The following story from the Indiana Daily Student is another example of how honors innovations benefit students from the university as a whole. In this case, an undergraduate publication run by Hutton honors students gives all students a chance to publish their work.

Here is another great piece of student journalism, which describes the Hutton publication.

By Alexea Candreva, Indiana Daily Student

Feb. 12, 2012

Students spend hours planning and researching before writing papers. With the work and passion that goes into academic papers, some students want to have their work published.

One of these students, junior Tess Kuntz, decided to submit her essay from a bilingual education course she took her sophomore year to the spring 2011 edition of the Undergraduate Scholar.

“I heard about the Undergraduate Scholar through the (Hutton) Honors College’s emails,” Kuntz said. “I wanted to have my essay published because I’ve noticed that there aren’t that many academic essays written about education by undergraduates.”

The Undergraduate Scholar, a publication of undergraduate student work, allows students to receive more than just a grade for their classwork.

The Scholar had its first meeting of the semester Thursday, Feb. 2.

Hutton Honors College student volunteers coming from a variety of majors run the publication, but any undergraduate may submit works to the Scholar. The group, which consists of about 20 members, decides together what work will be published.

“We receive around 11 or 12 submissions in a smaller semester,” junior and design editor Erin Boland said. “In the fall there’s always fewer.”

Staff members are required to read all submissions before attending discussion meetings. At the discussion meetings, the coordinator introduces each submission, and staff members vote “yes,” “no” or “maybe.”

Although there are no set rules for what undergraduates may submit to be published, the Scholar does look for certain qualities in essays.

According to the Undergraduate Scholar, the staff chooses to publish essays based on mechanics, style, content, clarity and contemporary appeal.

“We don’t really do creative writing,” Boland said. “We look for academic papers, like something you wrote for a term paper or a research paper for one of your classes.”

The publication gives students a chance to have their work seen by more than just their instructor who graded it.

“For you to say you were published in something, that’s a pretty big deal,” Boland said.

The publication also takes art submissions such as photography, paintings and drawings to include throughout the pages. Even though the Scholar does not publish every submission it receives, the staff invites students to send in as much of their work as possible.

“There’s no harm in trying. Selections are anonymous,” Boland said. “You never really know what exactly will get in. Anything from any major is
fair game.”

In addition to more submissions, the publication welcomes new staff members.

“I joined this year at a call-out meeting,” freshman and Undergraduate Scholar Coordinator Sireen Yang said.

Yang is taking over as coordinator this semester while the coordinator from last semester is studying abroad.

After their initial meeting, staff members are divided into four editing groups, which make changes in style and grammar as they see fit, but they do not change anything important without consulting the author first, Boland said.

“I like the variety you are exposed to. There are so many different topics,” Yang said. “And it’s nice to get to know the people in your editing group.”

A stand with copies of the publication is in the Hutton Honors College student reading room.

Though Boland said the distribution is limited at this time, group members said they hope to spread more awareness of its existence and increase participation in the semesters to come.

“I think word-of-mouth really just helps us the most,” Boland said. “Hopefully it plants a seed in people’s minds.”