Victoria DeFrancesco Soto is Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas and is also a political analyst for NBC News and Telemundo. In this episode, Victoria breaks down public service and what it looks like across disciplines, the power of frustration in enacting change and helping her advance to where she is today, her parallel career in public service and political analysis in the media, how her lived experience informs her nuanced approach to analysis in issues such as border policy, and more. 

At the Franke Honors College, we are committed to exploring the ways our identity as an Honors College and a Hispanic Serving Institution intersect year-round.

On Wednesday, September 27, The Center for Creative Photography, in partnership with the W.A. Franke Honors College, will be hosting an event showcasing a student-curated exhibition as a part of the community focused gallery, Studio CCP. The event will be the paramount of a weeklong showcase of Franke Honors students’ work, alongside photographs from 8-track: Images of the West.  

Dimitri Ververelli graduated with Honors in Aerospace Engineering in 2011. He currently works as a flight test engineer at Pax River Naval Air Station in Maryland, and, for the last few years, has been working toward getting his masters degree at the University of Arizona. Dimitri is extremely passionate about flying and hopes to one day achieve his dream of becoming a NASA astronaut. He was recently interviewed and featured in our fall Alumni and Friends Newsletter.

Professor Bem Le Hunte is an internationally published novelist and an expert in the field of Creative Intelligence. In today’s episode, we discuss the power of thinking creatively across disciplines, Bem’s origin story with the creation of the BCII at the University of Technology Sydney, her process of bringing this extraordinary dual degree to the W.A. Franke Honors College, and how this cutting-edge program will impact future generations of Franke Honors Wildcats. 

Amarissa Carabajal moved into the Honors Village mid August, alongside many other expectant and excited first-year, first-generation students. She has been dreaming about attending the University of Arizona since she first visited the campus 10 years ago, and, while her journey to get here has spanned thousands of miles, oceans, and continents, her hopes of becoming a Wildcat and future veterinarian have remained the same.

At 16, Tadeusz Borowski is one of the youngest first-year students to start at the the W.A. Franke Honors College this fall, after graduating from high school two years early. After seeing Borowski's transcript, it was Angie Valdez, assistant director of internal scholarships in the Franke Honors College, who emailed him, urging him to apply for a scholarship that he was likely eligible for.

Rebecca Gomez, PhD, is a Professor in the College of Science, the Director of the Child Cognition Lab at the University of Arizona, and one of our incredible 2023 Franke Academy of Scholars award recipients. In this episode, we discuss how Rebecca became interested in developmental psychology, her current research with child cognition, and the importance of sleep as a guiding principle in her classroom.