Trips/Excursions

The Honors & Scholars Center offers domestic excursions each year. Students have traveled to Washington D.C. to tour the Holocaust Museum and national monuments; Chicago for a first-hand glimpse of the history and culture of the city; and New York City to focus on Harlem and visiting sites such as the Apollo Theatre and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as well as on immigration through the Big Onion Tour and a stop at Ellis Island.

The 2009-2010 will feature an excursion to Chicago, sponsored by Unity, to explore the working poor through destinations such as the Hull House, the first Settlement House in the United States, and other historic landmarks that can only be found in this vibrant city.

There are also many short-term study abroad programs available through Honors & Scholars. For more information about these opportunities, click here.

Serving with Honor

What is it?

Serving with Honor is the Honors & Scholars service organization that provides students with opportunities to serve the community in a variety of ways. The program features assistance with locating sites at which to serve and opportunities to participate in service events, projects and discussions that are grounded in social justice issues.

Our Goals

• Provide our Honors and Scholars students with exposure to the social justice issues and -isms that exist in the University district and Columbus area through service projects
• Educate students on becoming advocates for service
• Strengthen healthy relationships between students and the university and Columbus community

What We Do

• Represent the Serving with Honor Program at activity fairs or other functions where it makes sense
• Coordinate “big group” service projects
• Sponsor fireside chats or lunch and learns
• Sponsor various service projects and events (2 per quarter)

How To Get Involved:

• Sign up for the Serving with Honor (SWH) listserv by contacting Vicki Pitstick at pitstick.10@osu.edu and ask her to include you.
• Sign up to be on a committee (see list below) – contact Vicki Pitstick at pitstick.10@osu.edu to let her know of your specific committee interest – your committee chair will then contact you within the coming weeks.
  Note: You do not have to be on a committee to participate in our projects throughout the year.
• Watch H&S Net (sent every Monday) and the SWH listserv for specifics on volunteering for projects listed.

Highlights of 2008-2009 Year:

Fall Quarter - Empty Bowls Project – Students made and glazed clay bowls to be sold at our Empty Bowls Event. During this event the campus community is invited to the Honors & Scholars House to buy a hand-made bowl for a $10 donation. They are then served a bowl of soup, bread, and a beverage and all money donated benefits the Mid-Ohio Food Bank to help fight hunger in Central Ohio. The majority of the soup is donated by local restaurants. 2008 sponsors included Potbelly’s and McFadden’s. The Empty Bowls project raised $600.00 in 2008-2009!

Winter Quarter - Students made 40 no-sew fleece blankets and distributed them to homeless people living off the land in downtown Columbus.

Spring Quarter - Serving with Honor sponsored the Pinwheels for Prevention Project for the third year in a row. As April was Child Abuse Prevention Month, we partnered with Prevent Child Abuse Ohio to honor the victims of child abuse and raise awareness concerning this ongoing problem by bringing the Pinwheels for Prevention display to campus. On Monday, April 13th, over 4,000 pinwheels, representing one-half of the child abuse or neglect cases reported in Franklin County last year, were planted on the South Oval and remained on display through Friday, April 17th. Students were able to "sponsor" a pinwheel for a $1 donation! Thank you to the countless students, staff, and faculty who contributed and volunteered their time throughout the project.

Plans for 2009-2010:

This year Serving with Honor will again deal with social justice issues such as homelessness, hunger, and youth development.  If you are interested in being on one of the committees listed, please contact advisor, Vicki Pitstick at pitstick.10@osu.edu.

Serving With Honor Committees

Hunger Committee

Hunger is the #1 social issue facing the Columbus area, and this committee will focus on projects aimed at helping relieve this issue in our community. This committee will be responsible for planning and implementing the Empty Bowls Project and the Hunger Banquet in autumn quarter and conducting the H&S Food Pantry for the entire year (see below for further descriptions about each of these events). New projects related to hunger may also be created by this committee.

• The Empty Bowls Project involves a bowl-making event and fundraiser. Hand-made bowls are made and donated through the Columbus Recreation & Parks Dept. On Oct. 30^th the campus community will be invited to a lunch-time event where they can buy a bowl for a donation of $10 – they also receive soup, bread, and a drink for their donation. All funds raised go to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank to help fight hunger in Franklin County.
• The Annual Hunger Banquet will take place during fall quarter. This program is designed to give students an idea of the extent of hunger that exists in our community.
• The H&S Food Pantry requests specific, non-perishable items to be collected each month. Our goal is to collect at least 100 units of the requested item each month through drop-off sites at Taylor Tower, Lincoln House, and the Kuhn Honors & Scholars House. All items collected are given to NSI, Inc., a local food pantry located within the university district.

Homelessness and Housing Committee

This committee will plan and implement events and activities focused on the issue of Homelessness and Housing in Columbus. Two of the projects that are this committee’s responsibility are described below. New projects that relate to this issue may also be created by this committee.

• The Blanket Project consists of coordinating a presentation on homelessness in Franklin County for students. Following the program, students make no-sew blankets for homeless individuals that are then delivered to homeless individuals throughout Franklin county.
• Star II Program - The Star II Program provides supplies and services to homeless teens living on the street. Serving with Honor sends volunteers there each week to interact with the teens and also holds monthly events at the facility such as football parties, spaghetti dinners, and other activities.

Children-Centered Committee

This committee works with our projects that are related to children. These include:

• The Giving Tree benefits children who are struggling with various issues during the holidays. Committee members choosing the organization that will benefit from the Giving Tree, publicize the project, then organize and deliver donated items. The Giving Tree has benefited the children at the Dowd Center and children whose parents are incarcerated.
• The Pen Pal Program– Serving with Honor works to establish and maintain a pen pal program with local Columbus City School children. Students serve as pen pals but also plan quarterly activities with the children.

• The Pinwheel Project, Pinwheels for Prevention, brings awareness to the issue of child abuse. April 2010 will mark the 4th year that Serving With Honor has hosted the pinwheel display on campus. We are planning some very special events for this landmark year and hope to raise more money than in the past! Committee responsibilities include publicity, fundraising, volunteer coordination and of course, pinwheel plotting.
• Sciences Day - Committee invite local school children to campus for an entire day of experiments and demonstrations focused on science which is planned and implemented by Serving With Honor students.
• Other Service Efforts - Serving with Honor also gets involved with other service efforts throughout the year. New opportunities are continually listed on H&S Net – the Honors & Scholars list serve.