Thank you for visiting the website of the University Honors and Scholars Center at The Ohio State University.
It is easy to fall in love with the place that all Buckeyes call home. As a native of Sweden, I have done just that for more than 18 years as a faculty member in Ohio State’s Department of Geography. That love for our campus has only grown over the past several years in my role as the Executive Director of the University Honors and Scholars Center.
This role gives me the distinct honor of witnessing the hard work and dedication of our exceptional undergraduate students. Their goals, achievements, drive, and passions inspire our Center’s mission: Helping high-ability students focus their ambitions and curiosity to transform themselves and their world.
We serve our students through two core initiatives: the Ohio State Scholars Program and the University Honors Program, which houses the Stamps Eminence Scholarship Program. As a center, we oversee curricular experiences in all colleges and on all campuses through our Honors Standards and offer experiential programming to connect with our students. Our programs foster rich communities that allow students to network with their peers, get to know faculty mentors, and seek out supportive resources. Whether an incoming student chooses to be involved in the curricular-focused Honors Program, or the experiential-based Scholars Program, I encourage students to pursue an enriched academic experience. Our vision is ensuring every Honors and Scholars Buckeye reaches their individual goals by fostering purposeful and diversified learning experiences through Global Engagement, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Immersion; our G.O.A.L.S. framework.
Reflection is core to our students’ learning, and each student can reflect on their personal milestones and past experiences through a personalized ePortfolio. We are excited to offer this online tool for students to make sense of how all the different parts of a college experience fit together. Students can use this online space to create, collect, curate, and if they choose, tell their story to their peers, to faculty, and even to prospective employers.
Upon graduation, our students join an alumni family over 600,000 strong, over 48,000 of which were also Honors and Scholars Buckeyes. No matter where our alumni go, they can always count on connecting to someone with the same Buckeye love for the place we all call home. I enjoy seeing former Honors roommates come back to campus as life-long friends or classes of our Scholars alumni coming back to mentor students who are now in the same Scholars program they participated in. We are continuing to build our alumni community to invest in and support our students. Paying it forward is a part of who we are at Ohio State, and our alumni are our best example of this spirit of giving, support, and celebration.
All of this work with our students is supported by a phenomenal team of staff with diverse backgrounds. They collaborate with partners around campus and my fellow faculty members to aid our students with a seamless and exceptional Buckeye experience.
From our students to alumni, from staff to faculty, the University Honors and Scholars Center is a dynamic community. I encourage you to explore our website and learn more about the different programs and experiences that help facilitate a transformative learning environment, as well as who we are and what we do. You can read more about our students through our spotlight articles, social media or visit some of their ePortfolios. We look forward to having you visit us for one of our scheduled university events or campus visits.
And, as always, Go Bucks!
Ola Ahlqvist, PhD
Associate Vice Provost of Academic Enrichment
Executive Director of the University Honors and Scholars Center
Professor of Geography