UR Inspiration is a collaborative project between Florida International University, the University of Arizona and the University of New Mexico. It is designed to support and showcase the diverse and powerful research capabilities of undergraduate students around the world. Join the free virtual symposium on February 7!

Franke Honors Assistant Director of Admissions Alex Nuñez will be speaking at the Tucson Desert Art Museum, with a reception to follow. Other featured guests at the reception include Rafael Barcelo Durazo, Consul de Mexico, and Eddie Leon, former professional baseball player for the Naranjeros de Hermosillo and the New York Yankees, and a former University of Arizona Men’s Baseball team member. 

Earlier this semester, W.A. Franke Honors College students Savanna Saunders and Dorothea Stephenson were honored as scholarship recipients at the NAACP-Tucson Branch’s 2022 Freedom Fund Banquet. The scholarship included a financial award as well as a year membership with the NAACP. 

Earlier this month, Franke Honors Associate Professor of Practice Dr. Victor Braitberg was awarded the 2022 Price/Webster Prize, for his publication “Innovation on the Reservation: Information Technology and Health Systems Research among the Papago Tribe of Arizona, 1965–1980,” which he co-authored with Jeremy Greene and Gabriella Maya Bernadett. The Price/Webster Prize is awarded for the best article in Isis, the journal of the History of Science Society, published in issues three years prior to the year in which the award is given.

Zach Schlamowitz was awarded the 2022 Astronaut Foundation Scholarship award, one of the largest merit-based scholarships awarded to undergraduates in STEM. He was presented with the award by former astronaut and space shuttle veteran Steve Smith, at an award ceremony hosted at the University of Arizona Sands Club last week.  

W.A. Franke Honors Professor Caitlyn Hall published GC Insights: Diversifying the geosciences in higher education: a manifesto for change.

HNRS 216: An Encounter with Poets and their Poetry, has been intentionally breaking down barriers and preexisting assumptions that might make students feel intimidated or discouraged from exploring poetry further. HNRS 216 is upending the assumption that poets and poetry are limited to the canon of old dead white men and instead presents students with the works of contemporary poets of diverse cultural backgrounds and perspectives.

Jayne Reines is a senior studying Applied Humanities with an emphasis in Public Health and minoring in Health and Human Values and Thematic Pre-med. Jayne is involved in Franke Honors Ambassadors, Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-Health Professional Honorary, Health and Human Values Club, Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, and Honors Early Assurance Program Cohort 3.

Franke Honors Assistant Professor Dr. Joost van Haren recently co-authored a study about how plants emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere—which was conducted as a part of controlled drought experiments in Biosphere 2. Dr. van Haren serves as Assistant Professor of Research at Biosphere 2 and has worked extensively on projects regarding soil-plant-atmosphere interactions.