Pictured: Luke McCraw and Alison Majors
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
Albert Einstein once noted that creative people see what others see, they, however, think differently about it. During the past fall semester, two Honors Scholars in the NTCC honors program, Honors Northeast, conceptualized and thought their way into preeminence, emerging as fall showcases of achievement at NTCC. Both Luke McCraw and Alison Majors exhibited a level of academic excellence equivalent to the top-tier of the NTCC honors program. The Honors Committee of NTCC, therefore, has recently promoted the two to Presidential Scholar. With this, their institutional honors scholarship tripled, and their possibility of winning other amenities and awards greatly improved.
The Honors Program at NTCC is composed of two levels, Presidential Scholars, and Honors Scholars. The ten scholars of the former group are now generally winning either a regional or national accolade during their two-year stay at NTCC. For example, the four graduating Presidential Scholars in 2023—Chapin, Diaz, Fondren, and Sears--had between them an All-USA Team award, a Coca Cola Gold, four presentations of the National Collegiate Honors Council, three East Texas Portia Gordon Awards and a publication. The five graduating Presidential Scholars of 2022 had between them a Jack Kent Cooke, three publications, and five presentations at the NCHC. However, the Honors Scholar-group at NTCC, the second tier, is also composed of a competitive group of rising scholars. This made the accomplishments of McCraw and Majors doubly significant.
In addition to impressive GPAs which both have cultivated at NTCC, both wrote significant article-length essays in the fall. McCraw completed a pathbreaking work as NTCC’s film scholar on the traveling preachers of early Texas. Majors in her essay turned around the common assumption about immigration always coming to Texas, and examined ways the state has repelled certain groups through history.
Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox notes that it “was exciting watching the successes and surprising thresholds reached by McCraw and Majors this past semester. Both excelled not only in erudition, but in scholarship. They acquired an expertise that gives them something to talk about, and I believe we will be hearing more of what they have to say in the months ahead.”
Applications to enroll in the coming 2024-25 school year of Honors Northeast are now available online at www.ntcc.edu/honors One may also address questions or obtain a real application from Dr. Andrew Yox at ayox@ntcc.edu. The due date for honors scholarships is 1 March 2024.
