2021 Issue of A+, the Honors College Magazine, Available Now

Chieko Hara

A+ reports on honors student research, including biomedical engineering junior Mary Jia's work with cutting-edge CRISPR tools to treat a rare disease.

The 2021 issue of A+, the Honors College Magazine, is available now. Come visit history professor Caree Banton, whose office is filled with African art, canonical texts and a beloved Black baby doll. View Sara Schellenberg's gorgeous paintings that look back to childhood scenes through an adult lens, and learn how honors courses led Michael Fuhrman to his thesis topic, an oral history project with members of Fort Smith's Pho Minh Buddhist Temple. 

A+ also reports on the latest honors student research, from Morgan Walker's cancer narrative, a series of poems inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, to Mary Jia's use of the latest CRISPR gene editing tools to tackle a rare disease. 

Our feature article, "Point A to Point Z," presents three case studies of four alumni who decided to do what they want to do, where they want to do it, on their own timetable — and succeeded brilliantly.

To celebrate the U of A's 150th birthday, A+ presents two videos this year: 

• "Band Aid" chronicles Emily Myers' crusade to protect the hearing of members of the Razorback Marching Band.
   
• "The Legacy of Bad Times: Black Student Experiences at the U of A" presents a campus tour led by students who took Interim Chancellor Charles Robinson's honors forum, BAD Times, last fall. They scoured archives, interviewed students and alumni, and collected stories that enrich our understanding of the Razorback community. Take the tour with us and learn from the past, as we work toward a more just and equitable future.  

"A+ is the perfect place to get real-life stories about honors students, some of them straight from the pens of the students themselves," said Honors College Dean Lynda Coon. "Check it out — you might see some familiar faces within its pages."