Honors Community

As an undergraduate, Danielle Judge's fascination with language took shape in her senior thesis on relational linguistics in George MacDonald's novel, At the Back of the North Wind. She continues to be deeply engaged with questions of language & relationship as an English teacher to homeschooled students through Home Life Academy.

Chelsea Johnson's DSH work in Engineering allowed her to focus on the tools and problems of aeronautical design. Johnson presented her research at the American Physical Society Conference in Boston, and went on to pursue an MS in Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Mary Swisher's thesis on "The Evangelical Setting in Modern-Day France" directly prepared her for her current work with YoungLife in Grenoble, France.

Whitney Rio-Ross's double major in English and Philosophy birthed a thesis on the Christ image in Flannery O'Connor's fiction. Rio-Ross went on to get her MA in Religion & Literature at Yale Divinity School and is now a poet and editor for Fare Forward literary magazine.

Jacob Lloyd Smith studied Matthew 27:52-53 for his DSH thesis in the School of Theology & Missions, then completed an MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and now serves as pastor at Union Baptist Church in Texas.

Joshua Stucky's DSH thesis in Math, "Explorations in Number Theory," won Best Paper at a regional convention of the national math honor society during his senior year. Stucky now holds a PhD in Mathematics from Kansas State University and is doing post-doctoral research and teaching at the University of Georgia.

DSH Physics student Emilie Huffman went on to earn her PhD in Physics at Duke University. She is now pursuing post-doctoral research at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada.

Amy Murdaugh completed her DSH thesis in Mathematics, "Determining Unique Local Minima in Fitting Models of Complex Systems." She is currently pursuing a PhD in Mathematical Sciences at Clemson University.

Special Education major Joanna Cumbie used her DSH work to create a research-based handbook for Union's EDGE program mentors. She went on to participate in the Memphis Teacher Residency and works as a special education inclusion teacher in Memphis.

Shea McCollough's Discipline-specific Honors work in English took him deep into the intersections of philosophy, theology, and literature as he studied the work of medieval mystics. He is continuing this research as a PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis.