Ferrum College senior and Boone Honors Program member Jess Bollinger ’23 is double majoring in History and Political Science and has three minors: Psychology, Sociology and International Studies, with an emphasis in human rights. A resident of Bedford, Virginia, Bollinger is an ambassador for the Admissions Office, works for the school’s groundskeeping crew, and has been a member of the Ferrum College Women’s Basketball team for three years.
During the May 2022 experiential term, Bollinger traveled to Rome, Italy, to participate in HIS 297: An American in Rome, utilizing a travel scholarship provided by the Boone Honors Program. She recently returned from a summer term study abroad experience at the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland, where she participated in a three-week activism and campaigning class. The course, led by speakers and activists, required students to develop their own campaigns within small groups. Bollinger hopes to use the skills she acquired in her future career and journey toward being a global citizen and activist. This fall, she will attend the University of Westminster in London, England as an exchange student, where she will complete the required courses to finish her history major.
Assistant Professor of Sociology Susan Mead knows she will have a very good class when she sees Bollinger seated in her classroom the first day of the semester. “Ever since we met in Ferrum’s Appalachian Cluster program her first semester, I have been able to count on Jess to ask the hard questions, to speak up against injustice, and to give her all to every task at hand,” said Mead. “Jess is both a realist and an idealist: she helps her fellow students understand difficult circumstances others face in everyday life, while dreaming of ways she and others can make a difference in those lives. From day one, Jess has created a path for herself to make an impact on individuals, and in communities, worldwide. I cannot wait to see where she will go next!”
Bollinger was recently awarded the Richard L. Smith Academic Enrichment Scholarship, which honors the memory of Ferrum College history professor Richard L. Smith. Recognizing Dr. Smith’s vast scholarship in world history, the award is presented annually by the history department to a student who has demonstrated academic excellence, intellectual rigor, and a keen interest in academic research or engaging with other cultures.
While Bollinger is undecided about all she wants to do in the future, she recognizes the importance of using her education to help better the world. She plans to join the Peace Corp upon graduation for at least a two-year term. It is also her desire to go into the United Nations and work in the Humanitarian Aid department. In her free time, Bollinger enjoys traveling, working out, learning new languages and cultures, advocating, exploring nature, watching Harry Potter films, learning, and hanging out with friends, family, and pets.
Bollinger reflected on how the Boone Honors Program has impacted her life, the extra opportunities the program has added to her educational experience at Ferrum College, and how honors education will benefit her upon graduation and beyond. “While being in Honors, I have had the opportunity to take classes outside of what I need for my majors. I think these classes have been a great opportunity for me to learn more about the outside world in my nation, as well as others. I absolutely love learning, especially pertaining to different languages, cultures, and societies. These classes, as well as the opportunity to study abroad, are very beneficial for me,” said Bollinger.
The travel scholarship provided by the Boone Honors Program allowed Bollinger to study in both Ireland and Italy, which she would not have been able to accomplish without the program’s support. The scholarship covered most of the financial requirements for the trip to Italy and allowed her to work on saving for the trip to Ireland. Bollinger also credits the honors professors with being globally aware of different customs or issues in other nations, with challenging her to ask questions and be open to differences, and with teaching her skills she can apply in the real world.
The Boone Honors Program was established in 2001 under the direction of Professor Emeritus of Religion David Howell and is named in honor of former Ferrum College President Jerry Boone and his wife, Shirley. Currently under the direction of Professor of English Lana Whited, it is an interdisciplinary, liberal arts program committed to challenging students enrolled in the program, and the campus culture as a whole, to strive for excellence. Students in the program have the opportunity to study language through the intermediate level, take small multidisciplinary seminars for some of their general education requirements, work closely with professors in courses within their major or minor, present research at undergraduate research conferences, attend special dinners with visiting campus guests and speakers, and participate in special Honors social activities and trips. Besides the academic opportunities, benefits include friendships with faculty and other students from across the college who may share similar interests and passions, chances to examine and clarify values and ideals, having stimulating and broadening cultural experiences, and getting a head start on preparing for graduate school or one’s career. In addition, every student in the program is eligible to receive up to $3,000 in travel scholarship for a study abroad experience.
8/19/2021
Dr. Ed Hally
Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration Ed Hally has been appointed to the position of Boone Honors Program (BHP) assistant director. He will serve alongside Professor of English Lana Whited, who has directed the program for the past 13 years.
“With a keen intellect and a heart for service, Ed Hally is an ideal candidate for honors education,” said Whited. “I am delighted about his appointment and grateful for his willingness to take on this new role.”
“I have a soft spot for honors programs, in general,” said Hally. “They were an important part of my own college career and development as a scholar.”
The BHP, an interdisciplinary program committed to challenging students, and the college campus as a whole, to strive for excellence, has continued to grow since its 2001 inception under the leadership of now-retired Dean of Arts and Humanities and Religion Professor David Howell. In May 2021, the program graduated 14 honors medallion recipients, its largest-ever group. This fall, BHP will welcome its largest entering class of 25 honors students. (An SAT score of at least 1200 and a GPA of at least 3.5 are required to join BHP as a Ferrum College freshman.)
Hally has worked closely with BHP for more than a decade, and has taught the introductory honors seminar (Honors 100) eight times. His role as BHP assistant director will evolve over time as the program’s needs are determined, but will mostly involve program assessment, mentorship, service on the BHP steering committee, and continuing to teach the Honors 100 seminar.
In 2020, Hally began directing the College’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which seeks to engage the student body in ways that will lead to even more student success. He will continue directing the QEP as he navigates his new role as BHP assistant director.
“The students are the main reason to work so closely with the BHP,” said Hally. “The classes are always rewarding to teach because the students always surprise and impress me with their creativity, their talent, and their ability to work as a team.”
Read more about the Boone Honors Program.
4/23/2021
Dr. Lana Whited, BHP director and English professor at Ferrum College, stands with 15 BHP graduating seniors.
On Thursday, April 22, 2021, members of the Boone Honors Program were honored during a banquet held in the Blue Ridge Mountain Room from 6 – 8:30 p.m. Special recognition went to the fifteen graduating seniors, the largest group of graduates in the program’s two-decade-long history (the previous record was ten in 2014). Of the fifteen seniors, twelve are or have been intercollegiate athletes and some competed in multiple sports. Their names are listed below.
After a welcome from BHP Program Director and Professor of English Lana Whited, President David Johns greeted guests and thanked the seniors for their efforts during their time at the College. Each senior chose a professor, not necessarily in their field of study, to share comments about the senior’s time at Ferrum College as they progressed through coursework. There was lots of laughter with a few tears. Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Aimé Sposato closed the program with heartfelt well wishes.
The Boone Honors Program was established in 2001 under the direction of David Howell, dean of arts and humanities, professor of religion, and director of faculty development, and is named in honor of former Ferrum College President Jerry Boone and his wife, Shirley.
See photos from the event on the College’s Flickr album.
Elina Matilda Baltins ’21
Bachelor of Science in pre-professional health sciences, emphasis in pre-med
swimming, track and field
Bryce Daniel Beard ’20 (December graduate)
Bachelor of Science in chemistry
Cayla Morgan Berry ’21
Bachelor of Science in criminal justice, emphasis in criminology
women’s soccer
Jacob Alan Blaukovitch ’21
Bachelor of Science in pre-professional health sciences, emphasis in pre-med
Bachelor of Science in biology
Bachelor of Science in chemistry
Samuel Ammon Chappell ’20 (December graduate)
Bachelor of Science in environmental science
swimming
Robert Sean Grande, Jr. ’21
Bachelor of Science in political science
football
Dakota Alexander Fletcher ’21
Bachelor of Science in computer information systems, emphasis in computer networks and cybersecurity
Jenna McKenzie Janicki ’21
Bachelor of Science in health and human performance, emphasis in exercise and sport studies
women’s soccer
Suzanne Huiwen Maines ’21
Bachelor of Arts in Spanish
Camden Vinson Mariotti ’21
Bachelor of Science in health and human performance, emphasis in exercise science
football
Alexzondra Lena Mattson ’21
Bachelor of Science in pre-professional health sciences, emphasis in pre-med
women’s soccer
John Francis Sheehan, IV ’21
Bachelor of Science in social studies
men’s lacrosse, football
Nancy Kathryn Shoaf ’21
Bachelor of Science in environmental science
swimming
Hannah Elizabeth Smith ’21
Bachelor of Science in environmental science
swimming
Victoria Katherine Wagner ’20 (December graduate)
Bachelor of Science in pre-professional health sciences, emphasis in pre-therapy
swimming
The Synergistic Classroom: Interdisciplinary Teaching in the Small College Setting was published in October 2020. The book of essays written by higher education professionals includes two chapters by Ferrum College professors, one about the Appalachian Cluster program for first-year students and one about the College’s multidisciplinary, team-taught honors seminars.
“Arts in the Laboratory: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Honors Education in a Small College Setting” was written by Professor of Psychology Sharon Stein and Professor of English & Director of the Boone Honors Program Lana Whited. Their seminar, Media and Violence*, explores depictions of violence in news and entertainment media, social scientists’ methods of studying the effects on society, and ways to address problems associated with media and violence.
“Experiential Learning in the Rural, Small College Setting: Creating an ‘Appalachian Cluster'” was written by Professor Emeritus of English Peter Crow; Professor of Environmental Science Delia Heck; Professor of English Tina Hanlon; Assistant Professor of Sociology Susan Mead; and Professor Emerita of Environmental Science and Biology Carolyn Thomas, who passed away in January 2020. Since 1999 they have all taught in the Appalachian Cluster, a learning community in which first-year students study modernization in Appalachia through interlinked courses in sociology, environmental science, and English.
Editors Corey Campion and Aaron Angello of Hood College designed The Synergistic Classroom to demonstrate innovations that expand the traditional boundaries of discipline-specific programs within the particular circumstances at small colleges. Blending disciplines within the curriculum can boost students’ engagement while preparing them for the kinds of critical thinking and teamwork required in the workplace.
Hanlon commented that “interdisciplinary collaboration has been the most rewarding part of my career at Ferrum since I first began team-teaching with Carolyn Thomas in the 1990s. I believe the Appalachian Cluster’s blend of introductory coursework and experiential learning while visiting communities in coal county now aligns well with President David Johns’ vision for enhancing the college’s work and outreach in our Blue Ridge environment.”
The Synergistic Classroom is available from Amazon and other booksellers, or visit Ferrum College’s library to check out a copy.
Learn more about Ferrum College’s efforts to provide interdisciplinary learning by following its Appalachian Cluster program on Facebook.
*The Ferrum College course catalog describes the Media and Violence course as “an interdisciplinary, team-taught, writing intensive study of the relationship between media and violence. The emphasis of the course will be on how violence is depicted in news and entertainment media, how media depictions of violence affect society, how social scientists study these effects, and how the problems associated with media and violence might be addressed.”
FERRUM, VA, December 8, 2020—English professor Lana Whited’s latest book began over 35 years ago, with a search for a book in a Greensboro bookstore. In 1984, as a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Whited went looking for Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences.” She came up empty-handed after visiting the crime and nonfiction sections.
Puzzled to eventually find the true crime book in the fiction section, Whited began a decades-long study of murder narratives, attempting to define a literary species within mainstream American literature. Her research extended beyond the writing of her Ph.D. dissertation at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, which was completed in 1993. The current result of her investigation is “Murder, In Fact: Disillusionment and Death in the American True Crime Novel,” released in November 2020 and now available from most booksellers.
Whited’s study turned into an examination of literary Naturalism, which she says involves “the application of deterministic principles to literary works.” Whereas newspaper reporters covering violent crime strive for objectivity, the Naturalists depict their protagonists in a more subjective way and in a manner that suggests a lack of free agency in their lives; what these characters do is generally a reaction to their environment. Themes in Naturalistic writing include violence, pessimism, and pitting social environments against one another. For example, those who had rough childhoods would inevitably inflict pain on higher class residents with a predictable result of jail time or worse.
“A journalist writing about a murder case or trial is relaying information that the reader can process and shape into a theory of the crime,” explained Whited. “The authors of the novels in my study shape the material to offer their own theory, presenting the reader with an argument about why the crime occurred. Reporting is objective; Naturalism is subjective.”
Whited says she connects novels written from the 1890s to the present with Naturalism based on three characteristics: “the authors’ use of reporting skills borrowed from journalism, and, in many cases, from work as journalists early in their careers; the authors’ focus on the murderer, not the victim as a protagonist, attempting to account for his psychopathology (this is where Naturalism enters in); and the authors’ writing about crimes having basis in fact.”
Whited loves the book’s cover design. “That is an aspect of the publishing process over which authors have almost zero control,” she said.
She is relieved to finally hold the book that took 35 years to write, but she also has “a sense of a lost limb or not seeing an old friend anymore,” she explained. Her work was not without trials. “At certain points, I have had to put the project aside for periods of time because the material became too traumatic. I have had nightmares about Capote’s book in particular. When the nightmares increased, I knew it was time to back off or focus differently. But I don’t think I will ever have true crime fatigue.”
Learn more about Whited’s book at McFarland Books, here.
Or use your Amazon Smile account to purchase her book while supporting Ferrum College. Learn more here.
Author, speaker, and domestic violence educator Janine Latus will visit Ferrum College’s campus on Monday, October 28, 2019, at 7 p.m. in the Panthers Den of Franklin Hall. She will present “You Know What’s Really Scary? Relationship Violence.” A reception will follow the presentation. This event is free and open to the public.
Janine Latus had recently left an abusive marriage and was attending a conference when she learned that her youngest sister, Amy, was missing. In April 2002, Amy had taped a note to the inside of her desk drawer. “Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved,” it read, “but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me…”. Two years later, Amy’s former boyfriend Ron Ball was sentenced for her murder.
These experiences led Latus to launch a campaign against relationship violence, and today she is a widely sought-after teacher, author, and speaker who regularly conducts workshops for clients in the corporate, educational, and military sectors, as well as professional athletics. Her talks have inspired thousands of people to recognize relationship abuse, break free, and heal.
Dr. Lana Whited, professor of English and director of the Boone Honors Program at Ferrum College, describes Latus’s previous visit to the Ferrum campus: “I have seldom heard the undergraduate students on our campus quieter than when Janine Latus was speaking to them. Janine is generous with her time and talents and unwavering in her crusade to spare others what she and her sister Amy endured. Her message resonates long after she has gone.”
Visit Latus’s website to read the first chapter of “If I Am Missing or Dead” or to listen to Latus’s 2017 Tedx talk.
Latus’s appearance at Ferrum College is sponsored by the Office of Student Life, the Boone Honors Program, Stanley Library, and the campus chapter of Help Save the Next Girl.
Event details submitted by Dr. Lana Whited.
