Blount Undergraduate Initiative Celebrates 15 Years

To coincide with Blount’s 15-year anniversary, the College of Arts and Sciences will host a day of activities for all former and current Blount scholars in Oliver-Bernard Hall on Nov. 1. Any current or former students who signed Blount’s “Book of Scholars” as freshmen are invited, as well as any faculty or administrators linked to the program throughout its history.

“It’s going to be interesting,” said Dr. Joseph Hornsby, director of the program. “We’ve set up the program so that every student has the same foundations course- Socrates, St. Augustine, Freud- but from there students take courses in all kinds of disciplines. It’ll be interesting to see students able to connect on that level with people from the program they’ve really never even met.”

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., there will be an informal open house in O.B. for participants to mingle and discuss the program, as well as showcase the program to prospective students. A cocktail reception will be held for participants only at 6 p.m.

“I recently taught a first-year student seminar that was structured much like the classes I once took as a student in Blount. It was exciting to see students encounter challenging texts, ideas, and arguments for the first time, and it really drove home for me the value of my own experience in Blount all the more,” said Blount alumna Sara Watkins. “Many of the skills I first began building in Blount — critical reading, developing and articulating an argument both verbally and in writing, reading and responding to the ideas of others — are the very things I do on a day to day basis in my career. These are also the very same skills I strive to help students cultivate in my classes.”

For more information, visit the Blount-Undergraduate Initiative website.