Bear Necessities #198 - 5/10/24

Today is the day, our Davidson Honors College medallion ceremony! 

We’ll celebrate our awesome (and largest ever!) class of 2024 University Scholars on the Oval this afternoon at 3:00 PM. Please join us for our biggest and brightest celebration of the year. 

Our finals week has been jammed with exams, grading, presentations, and more. College of Business Capstones were Monday, the Creative Writing Showcase, Tuesday. Senior Seminar students shared final reflections and take-aways, first-years, their final e-portfolios, and Love students, their passion projects (which closed with ceramic pot-smashing and fire-dancing on the Oval, courtesy of Rylin and Araya). Monday was a great time as our beloved Honors Roots Ensemble celebrated the semester’s end with a concert at Draught Works. All in all, it’s been a heck of a year!

We received exciting news that Honors Philosophy Professor and Pre-Law Program Director Soazig Lebihan received UM’s Distinguished Teaching Award, Honors German Professor Marty Marko was recognized for excellence in community engagement. Our colleague and Learning Assistant Program Director Josh Herring received the Robert T. Pantzer Presidential Humanitarian Award. Congratulations! Kudos also goes to the dozens of honors students who were recognized as the Outstanding Seniors of their respective academic programs. See the full list here https://www.umt.edu/provost/events/posa-2024.php. Notably, University Scholars McKenna Johnson (Journalism and French), and Kolter Stevenson (Finance and Russian) were tapped for both of their majors. We are so proud of all of our graduates! 

As we turn the page to summer, the pace around the DHC shifts into a more thoughtful, planful mode, but we’ll remain plenty busy with projects ranging from our Schwanke Summer Honors Institute, building honors pathways for students across a range of academic interests, program assessment, fund- and friend-raising, and our first-ever summer on-line offering of Ways of Knowing. The Bear Necessities will come out less frequently, too as we embrace the joys of another beautiful Montana summer.

This morning’s hike up the back side of Waterworks featured stunning views of Trapper Peak, Blue Mountain, Mt. Sentinel, Mt. Jumbo, and Ch-paa-qn Peak. The balsam root and lupine were in full glory and the meadowlarks sang us a sunrise song while mountain bluebirds perched on fenceposts. It was an amazing start to our day of celebration. Here is  John O’Donohue’s For Celebration: 

Now is the time to free the heart,

Let all intention and worries stop,

Feel the joy inside the self,

Awaken to the wonder of your life.

Open your eyes to see the friends

Whose hearts recognize your face as kin,

Those whose kindness, watchful and near, 

Encourages you to live everything here.

See the gifts the years have given,

Things your effort could never earn, 

The health to enjoy who you want to be

And the mind to mirror mystery.

Awaken to the wonder of your lives, DHC! Congratulations University Scholars, and thanks to everyone for an awesome year!