Building Community through Honors Primetime
Honors students find a deeper connection to the program through unique courses
By Lauren Wesseling
First-year honors student Hannah Feiz was brand new to the University of Iowa and overwhelmed with the changes that lay ahead. But Honors Primetime, a program designed to help new honors students feel right at home from the moment they step on campus, gave her direction.
Honors Primetime is a program exclusive to incoming first-year honors students, and it takes place during their first week on campus, before classes start. The program has a variety of workshops such as How Birds Work, Choose your Own Adventure at Iowa, City of Literature: A Writer’s Guide to Iowa, and so many more.
“It was nice to surround myself with people in the first week of being there,” Feiz said. “I was able to make connections with people. Altogether, it made the transition easier.”
Honors Primetime allows students to get out of the classroom and explore Iowa City while also providing opportunities geared toward bonding and getting to know other students. Faculty tailor every workshop to the interests of honors students, and with such a wide variety of options, every student has a Primetime that is perfect to welcome them to campus.
“Honors Primetime comes at a really unique point in time,” UI Honors Program Director Shaun Vecera said. “Everybody's on campus. They're excited to be here … They're all in this same position of being really pushed out of their comfort zone because of where they're at in their life.
“If you can put people together who already have a few things in common, you're just going to help that whole process,” he added. “I think what happens is that this unique point in time, structured by Primetime, gives students a good experience. And they realize, ‘Oh, I'm going to be able to find people who I like who do things that are similar to the things that I like.”
First-year honors student Leo Aschenbrenner credited Honors Primetime with helping him form relationships at Iowa and introducing him to activities on campus that led to new hobbies.
“Honors Primetime is a great way to meet your peers while having fun,” Aschenbrenner said.
The Primetime workshop Aschenbrenner signed up for was Choose Your Own Adventure at Iowa, and he spent some of his first few days on campus doing Pilates and rock climbing with other honors students.
His Primetime workshop even led him to pick up climbing as a hobby while also experiencing it with like-minded students. Aschenbrenner recommends Primetime to all new students.
“I think it was very influential during my first week on campus,” he said. “It was a great way to meet students like me. It made the honors community feel like a community.”
Another aspect that makes Honors Primetime unique is its longevity in helping you build connections, forming a community that will stay consistent and providing you with friendships that will last throughout your time at Iowa.
Second year honors student Eleanor Cooper-Ohm credits Honors Primetime for her meeting friends that she still has to this day.
“During Primetime, I was sitting there playing with chalk like a child because I was lonely,” Cooper-Ohm said. “Then this girl asked if she could do it with me, and as soon as the two of us started talking, everybody joined us, and we managed to make a group chat to go hangout. That girl and I are literally still best friends, and she lights up my life.”
