On Friday morning, I woke up bright and early to catch a ride to the the Maryland Collegiate Honors Council Conference (MCHC). Located at Salisbury University on the Eastern Shore, the drive to MCHC was three hours long — or at least it should have been…
I had the pleasure of riding “the Pickle” — one of McDaniel’s many green student transportation vans — with a few classmates I knew and one I didn’t. The ride gave me the opportunity to get to know Shannon, a 29-year-old veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who was also presenting at the conference. Shannon and I had so much fun talking to each other and learning about each other as our peers slept in the back of the van that we missed a turn without realizing it. When I saw signs that were pointing the way toward Wilmington, Delaware, it occurred to me that something was amiss. When I checked my phone GPS, I learned that we had driven half an hour out of our way and had just crossed the Delaware border. Fortunately, no one was late for their presentation, and it was the sort of error that we were all able to laugh off, in spite of the fact that it caused us to be on the road for an extra hour.
I watched four student presentations before heading to one of Salisbury’s coffee shops to take a break and put the finishing touches on my own presentation. In the first panel I attended, one McDaniel student talked about Iran, and Shannon talked about her experience in Afghanistan. In the second panel, I heard a student from another college evaluate whether or not Hitler was an economic genius (he wasn’t), and I got to hear Leanna present about the Living Memorial in Budapest, Hungary.
I had an hour to myself in the coffee shop, as students from colleges across Maryland presented their scientific research during a poster session, and afterward, we had a catered dinner that included beef, salmon, mashed potatoes, and a very popular chocolate cake. After we ate, the MCHC board presented nominees for the Portz Award, an award that recognizes outstanding Honors students in Maryland. My friend Alexa from McDaniel was nominated, and while she didn’t win, I was proud to learn about her accomplishments and see her be recognized.
Cris and Sunshine gave a very fun performance at the MCHC open mic night.
After dinner, students from Salisbury’s honors program hosted an open mic night in the lounge in their student center. I stayed for a little bit to listen to people perform. Highlights included a Salisbury student who has two albums on iTunes and Sunshine and Cris, two McDaniel students who performed a fun duet.
Eventually, I decided to head back to the coffee shop to put more finishing touches on my presentation, and then ventured around Salisbury’s campus to find their library so I could print my presentation notes. Afterward, I went back to my hotel, where I did a little reading and readied myself for bed. If I had brought a bathing suit, I could have used the hotel’s hot tub, but in terms of luxury, I still had my choosing of one of four pillows that the hotel had provided on my bed.
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