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
University of Iowa Honors Program ● Student Staff – Honors Publications Editor
University of Iowa Honors Program ● Part-time Position
Flexible schedule with weekly supervision for preparing and editing Honors publications, including but not limited to the fall and spring honors newsletters; fall alumni publication, Alumni Connection; and the honors student collection publication, Honorable Works. An estimated 3-8 hours per week, variable.
The University of Iowa Honors Program invites interested students to apply for the position of Honors Publications Editor. This part-time student staff member will work with and report to the Honors Advising Director, Holly Blosser Yoder.
The successful applicant will be a highly motivated, self-directed, and responsible full-time undergraduate student interested in promoting Honors and communicating to the various constituents of the UIHP.
This student staff member works under the supervision of the Advising Director on the following tasks:
- Edits articles and text for publication by the UI Honors Program
- As part of the instruction team and in consultation with the Advising Director, assists with instruction of a class for honors publications writers, HONR:2900
- develops and updates instructional aids, e.g. slideshows, style guides
- posts material to the class ICON site
- creates and teaches lessons on relevant topics
- Generates ideas for articles together with students in the publications class
- Writes 1-2 articles about relevant topics, as needed
- Recruits other students to write and submit articles and photos for publication
- Meets weekly with instruction team about ideas, progress and deadlines for publication
- Manages writer submissions
- Writes titles and photo captions
- Determines article placement in consultation with the Honors Advising Director
- Communicates with the student design team to turn text and photos into a quality, printable publication for distribution to various honor constituencies
- Performs other duties as assigned
Necessary Skills & Experience:
- Able to take direction, initiate action, and work in cooperation with editorial team
- Excellent communicator with well-developed writing and editing skills
- Possess strong planning and organizational skills
- Successfully interact with writers, interview subjects and honors professional staff
- Excellent management of online collaboration via google docs or other file sharing methods
Desired Skills & Experience:
- Knowledgeable of University of Iowa Honors Program opportunities
- Knowledgeable about the content and methods of HONR:2900
- Skilled in the use of software applications useful for online publication such as Photoshop, InDesign and/or others
Competencies to be acquired (What the candidate can expect to gain on the job):
- Experience in management of the relationships and tasks involved in a successful enterprise
- Increased knowledge of the University and the UIHP in particular
- Enhancement of leadership, communication, instruction, and organization skills
Interested applicants are invited to submit a letter of interest and a current resume to Honors Advising Director Holly Blosser Yoder. A strong letter of interest will typically communicate why you are interested in applying for an opportunity, a brief description of the skills, knowledge, and experience you will bring to the position, and what you hope to learn from the work.
Contact the Advising Director by email (holly-yoder@uiowa.edu) with any questions.
Prospective candidates will be contacted by the Advising Director or student editors to arrange an interview time. All applicants will be notified of their status once the position is filled.
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:
- Assembling photos and captions for every article and securing permission/credit for them, delegating responsibility to the writers where appropriate.
- Copy/editing pieces before and after they’ve been put into the layout (and making sure they adhere to the University style guide)
- Writing/compiling 1-2 pieces for each newsletter
- Generating ideas for articles with students and professional staff
- Recruiting other students to write and submit articles and photos for publication
- Meeting with professional staff about ideas, progress, and deadlines for publication
- Drafting titles and selecting quotes to highlight the themes of articles
- Performing other duties as assigned
Necessary Skills & Experience:
- Ability to take direction, initiate action, and work in cooperation with the Advising Director and Publications Editor
- Well-developed writing and editing skills
- Ability to successfully interact with writers, interview subjects, and Honors professional staffinterview time. All applicants will be notified of their status once the position is filled.
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.