Warner brings STEM experience to Honors College

While new to the University Honors Program, Jennifer Warner is a veteran UNC Charlotte faculty member. In assuming the UHP directorship, Warner brings a STEM perspective to the program.

Warner first arrived on campus as a graduate student 20 years ago to pursue a master’s degree in biology. While a full-time faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences, Warner completed a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at UNC Greensboro.

“As a former undergraduate coordinator and vice chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, I’ve worked with Levine Scholars and many pre-professional, high-achieving students,” stated Warner. “Traditionally, the University Honors Program caters to all majors but has focused primarily on the humanities and liberal arts. My challenge is to bring my experience as a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) educator to a highly successful program and augment the curriculum.”

Originally founded in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences 31 years ago, the University Honors Program is now housed in the Honors College. It is designed to serve all majors, and historically, it has been a destination for incoming freshmen and transfer students interested in honors education. The Honors College is in its third year of working with individual colleges to expand academic honors offerings. In addition, the Honors College plans to launch an intensive student awareness campaign, dubbed “The Honors Experience,” starting with the fall 2014 semester. Honors College executive director Malin Pereira worked with the UNC Charlotte Office of University Communications on the campus marketing effort that will include promotional items and other Honors Experience-branded merchandise, as well as a revamped Honors College website.

“We’re seeing growth in the numbers of honors students, and we’ve had great success in working with various colleges to offer college-level programs for all their majors,” said Pereira. “For UHP, Jennifer will provide direction as the program redefines itself as the destination honors program for students who want to do reading, writing and critical thinking that is broadly interdisciplinary while participating in the strong community service component.”

For Warner, who assumed the director’s duties in July after Connie Rothwell’s return to the University Writing Program, she is focused on learning the program and its roughly 300 students.

“It’s an amazing program already, but I have the opportunity to see what can be added to it,” Warner said. “My primary goal is to help students better understand how UHP is beneficial across all disciplines. For example, prospective pre-med students can form valuable connections to other disciplines and engage in community service projects that set them apart from other medical school applicants. For those students who might say they plan to focus on departmental honors, I want them to understand how UHP can be a complement to that experience. They can do both, and they gain value from both. Our goal is to make honors programming more accessible to as many students as we can and provide them with options.”

Rothwell, who served as UHP director for 11 years, is credited with adding student portfolios as part of the experience, and she was known to be available and supportive of all the students in the program, which created a unique community of students, said Pereira.

As the hub for the University’s most highly qualified, most motivated students, the Honors College continues to provide challenging experiences for these students. The focus on these high-achieving students resulted in two undergraduates who received prestigious Fulbright Scholarships. Celia Karp was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Academic Award for Research to study health communication effects on Ecuadorian women’s perspectives on sexual and reproductive health, and Caitlan Vavarek received a Fulbright Teaching Assistant Fellowship for the 2014-15 academic year.

Honors College officials said they plan to continue to build on these successes.