By: Dr. Andrew Yox, NTCC Honors Director
Since 2008, NTCC’s honors students have presented scholarly posters at the National Collegiate Honors Council. This year the meeting went virtual. But five NTCC scholars both made the cut to present, joining 300 other undergraduate researchers from around the nation, and filed their MP4 video files, posters, and personal statements in time for the virtual conference. Over 90 percent of those exhibiting scholarly posters were university students.
NTCC’s scholarly outpouring at the NCHC was anchored by two posters that now appear on the west wall of the college’s Humanities building, and are open to public viewing. The ideas in each also helped the scholars connected with their research to place second and third in last spring’s McGraw Hill Poster Contest, and to win 2020 State of Texas Caldwell Awards. Katelyn Lester of Mount Pleasant re-approximated the rank of the Texas historian, Walter Prescott Webb among American historians. Webb, in her view, completed an “arc of erudition” that made history relevant both for the past, but also to the present and the future. In his own maverick way, Webb was unprecedented. Her live presentation is available by clicking here.
The second poster featured on the west wall is Marvelous Makeover by Maritza Quinones, of Mount Pleasant, shown above. Quinones was the film scholar who uncovered the basic thesis behind last year’s NTCC film that Adina De Zavala re-centered the image of Texas patriotism from San Jacinto to the Alamo. Quinones’ work, featured live, can be followed by clicking here.
The National Collegiate Honors Council is the oldest and largest association for honors programs, and honors colleges in the United States. It comprises 900 member institutions, both universities and community colleges. The NCHC dates back to 1966, and 65 percent of all honors programs in the nation, as well as a scattered group of programs in other nations, are members.
