Students build community during Honors Formal

For the first time, Coastal Carolina University’s honors students had the chance to attend their own formal. 

On Friday, Feb. 20, CCU’s HTC Honors College hosted an Honors Formal at Brooks Stadium in the West Zone Suite. 

The formal was planned and organized by the Honors Student Council (HSC), which consists of honors students who plan community, fundraising and service events for the 800 HTC Honors College members. 

HSC Vice President Calliope Warren, a sophomore psychology major, proposed the idea last year and began planning the event last summer. Her idea was to bring honors students together where they can celebrate their work. 

“I noticed freshman year that a lot of us didn’t have the time for sororities or that kind of thing, and it was just a common thing that would come up in conversations of like, ‘oh, we wish we had an event where we could all get together and hang out,” Warren said.  

Warren explained the importance of having fun and enjoying time at college, even while excelling academically.  

Associate Dean of the HTC Honors College Louis Keiner shared how important it is for students to pave the way for their peers while having the support of the college.  

“I think it’s extremely valuable for honors students to actually have this where they can do it and plan it themselves, and then they don’t have to go outside for a wonderful event like this,” Keiner said. 

Michele Varga, director of academic development and honors programming for the HTC Honors College, helped organize and plan the event. 

“I think that the biggest outcome from this is to continue to build community, which is really important to us for honors,” Varga said. “That’s one of our main focuses, is building community, not only academics but social and giving students the opportunity to attend an event that is not alcohol forward.” 

Honors student Shannon O’Ryan, a freshman and an undecided major, heard about the event through a Monday memo email sent out to honors students and used her guest ticket to invite a friend who wanted to share the honors experience for the first time. “My favorite part is just dressing up. To be honest, I just like an excuse to look pretty. I like the drinks, like the cherry drinks are really good. And the music was good too,” O’Ryan said. 

Songs played included, “Party in the U.S.A” by Miley Cyrus, “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex and “I Love It” by Icona Pop. 

Warren dedicated Taylor Swift’s “When Emma Falls in Love,” to one of her friends, Emma Ioele. It was used as one of the slow songs for attendees to dance to.  

“My favorite part is when everybody finally got out on the dance floor,” said Warren. “And just seeing everyone have fun, seeing smiles on people’s faces, is why I did this.” 

Warren hopes the dance will become a fall tradition, giving honors students the chance to connect and get to know one another earlier in the year. 

Before the party got fully started, awards were announced. They were presented to students and faculty.  

This award ceremony allowed students to nominate faculty and vice versa. Awards were given to those who went above and beyond in their research, class projects or other engaging activities.  

“I’m hoping that [awards] will kind of help showcase all the things that kind of go unnoticed,” Warren said. 

Faculty who nominated students included Varga, visiting Assistant Professor of Honors Jessica Holmes, Associate Professor and Department Chair Keaghan Turner and Honors Program Coordinator Celsa Noce. 

One student recipient was Jacob McLamb, a junior English education major. Turner nominated McLamb which led him to receive the Lore Master Award. 

“It is for my exemplary speech I gave at the Southern Regional Honors Conference for The Legend of Zelda series, tying the game series to nature and nurture,” McLamb said. 

Turner also nominated Clayton Lindblad for the Honors Unplugged Award, Anthony Griffith for the Community Connector Award and Crosby Long for the Solid Object Awareness Award.  

Varga nominated Rayvin Johnson for the Compassionate Presence Award, Jennifer Angel for the Conversational Enthusiast Award and Olly Simons for the Huddle Hero Award. 

Holmes nominated Liam Warrilow for the Accidental Novelist Award and Noah Banks for the Beyonce Correlation Award.  

Noce nominated Kimora White for the Growth and Grace Award. 

Professor awards were announced and handed out by Warren. Keiner was awarded the Sunshine Award.  

Varga won Staff Member of the Year Award and the Surprise Award for her hard work and dedication to the honors students and formal preparations.  

While Holmes received the Most Engaging Classroom Award; Justin Vaughn received the Honors Professor of the Year Award and Turner received the Exceptional Mentor Award.