he Spinal Cord Regeneration seminar was one of nine offered in spring 2003 to students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Honors Program, which is directed by Dr. Barbara Kirby, assistant director of Academic Programs in the College.

The program, offered to CALS sophomores and juniors with a grade point average of 3.35 or higher, includes a seminar usually taken in the second semester sophomore year, followed by a year of teaching or research as a junior or senior.

The seminar is a discussion course, which uses the team concept to promote methods of scientific inquiry and interdisciplinary communication. Teaching usually involves working with a professor in a lab context, helping to design a workbook or teaching module, or creating an honors problem session, culminating in a poster or oral presentation at the College’s annual Undergraduate Teaching Symposium. Research involves a project under faculty supervision and a poster presentation at the university’s Undergraduate Research Symposium.

“The seminar course and subsequent research or teaching experience can be an epiphany in career decisions, coming at a formative stage in a student’s curriculum,” says Dr. Robert Grossfeld, who has coordinated the program’s seminars. “Through such programs, CALS and the university work together to provide exposure to and opportunities for scholarly research early in the academic experience.”

The program seeks to energize students to take responsibility for their education, he adds.

“The CALS Honors Program provides many bright students a special opportunity to work together on an interesting topic with their peers and a faculty sponsor in a small group setting,” says Grossfeld. “The creativity and bravado of youth can lead a topic in unexpected directions.”