I have been thinking more and more about the study abroad opportunities I might have access to through Phi Kappa Phi. My Honors Literature and Religion professor, Daniel Reff, also is the head of the Honors committee. The other day in class, he said that it is a shame that so few Honors students study abroad (I believe it is one in five), and that one should not be allowed to graduate without spending time out of the country. We expressed out frustration at the expense and the fact that we are so tied in to our Honors contracts (an individualized plan of classes an Honors student will take in order to graduate with Honors), there’s no time to study abroad without delaying graduation. We had an open dialogue for about an hour where for the first time in my experience Honors students were allowed to just freely…complain about the situation we are in. We are constantly working on this contract and getting classes approved, it doesn’t allow us time to study abroad or write a senior thesis, experiences that would allow us to apply some of that Honors knowledge. I’m grateful Professor Reff really listened to what we had to say, although I was surprised how unaware he was about Honors students feeling this way. Perhaps we will see some change in the coming years…it is a shame to in any way prevent bright students from taking advantage of every opportunity, just because of bureaucracy.