Honors Students Obtain Prestigious Archer Fellowship

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The Archer Fellowship Program program gives students from any UT System school the opportunity to intern full-time in Washington, DC. Archer fellows get working experience in public service as they complete their studies. Out of nine students

selected from UTA for the program, two of them are Honors students, Jaycee Weber and Maranda Spencer.

As a public relations senior and president of University Democrats, Jaycee said living and working in DC is her career goal. She hopes the program will help her achieve that dream.

“Just having that opportunity to be there will prepare me for a job and my future in political communications,” she said.

Being part of the Honors College was key to her success. The rigorous academic courses gave her an edge in the competitive application process. Now she’ll take the lessons she learned from her Honors courses and apply them to her professional career.

“The Honors College definitely helped me to prepare for the real world and for the future where I’ll be working in a job where I have to use the skills I learned in the classroom,” said Jaycee.

Maranda, political science junior, hopes to one day work in litigation. She said the opportunity wouldn’t have been available to her if it weren’t for the community support and financial help from the Honors College.

“The main reason I’m able to do 99% of the things that I’m able to do is because the Honors College is what’s paying for me to do these things, “ she said. “The fact that I have so many scholarship opportunities from the Honors College is the main thing that I’ve gained.”

Making The News: Honors Alumna Works As TV Producer

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Honors College alumna Raegan Cardwell spent much of her childhood reading and watching the news. In high school, she worked on the yearbook and even anchored for her school district’s monthly newscast. She always knew she wanted to go into journalism.

Raegan graduated from the Honors College in 2015 with two bachelor’s degrees in journalism and broadcast communications. Now she works as a morning show producer for KPTV in Portland, Oregon. Each night she comes in to write stories and put together newscasts. She decides what stories are important for the day and assigns stories to reporters.

When she was in high school, Raegan didn’t have a whole lot of money saved up for college. She planned on going to a community college but when she applied for the Distinction Scholarship at the Honors College, she ended up getting her four years paid for.

“Instead of having to focus on working a job to put myself through college, I had all this time to really explore different interests and really learn things about the world,” she said.

Looking back, she recognizes the value in taking Honors courses and connecting with students, faculty, and staff in the Honors community. She said the opportunities presented to her by the Honors College fueled her academic path to where she is today.

“I got to really delve into different topics on a wide range of subjects and you know when you go into journalism that’s really important, having a base of knowledge that’s really wide,” she said. “Really getting a good background in history, economics, and just random subjects has been really valuable with the job that I have now.”

Raegan also made full use of her time at UTA by getting involved in a variety of extracurriculars, including UTA News, UTA Radio, The Big Event Committee and Alternative Spring Break.

 

Honors Newsletter Editor Says Goodbye

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Veneratio newsletter editor Pablo Arauz Peña didn’t expect to get a job at the Honors College when he first applied for the position before the Fall 2016 semester. He had just transferred from another school and wasn’t an honors student. But he already had plenty of real-world experience previously working as an intern for NPR affiliate KERA and various local publications including D Magazine, Dallas Observer, and The Fort Worth Weekly. So, he applied anyway.

When he got the job, Pablo had some big ideas. Working under the supervision of Dr. Tim Henry and Dr. Kevin Gustafson, he revamped the college’s digital newsletter, improved the college’s social media presence and, along the way, shared fascinating stories of the brilliant students, faculty, and staff in Honors community. He also created the UTA Honors Blog, one of the most active blogs under the new Mavs Blog network.

With the help and support of the Honors College, Pablo gained plenty of opportunities for his journalism career. He obtained a news internship with The Society of Professional Journalists at the 2017 Excellence in Journalism news conference in Anaheim, California.

With the connections he made there, he brought a Google News Initiative event to the campus with the SPJ UTA chapter. Along with graduating with the class of Spring 2018, he received an honorary certificate for Outstanding Achievement from The Department of Communication.