Honors student staff play an integral role in providing the support our program needs to operate. They reinforce our community by managing the reception office, coordinating events and programs, overseeing the Blank Honors Center facility, and providing customer service to current and prospective students, families, and the UI community.
blank honors center
As an Honors Student Employee, You Will:
- Build a practical skill set which will be transferrable to a variety of work environments,
- Expand your knowledge of the program therefore increasing your own opportunities as a member of Honors at Iowa,
- Make connections with students, faculty, staff, administrators, parents, and more!
Honors Admin
Position Summary:
- Provide administrative support for the Honors Program and manage reception desk activity on the 4th floor of the Blank Honors Center.
- Serve as the first point of contact to anyone who calls, emails, or walks in.
- Develop a focus area utilizing your skills and interests to serve a need for the program such as outreach, assessment, development, process improvement, or creative engagement.
Responsibilities:
- Monitor shared spaces on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Blank Honors Center.
- Act as an Honors Program liaison to parents/families, high school students, current students, international students, faculty, staff, and outside guests in a professional manner.
- Serve as honors outreach, manage a social media accounts, and/or publish the weekly Honorable Messenger e-mail newsletter.
- Manage the departmental e-mail account, answer guest questions, schedule appointments, answer telephones, and perform other reception duties as needed.
- Respond to requests for honors admission and clearly communicate entry requirements; Provide referrals for advising on honors curricular and graduation requirements.
- Accept, review, and process incoming forms and applications.
- Other duties as assigned, including those that fall within your assigned focus area.
- Specializations for admins include editing/designing the weekly Honorable Messenger e-letter, managing/editing Note to Self Blog, Honors Instagram, Honors Facebook, graphic design, website editing, and more.
Honors Peer Mentor
Position Summary:
Honors peer mentors, as part of a team of 10-12 staff, provide general advising about honors coursework and experiential learning with special attention to students who have yet to complete 12 semester hours of honors credit, the coursework component of the University Honors curriculum. Peer mentors offer all honors advisees mentoring and referrals for experiential learning from a menu of options. This is a staff position paid with a scholarship, and generally requires an average of 5-8 hours per week, including regular staff meetings, varying across the semester.
Responsibilities:
- Meet with Honors Advising Director weekly and other professional staff as needed to plan and manage key aspects of honors peer advising
- Scheduling
- Caseload Updates
- Timely Communication and Messaging
- Content of Mentoring Meetings
- Advertise availability for appointment scheduling
- Track student attendance at mentoring meetings and report to Honors Advising
- Offer weekly walk-in advising on a regular basis
- Provide outreach by email to mentee caseloads regularly (every 1-2 weeks)
- Participate in alternative opportunities for mentoring and advising as needed
- Honors Welcome Sessions
- Group Advising
- Provide comments on student narratives in the Honors Program Portal in ICON, track, and report alongside student attendance at mentoring meetings (see item 3)
- Serve as a student advisory group for Honors Advising
- Assist with recruitment, selection and training of new Peer Mentors, as needed, in coordination with the Advising Director
- Assist current student applicants to the honors program with their plans for coursework and experiential learning
- Provide honors orientations as needed to new members
- Other tasks assigned by the Honors Advising Director or mutually determined by the staff
Honors Newsletter Editor
Work with our Advising Director to recruit and train student writers to contribute to Honors Publications including the Honors Newsletter, Alumni Connection, student guides, and program blog Note to Self, and edit each publication. This position generally requires 1-5 hours per week. Students interested in WRITING for honors publications should contact the publications advisor holly-yoder@uiowa.edu. (Writers register for HONR:2900 and earn semester hour credit that fulfills either the honors coursework or experiential learning requirement.)
Honors Editorial Specialist
Position Summary:
Preparing and editing Honors publications, including but not limited to the Honors Newsletter. Hours per week, variable, 1 to 5.
This student staff member works under the supervision of the Advising Director and in collaboration with the Honors Publications Editor and, where appropriate, the Design Editors on the following tasks:
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Assembling photos and captions for every article and securing permission/credit for them, delegating responsibility to the writers where appropriate.
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Copy/editing pieces before and after they’ve been put into the layout (and making sure they adhere to the University style guide)
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Writing/compiling 1-2 pieces for each newsletter
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Generating ideas for articles with students and professional staff
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Recruiting other students to write and submit articles and photos for publication
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Meeting with professional staff about ideas, progress, and deadlines for publication
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Drafting titles and selecting quotes to highlight the themes of articles
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Performing other duties as assigned
Necessary Skills & Experience:
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Ability to take direction, initiate action, and work in cooperation with the Advising Director and Publications Editor
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Well-developed writing and editing skills
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Ability to successfully interact with writers, interview subjects, and Honors professional staff
Honors Design Editor
This student staff member works with the Editorial Team on the following tasks:
- Planning and implementing design for Honors Publications including the Alumni Connection, Honors Newsletter, and student guides.
- Generating ideas for publication design with the student writers, Editorial Team and Advising Director.
- Meeting weekly or as necessary with the Editorial Team about ideas, progress and deadlines for publication.
- Performing other duties as assigned.
Necessary Skills & Experience:
- Able to take direction, initiate action, and work in cooperation with the Editorial Team.
- Possess strong planning and organizational skills.
- Successfully interact with student co-workers and Honors professional staff.
- Excellent graphic arts layout skills.
- Skilled in the use of software applications useful for online publication such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator.