Honors Program
- Honors Program Director Dr. Rebekah Dement, together with Assistant Professor of Political Science Dr. Margot Morgan, led a group of 14 IU Southeast students to the Mid-East Honors Association (MEHA) Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. The conference allows students from honors programs and colleges in the Mid-East region to share research, service, and creative projects. IU Southeast Honors Program students have participated in this conference since 2008, and this year’s gathering was the first in-person conference since 2019.
Front row (l-r): Hannah Fisher, Sierra French (A&L), Isabella Thompson (A&L), Kara Wright (A&L), Harlee Dorman (A&L), Gracie Kaine (A&L)
Back row (l-r): Dr. Margot Morgan, Reece Grace, Rebekah Smith, Keziah Jones, Rachel Wood, Jaime Young-Irvin (A&L), Tien-Lu Huang.
Photo: Dr. Rebekah DementThough IU Southeast was not the largest institution represented, we did have one of the largest student cohorts present—thanks to generous funding from Academic Affairs Excursions and from the Dean of Research. The Honors Program funded the remainder of the trip.Of the 14 students, six (the most from any school on campus!) represented the School of Arts and Letters, and they contributed to three research presentations and one roundtable presentation. Arts & Letters students have been highlighted in blue:Demystifying Success: Applying Improv in Daily Life Harlee Dorman (Senior)
Major: Strategic Communication (Multimedia Production)
Minor: Fine ArtsHave interpersonal skills become one of the casualties of COVID-19? After two years of social distancing, how can we rekindle our connections? Building on a growing field of study, a team of student and faculty researchers seeks to examine the impact of improvisational theater games on the interconnected skills of active listening, empathy, and confidence. Through this interactive workshop, the team will demonstrate how improvisation can supply various benefits and be applied in multiple contexts. Foremost among the benefits are increased focus and enhanced active listening and empathy, all of which have positive implications for more effective communication. The team’s research, including an ongoing, original study, explores improv’s application in higher education, in the workplace, and on mindset in general, with particular emphasis on group dynamics and performance theory. Initial findings indicate theater games positively impact self-confidence by empowering participants to leave their comfort zones, and participants also become more introspective in awareness of their individual and collective actions within the larger group. Through engaging MEHA attendees in some of these games, the research team will demonstrate the potential benefits of improvisational theater training–and will hopefully inspire attendees to apply the concepts to their daily lives. Gracie Kaine (Junior)
Major: Organizational Communication
Minor: TheatreRachel Wood (Junior)
Major: Secondary Education (English/Language Arts)
Minor: Creative WritingJaime Young Irvin (Senior)
Major: Communication (Theatre)
Minor: Creative WritingThis workshop presentation was a FIRST for IU Southeast! This ongoing project began as a Summer Faculty/Student Working Group Fellowship with Dean Hesselman, Dr. Dement, and the student researchers noted above.
Learn History by Living It: Research, Roleplay, React Isabella Thompson (Sophomore) Reacting to the Past (RTTP) simulations offer students an in depth, tangible application of course material. Through student research, collaboration, and engagement students explore real historical events and apply their academic acquisitions as teams in an interactive, competitive environment. According to Norton Publishers, “[RTTP] …emphasizes critical thinking, primary source analysis, and argument, both written and spoken.” Depending on their choices throughout the game, students may even deviate from the course of history and generate completely different outcomes. We would like to share our personal experiences and growth with RTTP’s games and how impactful it was in our understanding of history. 
Isabella Thompson contemplates Monet’s Water Lilies (Agapanthus) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Photo: Rebekah Dement
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