Honors Community Events

"We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community."

- Dorothy Day

UW Honors hosts and sponsors events, outings, and workshops each year to foster a joyfully inclusive culture of lifelong learning. Students, faculty, alumni, staff, and friends from beyond the University get together to think big, explore the city, and make memories and relationships that last for life.

We are grateful to Friends of Honors, whose financial gifts support these events, fostering innovative opportunities to connect through Honors.

Thanks, Friends!!

Upcoming Events

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Honors Open House during DAWG DAZE 

Sunday, Sep 24, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Mary Gates Hall 211 - The Honors Program Suite

This family-friendly annual event welcomes new Interdisciplinary Honors students into the community. Incoming students stop by for fun chats, delicious snacks, and chances to connect with faculty, staff, and Honors Peer Mentors.

Incoming students and other special guests are invited to this event via email in late August. 

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Your Husky Experiences — Student Portfolio Celebrations

Mary Gates Hall 211

Student Portfolio Celebrations

Winter & Spring Quarters - Dates TBA

Witness tales of discovery, fascinating research, and sometimes heartbreak as Interdisciplinary Honors students reflect on the experiences and connections that tell their unique individual stories. Guests include current students, family members, faculty, alumni and staff of UAA. 

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Past Events

Summer, 2017

Honors Alumni Beer Bash (Seattle)

Casual party bringing together Honors alumni in the Seattle area. Fascinating people from all kinds of industries! $1 beers and tacos! Special thanks to Brian Reyes for capturing the moment in 360-degree splendor!

2016-2017 Academic Year

Spring Session of Pizza and Portfolios!

Students came together to reflect and capture some of the best and worst memories from this year in Honors Portfolios - bolstered by the company of friends (and the eating of pizzas). 

Honors Hearth with Alumni All-Stars

Current and prospective students sidled up for cozy chats with recent graduates who shared what they've learned so far during life after college. 

See more details about alumni event hosts here

Honors Culture Club: Friday Nights/Spring Series

 Only $5-10 per student ticket!!

"The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation."                           -Stella Adler

Seeing live theater is a shared experience that we all know enriches our lives, but the (sometimes pricey) social adventure isn't always easy to prioritize. That's why the Honors Program and Honors LLC co-subsidize student tickets (at 70% discount!) in groups of 10 on a handful of plays throughout the schoolyear. 

Dry Powder - April 7, Seattle Rep

Chitrangada - May 12, ACT

Info Session: Is Pre-Med the Path for You? 

Free drop-in info session for Honors students considering or committed to a pre-med track. Open to all UW students.

Honors Hearth with Clare Bright and Marisol Berrios-Miranda

Beloved Honors faculty Clare Bright (GWSS) and Marisol Berrios-Miranda (Ethnomusicology) met with students, alumni, and other faculty around a cozy imaginary fireplace to talk about family, activism, politics, finding your voice, having fun, and recognizing what is possible from life. At the end of the evening we got up and danced!

Imagine Honors Advisory Board Member Bud Saxberg as a cozy fireplace and you'll get the idea (Marisol and Clare at a previous Hearth)

Global Challenges—Interdisciplinary Answers on Climate Change

UW Honors students join top faculty as interdisciplinary collaborators who address complex problems (like health access for those in poverty, or climate change) in our ongoing series: Global Challenges — Interdisciplinary Answers. This event featured three experts in (seemingly) unrelated subjects in conversation led by student concerns on our suffering ecosystems and the implications for all those who depend on things like air, food, and water to survive.

About the series

Breakfast of Champions with alumnus Neal Dempsey

Distinguished alumnus Neal Dempsey encouraged Honors students to foster an endurance mindset, get comfortable with failure and do good things for the world! Dempsey shared stories of resilience and fielded questions at a small breakfast for Honors student Peer Educators and other community-building volunteers. 

November 19 - Mr. Dempsey expresses shock when Honors students tell him they are already majoring in what they love. 

Honors Culture Club: Friday Nights/Fall Series

Honors students get subsidized tickets to soak up Seattle's rich arts culture amongst new friends!

Friday, Oct 14: Raisin in the Sun 

Friday, Nov 4: Roz and Ray

Friday, Dec 2: VietGone

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2015-2016 Academic Year

"I Cry Out" Reclaiming Identities Behind Bars

Student-led RSO Huskies for Opportunities in Prison Education (HOPE) developed this public art exhibit to help our community better understand and connect with prisoners. It can be difficult to advocate for and support a population when they seem so distant from our lives and our world. The poems, letters, and visual art created by the prisoners for this exhibit show us the humanity and spirit for renewal in each incarcerated person. These voices allow us to gain insight into what life is like behind bars and how it is altered when access to education is available.

Visitors were invited to write a letter of response to prisoners while sitting in the prison cell simulation. 

Honors Hearth with Theo Myhre and Ursula Valdez

In this series, two popular UW Honors professors cozy up to a “crackling fire” and chat about the audience has asked them to discuss. This joyful, casual event brings together great teachers from different disciplines (and campuses) in conversation with students, alumni, faculty and others in our community.

In the Hot Seat last time: Honors Excellence in Teaching Award (HETA) winner, Theo Myhre(Law) chats with Interdisciplinary Field-Studies pioneer Ursula Valdez (Bothell Interdisciplinary/Conservation Biology).

He Named Me Malala: Pizza and a Movie with Honors

Students applying to the UW Honors Interdisciplinary Program for 2015 admission overwhelmingly chose human-rights activist Malala Yousafzai as the most inspiring public figure in response to our second essay prompt (who would you invite to speak at your college commencement?).

Honors advisors and students met for pizza and headed together to a UW-community screening of the Malala Yousafzai documentary.

Student Storytelling: Reflective Portfolio Presentations and Celebration

UW Honors students, families, faculty, staff, and alumni

Quarterly in the Honors Suite: 211 Mary Gates Hall

Students, faculty, parents and friends turned out to celebrate lessons learned and questions raised by students of autumn quarter Honors 496 through their short reflective portfolio presentations. The cookies were extremely delicious, but not as amazing as the talks. 

Read more here.

Global Challenges — Interdisciplinary Answers on Health and Poverty

The Global Challenges - Interdisciplinary Answers series examines seemingly overwhelming forces through an interdisciplinary lens so that anyone might imagine themselves as agents of positive change. Our first public event in the series featured a conversation between UW innovators from three very different corners of campus exploring the interrelations between health and poverty. Our speakers were selected for their leadership in research and related public impact work: Steve Gloyd (Global Health), LaShawnDa Pittman (American Ethnic Studies), and Chandan Reddy (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies/English).

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2014-2015 Academic Year

Bay Area Honors Brunch and Huskies Salmon BBQ

Just over a dozen past and current students of UW Honors—family, friends met for a late-morning prefunc hosted by Honors Super Alumni Lynne and Rick Freeman ('67) just five miles from the 4th annual Bay Area Salmon BBQ. After breakfast the party moved down the road to eat more delicious foods and mingle with fellow Huskies from the region. 

Eat, Drink, and Think with Honors: How to write what you need to write when you need to write it

Exclusive to graduates of the UW Honors Program, this evening salon took its cues from the real-life writing problems we all face and resulted in some fun, practical writing hacks (and a few good laughs) from our Writer in Residence, Frances McCue.

Honors Spring Celebration

Our chance to raise a glass and say thanks to our outstanding Honors faculty. Fascinating conversations occurred. Poetry was read. Mint brownies and even fancier snacks were consumed. We won’t even go into the punch….

Peer Mentor Pizza Party

Peer Mentors play an important role in the Honors Program by sharing their experiences and helping students of all ages and majors make decisions throughout their undergraduate careers. Our 2014-15 mentors passed the baton (and the pepperoni) to the next group of volunteers and Honors thanked our graduating mentors the best way we know how...with free food. We had so much fun it might turn into an annual thing.

Honors Hearth with Bob Stacey & Vicky Lawson

Bob Stacey (Dean of College of Arts and Sciences) and Vicky Lawson (Director of Honors Program, professor of geography) riffed on life, the relative usefulness of Medieval History, how to conduct hard discussions, and more in our ongoing series where admired faculty and administrators sit in “the hot seat” and answer personal questions in a cozy setting with cookies!

Honors Hearth with Jon & Frances

Our very first Honors Hearth on February 5 featured beloved faculty Jon Herron (Biology) and Frances McCue (Writing) in conversation with each other, prompted by questions from others in the Honors community.

Watch the highlights video by student videographer Andrew Croneberger »