By Molly Ashline, Staff Writer

Published in print Mar. 4, 2015

Last Friday, the Lloyd International Honors College (LIHC) held its fifteenth annual honors symposium where honors students present their research throughout the day.

The symposium concluded with a keynote address by Dr. Bruce Kirchoff of the biology department and the distribution of awards.

The paper presentations were divided into sessions based on topic. The topics were wide-ranging and included themes like “Business In Practice,” “Liberal Arts Potpourri,” “Trojan War Narratives” and many others.

Awards were given out in three categories: visiting awards, humanities and fine arts and sciences and professional schools.

The first prize for visiting students was given to Lois Triplett from Durham Technical Community College for her paper on masculinity in geek culture. Second and third prizes were awarded to Katie Fullerton from Guilford College and Jessica Quah from Greensboro College, respectively.

The winner of the humanities and fine arts first prize was Nicole Schachter for her paper on the differences in German and American suffering.

First prize for sciences and professional schools was awarded to A. Lynn Cochran for her paper on the B. Everett Jordan Reservoir. Cochran received a prize in this category last year as well.

The award ceremony was preceded by Kirchoff’s address.

Dr. Angela Bolte, from the LIHC, introduced Kirchoff. Dr. Jerry Pubantz, current LIHC dean, was also in attendance for the keynote address and award ceremony.

The keynote presentation was entitled, “What is this thing called teaching?”

Kirchoff discussed struggling students, study methods and finding meaning through education.

At the beginning of his speech, Kirchoff recounted a story about a student struggling in his class.

He used this story as a framework to discuss a study method called, “The White Paper Method,” which relies on repetition and self-correction.

“The beauty of this piece of white paper is that there’s nothing on it…the white paper then serves us as a way of eliciting from the student what they know,” said Kirchoff.

Kirchoff went on to say that the white paper method is a “student-centered activity.”

Kirchoff also encouraged audience participation throughout his address. He asked the audience questions like, “What do they do with this piece of paper?” and “Why doesn’t the white paper work for everyone?”

The latter question was followed by Kirchoff’s perception of the relationship between professor and students.

“We students and teachers are really in this process together,” said Kirchoff.

He continued, saying, “Enthusiasm for the subject is one of the most important things that I think a teacher can bring to their students.”

He then emphasized the importance of a college education and why colleges have not become obsolete even with increased access to information.

“Lecturers do a lot more than present knowledge…but university is not just about the knowledge. It’s important…it’s a complex system,” said Kirchoff.

Kirchoff built to an emotional finish wherein he discussed finding meaning in education via finding meaning in life.

“We can’t give that meaning to the students. We can’t find that for them, but we can find it for ourselves and show the students through ourselves that we have found it…a lot is at stake,” Kirchoff argued.

“It’s all great stuff that’s at stake,” he continued, “There is a fantastic world out there; not the world of the media, not the world of one-dimensional political discourse…a world of sunsets and sunrises.

“A world that is dying for our creativity,” Kirchoff concluded.