October 6 • Saturday • 12:15pm • Lampasas
Our annual Freshman Honors Retreat is a way to build the honors community by provicing an opportunity for freshman honors students to get to know each other and envision their future. Distinguished guests and Texas State faculty guide students through workshops on creativity and leadership, in addition to a variety of recreational activities. The day concludes with a dinner with invited faculty and honors alumni.
Fall 2012, activties were on the theme of the Common Experience: A Global Odyssey: Exploring our connections to the changing world; as well as a dinner, a talk by keynote speaker Alumni Rachel Brody, and an Ice Cream Social.
About our Guest Speaker:
Honors Alumnus Rachel Brody When she graduated in May of 2007, Rachel Brody received the Lyndon Baines Johnson Outstanding Senior award, and double majored in Psychology and Communication Studies. She completed an Honors thesis under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Hawkins entitled Creating Inclusive Environments for People with Prader-Willi Syndrome: An Extra-curricular-based Program in the U.S.A. and a Community-based Program in Costa Rica. While researching her thesis, Rachel traveled to Costa Rica during the fall of 2006.
After graduating Rachel moved to Washington D.C. to attend graduate school at George Mason University and to teach English and reading at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School for students with exceptionalities in her assignment with Teach For America. She served as a co-department chair for the Special Education department for the 2008-2009 school year and completed her Masters of Special Education in May 2009.
Currently she is working for KIPP DC - a charter school - as an Instructional Specialist for Special Education. At KIPP she teaches, coaches other teachers, facilitates professional development, and works on grants. This past summer, she had the opportunity to go to Lebanon and Estonia with the “Teach For All” organization, and facilitated sessions for their teaching fellows. She also had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in Israel the previous summer where she spent six weeks in an orphanage in a Palestinian refugee camp.
Rachel is currently planning her future, deciding between teaching abroad for a year or two, moving into the non-profit sector, or going back to grad school for either a second Master's degree or PhD. Her dream is to start a non-profit that provides resources for developing countries to establish programs in communities for kids with special needs. As she decides her future, Rachel is enjoying her experiences teaching in Washington D.C.
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