With a new school year comes few changes around campus. One of these changes is in the Honors Department. At the conclusion of Spring Semester 2018 Dr. Amy Livingstone of the History Department, former Director of the Honors Program, took on a new position at Ball State University as the Associate Dean of the Honors College. We wish Dr. Livingstone well in her new role and, moving forward, look to the rise of Wittenberg’s new Honors Director, Dr. Molly M. Wood.
Dr. Wood is a professor in the history department where her focuses are Modern United States History and Diplomatic History. She made the decision to step into the role of Honors Director when Dr. Livingstone, took her new position. She had worked closely with Dr. Livingstone and had an understanding of what the position entailed, as well as a first hand account of the benefit of reaching a new group of students. She was excited to have the opportunity to reach out to Honors students and get involved in their activities.
When asked to share one fun fact about herself, Dr. Wood admitted to being a huge fan of college basketball. One vision she has for the program is bringing brackets into the Matthies house for March Madness.
Regarding the Honors Program, Dr Woods believes that it should be a program offering “high achieving students the space to interact with others who share similar goals and learn from others who may excel in many different areas.”
In this position Dr. Wood will be working closely with assistant Beth Hallauer to continue the positive changes previously implemented. Some of these include administrative changes to the program that in turn improve the experience for students involved.
Dr. Wood also hopes to improve the environment of the Matthies Honors House, an amenity offered to those within the program. She would like to see a more cohesive community of Honors students emerge and provide “out-of-class” opportunities for growth among students. Finally, she hopes to strengthen the course offerings for Honors Seminars. These courses are mandatory and exclusive to the Honors students, but Dr. Wood hopes to bring more variety to their choices in their 3-4 year time in the program.
