Today was the official first day of the 2011 International Honor Institute! It was an exciting and busy day for all, regardless of arrival time. The International Officers were up early for breakfast so that we had plenty of time to practice our Honors Study Topic speeches. Each year, the International Officers are required to have a semi-final draft of a ten minute speech that are given to faculty scholars who then critique so that a final draft can be written. It is typical for these speeches to be done prior to the May orientation but things were done slightly differently this year. It was intended for us to have the speeches nearly complete prior to the first official day of the institute. Therefore, this morning was intended to be a time for peer reviews and we worked on our speeches between 9am and 12pm this morning.
We then got our first taste of Boston University's cafeteria food before heading over to the Tsai Performance Center for a brief overview of what to expect during the first general session. We got to meet Clawd for the first time, take a look at the stage, and do a quick run-through of tonight's seminar as well as the seminars over the coming week. The meeting was brief but crucial and we left feeling much more comfortable, and incredibly excited, about our opening session.
Following our run-through, we went back to 33 Harry Agganis Way to meet with the incoming Honors Institute attendees. This was something that slot of us were looking forward to - for those of you who came and visited us, thank you. For those who didn't, there's still time :-) I was especially excited to visit with the New England Regional Alumni Association who were helping out during registration. As many of you know, I am from the New England Region so these were the people who supported me during my campaign for International Office but few of them were actually able to come over to Seattle so I was really thankful to be able to meet with them for the short time that they were able to stay here.
Because the first general session was at 6:30, and Headquarters expects the IOs to be there an hour early, we opted to skip dinner so that we could freshen up before heading back over to the Tsai Performance Center. The first general session was exciting because we were introduced, faculty scholars were introduced, and the seminar leaders were introduced prior to our International President, Tameka Wilson, introducing our first exciting presenter, Ethan Uslan. The presentation was a silent movie accompanied by Mr. Uslan with a live piano score. The presentation was followed by a question and answer question for audience members and three seminar groups - my own being one of them - got to continue that question and answer question after Tameka adjourned the first general session. Therefore, I really haven't gotten to properly meet my seminar group but am looking forward to tomorrow to do so.
As exciting as our first day was, the best part was the Welcome Social that followed the first seminar meeting. It was great to relax with our Phi Theta Kappa families while snacking on free pizza and cookies. I, personally, meet many HI attendees over the course of the day but didn't really have the opportunity to just hang out with anybody until this social. It was a much needed break accompanied by one of our favorite things - no, not the free food - meeting with our fellow Phi Theta Kappans.
I hope you all had as much fun as I did on the first day of what I expect to be a very exciting week!
Love,
Danielle
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