A group of Elizabethtown College Honors Program faculty and students attended the 59th Annual National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) National Conference from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 in Kansas City, Mo.
Five students, Ava Skye Barton ’27, Jordyn Dutko ’25, Shawn Gipe ’27, Jack Gress ’26, and Katie Stoddard ’27, and two faculty members, Director of the Honors Program Oya Dursun-Ozkanca and Director of Prestigious Scholarships and Public Heritage Studies Jean-Paul Benowitz were actively engaged by presenting research and moderating sessions at the conference, which had a theme of, “Harmonizing Heritage: Elevating Honors Education Through Culture, Capital, & Community Engagement.”
The group presented, “Honors Community Based Learning Courses: Exploring Connections Between Civically Engaged Research & City as Text,” where the students demonstrated how their experience in Etown’s honors pedagogy is preparing them to be lifelong learners, thinkers, innovators, and leaders.
“The conference was both intellectually stimulating and adventure-filled,” Barton said. “It was inspiring to hear about the research that other students my age were taking part in.”
Dutko moderated several sessions at the conference, while Benowitz served as an NCHC Wellness Ambassador, organizing a morning running group for attendees.
At the conference, the Etown Honors Programs’s electronic newsletter, “The Honors Report,” was announced as the second-place winner by the NCHC Publications Board. Dursun-Ozkanca and Benowitz accepted the honor at the awards ceremony and jointly presented, “How to Create a Winning Honors Publication.”
At the conference, the group participated in an immersive City as Text experience, exploring Kansas City. Dutko and Barton were spokespersons for their groups in a post-exploration public forum. During the experience, students and faculty were given a map and questions as they explored and were able to reflect on the experience. City as Text is integrated into many of Etown’s Honors courses.
Benowitz, who serves on the NCHC Place as Text Committee, will facilitate Harrisburg City as Text programming in the spring of 2025 when the Northeastern Regional Honors Council holds its annual conference in Harrisburg, Pa. with Elizabethtown College serving as one of the conference’s host institutions. In his role as chair of the NCHC Program Committee, Benowitz has provided direction for the NCHC to offer a Place as Text faculty institute in Lancaster in the summer of 2025 titled, “Rural Myths and Urban Legends of Pennsylvania Dutch Amish Country.”
