams, follow a handful of comedians on Twitter, and sometimes read articles that pertain to my academic areas of interest. But none of these are all-consuming, enduring, I’m-an-expert-on-xyz-subject-matter passions.
Let me be clear. There’s nothing wrong with having a passion; some people find what they love early and take that to the end. Sometimes I wish I had a passion; because then I would know what I was destined to do and in what direction to go. It becomes problematic when you are constantly told that in order to be happy with your career, you need to work in an area you are passionate about. Or when you’re told to find your passion to find your career. It’s put a lot of pressure on me to hurry up and find my calling to pursue it wholeheartedly. But the truth is: my interests are constantly changing.
As college students, we are extremely malleable. And that’s a good thing – we open ourselves up to receive advice and the tools we need to shape ourselves into being the people we want to become. But if we’re too malleable, we are susceptible to blowing in whichever way the wind takes us. This can have consequences: wasting time on things that don’t work out, being unable to decide which direction to go in, and irreparably going down the wrong path. Some people would disagree saying that there is no wrong path or that something that feels like a mistake can actually be beneficial in the long-term. I welcome this positive outlook (I’m pretty optimistic myself), but it doesn’t ease the pressure that I feel now to figure out how I should apply myself to a career. I can analyze a research paper about mineral wealth and civil conflict on a Monday, listen to a podcast about the problems of ocean acidification on a Tuesday, read an article about data privacy policy on a Wednesday, and want to do it all. How can I make a career (or even an internship) decision when I’ve been told I must determine my passion first?
I’m passionate about whatever is in front of me. I’m passionate about getting stuff done – whether it be a research paper or a long list of chores. I’m passionate about making other people feel good. I’m passionate about feeling good myself. These “passions” cannot be fulfilled by one and only one career or discipline. Why should I be contained to only one area? Why shouldn’t I have the freedom to wear several different hats? Why is it wrong to have just a mild interest in a variety of different fields?
For those of you who do feel this way – I wish I could put your minds at easy with a quote or word of advice. The truth is I’m in search of that myself. But I can share with you that it’s okay to not have a passion. At the very least, you’re not the only one who feels overwhelmed that despite having the potential to succeed in anything you do, you simply don’t know where to start.
So please – don’t ask me what I’m passionate about. Ask me instead about the last TED Talk I watched. Unironically, here’s mine.