(DOWNLOAD) "Honors: When Value-Added Is Really Added Value (Forum on "What Is Honors?")" by Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Honors: When Value-Added Is Really Added Value (Forum on "What Is Honors?")
- Author : Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council
- Release Date : January 22, 2005
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 189 KB
Description
Sometimes I look at the responsibilities and demands placed on me in my current position and cannot believe I haven't cracked up yet. In this era of accountability and "show me the data," institutional assessment directors like me are constantly bombarded with challenges that require quick, critical, divergent thinking, analytical reasoning, effective speaking, and, to some extent, creative writing. As both a professor and administrator at a state university, I live and breathe producing evidence that we as an institution are having an impact on student learning. When I was growing up, I never imagined I would end up being an assessment guru or an accreditation expert; however, I did feel in my bones that I was going to do something big and make a difference in this nation. There was a period in my life when I lost sight of that calling to be passionate and charged up in an effort to support the greater good. I was very close to taking a different path. What changed my course and bolstered my knowledge and skills to a level that surprised me--and surprised everyone who knew me prior to my higher education adventure--had to do with a little house that sits in the middle of Portland, Maine. The Honors House. In 1992, I was a professional waitress. I was actually quite good. I had the natural Maine charm and hard work ethic that allowed me to care for my one-year-old, work fifty-five hours a week taking customer orders, and still smile at the end of a day with quarters in my pocket. My husband was a custodian with dreams of becoming a famous musician, some day casting aside the mop and Borax for a twelve-string and recording studio. Unfortunately, the economy for Maine was not stable and there were cutbacks and significant loss of hours. We had no insurance. We could barely afford rent. We depended on recycling cans and bottles to put fuel in our vehicle, which resembled something out of The Flintstones. At one point, I had to go to the local food pantry in shame when my bank notified me I was below the zero balance. I was happy to have bread and Velveeta. I remember being so cold that winter, unsure if the chill was from the Maine wind coming in through the thin walls, circulating around our ankles, or from the fright that came with the knowledge of a new baby on the way. I also remember vividly the time I sat in the kitchen, staring down gravely at two applications: one for the University of Southern Maine and one for welfare. It was humbling indeed. I was not college material. I had been told that several times or had heard often enough that "she would be so smart if she just applied herself." I was going for that latter comment, and did "apply myself" that very night.
 "Honors: When Value-Added Is Really Added Value (Forum on "What Is Honors?")" by Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}