Activities

A well-rounded University education includes becoming involved and broadening your interests and skills beyond the classroom environment. Involvement leads to lasting friendships and fun. In addition, you can gain valuable experience in leadership and develop communication and organizational skills. The Campuswide Honors Program organizes many social and cultural activities throughout the academic year designed to introduce you to other honors students, faculty and staff outside the classroom, while enriching your college experience. The CHP staff, Peer Advisors, and continuing students can tell you about how to get involved.

The following is a list of some of the activities CHP students can be involved with.

Coffee Hours

The CHP sponsors a weekly gathering event each Friday morning from 9am to 11am in The Locus. Each event includes a special activity of interest to students. It is also an informal meeting time for CHP students, honors faculty, and staff, a place where all can discuss what has been happening in classes, on the campus, and in the larger world around us.

Refreshments (donuts, bagels, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and juice) are available. Drop by, relax, and become part of the CHP community. Come for as long as you can, whenever you can.

Students are encouraged to invite faculty from their classes as well. This provides a great opportunity to meet and learn more about them outside of class.

The CHP also organizes a specific faculty "coffee hour" each quarter and invites faculty to attend. It has been highly successful and some students have even met their future research faculty advisor through this event.

CHP Retreat

Each year, the Campuswide Honors Program sponsors a camping retreat, where 80-100 students and staff venture into the wild outdoors. In years past, we have gone to (1) Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, (2) Joshua Tree National Park, (3) Cuyamaca State Park, (4) Sedgewick Reserve, and (5) Angels National Forest.

Peer Mentor Program

Continuing CHP students volunteer to be Peer Mentors to incoming freshmen each fall quarter. Mentors work in pairs with a small group of honor students, to help them make the transition to UCI and the Honors Program a smooth one. Continuing students share their personal experiences about classes/instructors, research, commuting/living on campus, ideas for participation and involvement both on campus and in the Honors Program, and they try to answer any other questions that a new student might have. They are great sources for hints and advice about time management, how to combine work and school, procrastination, where to spend spring break, ways to study, etc.

Campuswide Honors Student Council (CHSC)

This registered student organization was formed in early spring 1990 and re-created several times. However, the main goals have remained constant, and they are:

• To gather information and faithfully represent the opinions of the CHP students, while acting as a liaison between program staff, faculty, and students of the CHP
• To organize, implement, and publicize activities which benefit and connect the CHP with the campus
• To facilitate and keep open communication between all levels of the CHP
• To serve as a problem-solving board where necessary

All CHP students are members of the CHSC and are invited to attend all meetings, which are held weekly in the Locus. If students have issues to discuss, they should attend the meetings or channel their concerns and ideas through one of the CHSC officers.

NAR (Creative Works Journal)

This is a CHP student publication. It is a free-form creative writing journal written and published by CHP students. It contains a variety of work-essays, editorials, short stories, cartoons, poems, music, and art work. It is published once a quarter and we welcome all submissions and student volunteers. Everyone is invited to the quarterly unveiling of each new issue, where creative works by CHP students are showcased.

Other Activities

CHP students are also offered the opportunity to participate in various CHP / CHSC sponsored social and cultural activities. In the past, these have included discounted or donated tickets to plays, lectures, and Knotts Scary Farm, trips to Southern California museums and the Griffith Park Laserium, beach bonfires, poetry readings, special tours of the library and faculty research labs, faculty home visits, movie nights, international potlucks, informal lectures in faculty/student homes, an end-of-the-year banquet, and an annual camping retreat.

General UCI Activities

Many campus clubs and organizations offer other activities. We have collected some publications in the Honors Peer Advisors' Office which describe these opportunities. They include, but are not limited to:

• ASUCI (student government)
• KUCI (the campus radio station)
• New University (our student newspaper)
• Yearbook
• Greek System (fraternities/sororities)
• Intramural sports
• Tutoring programs
• Fine Arts Productions (drama, music and dance productions)

Although we do not have a formal Honors Program service requirement, we feel very strongly that part of our students' educational experience should include some form of service to the honors program, the campus at large, and/or the outside community. Remember to share and return some of the knowledge and/or benefits that you receive from your University experience.