Gettin' Social with Honors
Zombie Apocalypse Comes to Terry Hall
“The world has been decimated by a zombie apocalypse, and YOU have been charged with rebuilding our society.”
So began the year for residents of the Honors Living Learning Community in Terry Hall. This year’s welcome event, held September 29, was a dynamic, interactive program in which residents formed teams to collectively rebuild a vital piece of infrastructure following a fictional zombie apocalypse.
On arrival students first completed a handout helping them to articulate their individual strengths, skills, and interests. They were then placed in small teams, and each team was tasked with brainstorming a comprehensive and creative plan to rebuild a specific aspect of society (food & water, shelter & protection, or health & sanitation) using each member’s strengths and skills.
Faculty and staff judges roamed the crowd and ultimately selected a winning proposal in each of the three categories, which were then shared with the audience at large. The winning groups showed creativity, collaboration, and a thoughtful, comprehensive approach to the problem at hand -- and solidified the fact that, should the apocalypse happen, the Honors community is a good place to be!
Laughs and zombies aside, the afternoon provided students the chance to explore their individual strengths and ways to incorporate those strengths into a team. The scenario also allowed for fun and creative conceptualization of interdisciplinary thinking in action -- after all, it will take all of us to rebuild the world!
Down by the Bay
On August 1, nearly 150 UW alumni, staff, students, incoming freshmen, and their families converged on a sumptuous buffet, an open bar, and the pleasure of reunion at the annual UW San Francisco Salmon BBQ.
Before the big event, Honors attendees met for breakfast at the house of Rick and Lynne Freeman (‘67). While Rick served up mimosas, current Honors students and alums carefully took turns responding to his question: “What would you do with $20 billion to fund solutions to a major global challenge?” Topping the list were medical research and raising global health standards; responses to climate change; creation of new jobs and training programs to empower an increasing lower- and middle-class population; and meaningful education reform. It was a lovely, spontaneous discussion that dovetails with the big Global Challenges—Interdisciplinary Answers event Honors is hosting on campus on November 3.
Meanwhile, on the sun-dappled patio, Lynne shared some of her memories of UW in the 1960s. A standout: Haggett Hall was the first “mixed” dorm during their undergraduate years, so while both Lynn and Rick lived in the same building, they could only meet in the common area before curfew at 8pm.
Contemplating the changes to UW over the years, Rick said, “Lynne and I might have had very different experiences at UW than some of the students will have now, but the things that really mattered to us, that still matter, are about access to really great people. I can talk to physicists all day, and I do. I want to talk to photographers and philosophers and learn from them things that might never occur to me in my lab.”