AUSTIN, Texas – Six hundred of the state’s most outstanding high school students will arrive at The University of Texas at Austin Thursday (July 23) to participate in a three-day colloquium of academic lectures, campus tours, group discussions and social events.
The students are chosen on the basis of test scores and academic achievement, and most will end up later competing in National Merit, National Achievement or National Hispanic Scholarship competitions. The 17th annual event provides the high school students a chance to interact with University faculty and students and learn about the educational opportunities at UT Austin.
The Honors Colloquium also has been a successful recruiting tool for the University – about 40 percent of the students who have attended have matriculated at UT.
During their three days on campus, the high school students will be able to choose from among 60 special academic lectures presented by University faculty members, including Dr. Paul Woodruff, who will speak on “Telling Lies – A Problem of Ethics”; Dr. Mark L. Smith, who will discuss “Seeing the World as Art”; and Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum, whose topic will be “Detection of Pre-Cancer: The Role of Biomedical Engineering.”
Also among the lecture possibilities is a talk on the issues of life and death by Dr. Sheldon Ekland-Olson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and another on existentialism and the meaning of life by Dr. Robert Solomon of philosophy. In addition, students can choose from several interdisciplinary panel discussions with faculty on subjects like health care and social problems in the 21st Century.
A geology field trip is planned as well as tours of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, UT athletic facilities, the Performing Arts Center and the Academic Computing and Instructional Technology Services center. Students will visit chemistry and physics circuses and attend a performance of scenes from Grease performed by high school students enrolled in a summer theater workshop.
Honor students will be arriving at Jester Center Thursday between 1 and 4 p.m. Dr. Howard Miller of the history department will deliver an opening address Thursday night in the PAC. For other times and locations of events, contact Paul Pedersen at 232-3993 in the student affairs office.
