Remember when you were a wide-eyed freshman, excited about the idea of college but absolutely terrified about meeting new people and making new friends? Remember not knowing what the buildings were, where your classes met, or how to register for classes for the next semester? Remember being a new honors student, still not sure of what was expected of you? That’s what honors peer leaders are for.

The Honors Peer Program was created to assist incoming freshmen through their first semester at UNI by providing a community of peers and group leaders committed to encouraging academic and social success. Groups are composed of students in similar majors, and the peer leaders are specially chosen to provide the help needed for particular groups and majors. This is an optional program for the freshmen, though, so we understand that not all students will be interested. Your job, as a peer leader, is to make an effort to include everyone who wants to be included.

Peer groups meet during the first six weeks of classes, planning two events and a service project. Leaders must attend an orientation meeting during the spring before the academic year that he or she will be a peer leader. In addition, leaders must also attend the mandatory Social Hour to be held the Sunday evening before the start of classes for the fall semester. This is when leaders and groups will meet and set the date for the first activity! Leaders are also required to attend the first four HSAB meetings from 9:00 – 9:20 every other Monday in the honors program to discuss progress, address challenges, and offer support.

If you love the honors program and want incoming freshmen to feel as welcomed as you did (or even more so!), apply to be a peer leader! Submit applications can be found at here and should be submitted to rhodesl@uni.edu by noon Wednesday, March 27^th, 2013.

My name is Theresa Luensmann, and I am this year’s HSAB president. I am a senior biochemistry and biology double major from Manning, Iowa. I was born in Lincoln, Nebraska and then my family moved to Iowa when I was three years old.  I have two older brothers, Matthew and Patrick and one younger sister, Bethany.  My plan after graduation is to attend graduate school to pursue a degree in Higher Education Administration. So basically I want to stay at college for my entire life.

This year I am a second-year resident assistant in Dancer Hall. I absolutely love my job and have a lot of fun spending time with my residents. I also began a new job this year as a Career Guide in Career Services, and I’m really enjoying the time I spend there. When I’m not working, I like to hang out with friends, watch movies, listen to music, and read. I am involved in several other organizations outside of HSAB, including Student Admissions Ambassadors (SAA), National Resident Hall Honorary (NRHH) and Tri Beta (Biology Honor Society).

I love the time that I’ve spent at UNI and have really grown as a person in my time here. I’m excited for everything that my senior year will be, and I’m excited for the future I will have after I finish here. UNI has given me the tools to be successful in the future, and UNI can do that for you too! Take advantage of the opportunities given to you (especially in the Honors program) and have fun!

     Tuesday night, September 25, a dozen Honors students gathered in the Cottage to eat pizza and learn from Dr. Lees at the first Profs and Pizza of the semester, put on by the Honors Student Advisory Board.
      Dr. Lees began by asking us to think of words we would use to describe a typical medieval woman.  I thought of well-behaved, demure, domestic, and he later added silent and oppressed.  Several of us then chose parts to play from the play "The Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins Agape, Chionia and Hierena".  The play is hilarious, depicting the attempt of some pagan government officials and noblemen to spoil the purity of the three virgins and failing in epic proportions due to their protection by the Holy Spirit (spoilers: one character has a sexual encounter with some pots and pans, thinking it's the girls!)  I got to play Agape and it was pretty fun to banter back and forth with the other characters ("What madness possesses you?  What rage drives you three?" "What signs of our madness do you see?" was a favorite line of mine).
      After the read through, Dr. Lees then gave us some information on the author of this play.  Her name was Hrotsuit, and she was a nun.  After our describing words about medieval women, it seems we had some reconciling to do.  Hrotsuit wrote around the year 1000, making her the first playwright since the fall of Rome.  Not the first female, but the first playwright at all!  Her name translates to "a loud/strong voice", and that's just what she was.  She managed to avoid criticism of her plays by anticipating all of it and reasoning why she did things.  She said she wrote "pagan" plays because they attract people, and so she was essentially tricking them into a good message.  But was it really Christians over pagans in her play?
      All of the Christians in the play also happen to be female, and the pagans male.  This is really a story of girl power, where the men are made fools of!  The three virgins are constantly defending not their bodies, but their minds throughout the play.  Not what we thought of for medieval women--try awesome, sassy, strong, and punny!
Overall, it was a fun night, including Dr. Lee's incredibly entertaining rendition of what he thinks Hrotsuit may have sounded like!  She also wrote several other plays in the same vein, and I'd recommend looking her up and reading them (I sure plan to, and they're pretty short plays).
      Keep your eye out for the next Profs and Pizza, Brains and Breakfast, or Lunch and Learn to hang out with another one of our awesome Honors professors and learn about some of the stuff they're really excited about!