The Elizabethtown College Honors Program recently served as one of the local co-hosts for the Northeast Regional Honors Council Annual Conference from March 27 through 30 at the Hilton Harrisburg. The theme of this year’s conference was, “Civic Engagement at the Crossroads.”

“The NRHC conference was fantastic,” Individualized Major Ava Barton ’27 said. “The energy was high, and the presentations were varied while still being connected at the crossroads! I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from other honors students from various institutions but what I found most impactful was the deeper insights I gained into the research of my peers at Elizabethtown College.”

The three-day conference featured multiple activities led by the Etown delegation, headed by Elizabethtown College Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Political Science and Endowed Chair of International Studies, Dr. Oya Ozkanca and Elizabethtown College Director of Prestigious Scholarships and Public Heritage Studies, Jean-Paul Benowitz.

Day 1: Experiential Learning Through City as Text and “Publishing in Honors” Panel

On the first day of the conference, students and faculty engaged with the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (NCHC) City as Text pedagogy, exploring the neighborhoods and communities located in Harrisburg.

In the afternoon, Benowitz served on a panel titled, “Publishing in Honors,” during which he spoke about his role as the editor of “(Re) Reading the World: A Festschrift Celebrating 50 Years of Place as Text and the Legacy of Bernice Braid.” The work is a monograph about the City as Text pedagogy.

Benowitz also spoke about his work serving on the NCHC Place as Text Committee, chairing the NCHC Non-Conference Programming Committee, and his work on the NCHC Nationally Competitive Awards Committee.

Day 2: Student Research Roundtables

On the second day of the conference, Ozcanca and Benowitz moderated a roundtable discussion led by Barton and Legal Studies major Shawn Gipe ’27. The roundtable, called “Elizabethtown College’s Quasquicentennial (1899-2024), Place as Text, and an ArcGIS Story Map Civically Engaging a College at the Crossroads,” was based on the students’ 2024 Summer Creative Arts and Research Program (SCARP) project.

Hudson Peck ’25 , an Engineering major and Architectural Studies minor and Jordyn Dutko ’26, a History and Political Science double major and International Studies and Public Heritage Studies double minor gave a joint presentation called, “Pennsylvania Historic District Act of 1961: Civic Engagement at the Crossroads: Honors Theses About Civically Engaged Scholarship and City as Text™ in the National Historic District of Marietta, Pennsylvania.” The project was based on their honors senior thesis projects.

Barton, Durko, Gipe, Peck, Chemistry Major and International Studies Minor David Bray ’28, Early Childhood Education Major Natalie Frohnhoefer ’28, and Legal Studies Major Kalen Tendo ’26 gave a roundtable discussion moderated by Ozkanca and Benowitz titled, “The Politics of Historic Preservation in Lancaster County: The Crossroads of Experiential Learning, Discursive Teaching, Recursive Writing, and Producing Scholarship Contributing to Civic Engagement.” The project was based on the students’ in-class experiences.

Day 3: Poster Presentations and Awards Ceremony

The final day of the conference began with a poster presentation by Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Major and Fine Art Minor Samantha Small ’26 titled, “Effect of Temperature and Sulfuric Acid Concentration on Pattern Formation in BZ Chemical Reaction Systems,” and Tendo gave a poster presentation titled, “The Existential Existence of Diversity in Elizabethtown College.”

At the awards ceremony, Dutko received the NRHC 2025 Student of the Year Award and Ozkanca received the NRHC 2025 Honors Professional of the Year Administrator Award.