[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 83 (Wednesday, May 25, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E797]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       TRIBUTE TO THE HONORS COLLEGE PROGRAM AT COLUMBIA COLLEGE

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                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 25, 2016

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the Honors 
College Program at Columbia College, a first class institution of 
higher education located in my Congressional District in Columbia, 
South Carolina.
  The Columbia College Honors Program was chartered in 1984 to recruit, 
retain, and develop high-achieving, motivated, talented students. At 
the heart of the program is the belief that the outstanding student 
should challenge her intellectual limits, working creatively and 
seriously to reach her highest potential as a scholar, reflective 
learner, individual thinker, risk taker, and influential leader. The 
program requires a selection of pedagogically innovative and rigorous 
courses across disciplines and a culminating thesis or project designed 
to make honors learning meaningful and practical. The program's senior 
seminars--with a study-travel component--have engaged students in the 
value of experiential, global learning in sites such as Paris, Berlin, 
Dublin, Belfast, New York, Orlando, Miami, London, and others.
  The stimulating classroom atmosphere of honors--steeped in the 
liberal-arts tradition--encourages development of critical thinking, 
writing, and other skills vital to an education in the twenty-first 
century. Fostering a culture of serious undergraduate research and 
faculty development, the program also continues to make its mark in 
other professional arenas by promoting and supporting opportunities for 
student and faculty scholarship across disciplines. Honors students 
have earned degrees from Princeton, Rutgers, NYU, Emory, Duke, 
Columbia, MUSC, Wake Forest, Elon Law School, Drew, NY School of Art, 
Syracuse, Georgetown, University of Oklahoma, University of Tennessee 
Knoxville, University of Florida, Ohio State University, University of 
Central Florida, University of Maryland, USC, George Washington, 
Howard, Texas Women's University, North Carolina State University, 
among others.
  The impact of the program on teaching excellence at Columbia College 
is revealed by the fact that all ten South Carolina Independent 
Colleges and Universities (SCICU) Outstanding Teacher Award recipients 
have been honors faculty or project mentors, and thirty of thirty-three 
Columbia College Faculty Excellence Award winners have taught in 
honors. Honors faculty have also garnered awards from the American 
Association of Higher Education, South Carolina Humanities Council, 
Methodist Board of Higher Education, South Atlantic Association of 
Departments of English, South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, 
National Association of Developmental Education, South Carolina 
Psychological Association, Carolina Communications Association, Project 
Kaleidoscope, and others. Most significantly, the program's director, 
Dr. John Zubizarreta, is a Carnegie Foundation/CASE U.S. Professor of 
the Year, the only professor ever from any institution in South 
Carolina to receive the nation's most prestigious teaching award.
  In the National Collegiate Honors Council--which this year celebrates 
five decades of providing diverse students with superior educational 
experiences for academic and professional careers--the Columbia College 
Honors Program enjoys an enviable reputation, built from the numerous 
presentations by students and faculty at yearly conferences, the 
service of several students on the NCHC and Southern Regional Honors 
Council Board of Directors, the director's election as NCHC and SRHC 
President, two students' recognition as National Honors Student of the 
Year and one as runner-up, thirteen student participants in NCHC Honors 
Semesters, four student participants in Partners-in-the-Parks programs, 
and more.
  Mr. Speaker, the Honors Program is widely regarded as the premier, 
internationally acclaimed academic program at Columbia College, and ask 
you and my colleagues to join me in paying homage to them.

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