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Sami Kudsi

Several faculty members from our Honors Program recently participated in the symposium at Stanford.  Details follow:

On April 18, 2008 from 8 am to 4:30 pm CCSF students and instructors from the CCSF Honors Program attended and presented at the Bay Honors Consortium 1st Annual Research Symposium at Stanford University.

    At the symposium students presented the research projects they have worked on in their Honors Program courses at CCSF.  The format for the presentations was public speeches which in most cases included visual aids.  A Q&A session followed each presentation.  The main objective of the event was to encourage the exchange of ideas among community college students in a setting that was in some cases new to them:  A highly selective university.  An additional goal was to give Stanford University an up-close look at honors program students and their academic achievements in an effort to improve community college honors program transfer rates.

Student presenters from CCSF included Deborah Jutz, Christina Cauley-Forrest, Talisa Pace, Terrilynn Cantlon, David Beaulieu, Arata Goto, Sam Wldorski, Jennifer Showalter, Tiebebe Worku, Chirs Martin, Jerald Reodica, Suzy Fahmy, Natasha de Lange, Aaron Cornell, Shana Okuda, Michael Rowan, and Vincent Lui. Former CCSF Honors Program member and current Stanford transfer student Patrick Emelife served as a volunteer at the event helping students and faculty members register and find their rooms.  James Chang, from the CCSF chapter of Alpha Gamma Sigma also volunteered his time at the symposium registration desk.

    This was an intercollegiate event which included participation or attendance from community colleges all over California including San Diego Mesa College, College of the Redwoods, Skyline College, Foothill College, Las Positas College, West Valley College, Modesto Junior College, Los Medanos College, Sacramento City College, Merced College, and of course CCSF.  The event was also attended by Christina Tinsley, Transfer Alliance Project Coordinator from University of California, Berkeley.

    CCSF Faculty also attended the symposium serving as moderators for the various break out sessions and as mentors to the students they had in their Honors Program courses. CCSF instructors serving as moderators and mentors included Lillian Duck (Social Sciences Department), Christopher Greger (English Department), Sami Kudsi (English Department), and Matt Kennedy (Behavioral Science).  Diana Garcia-Dension (Foreign Languages) served as a mentor and attended the symposium.  Bob Davis (Music) and Kristina Whalen (English) served as mentors to some of the students but were unable to attend the symposium due to previous commitments.
    
After the Symposium the closing address was presented by Shawn Abbott, the Stanford University Director of Undergraduate Admission.  Mr. Abbott’s presentation was followed by a presentation by the Stanford Taiko, a group of  Stanford University Students who perform Japanese Taiko drumming.  Next came a workshop by Michael Pichay, Stanford University Admission Counselor, titled “How to Apply and Thrive at Highly Selective Universities” which included a panel of former community college honors students now attending Stanford University.  Campus Tours and a buffet lunch were also provided by Stanford University.
    
    Sami Kudsi, CCSF Honors Coordinator, was on the conference committee planning the event and served as the master of ceremonies for the opening ceremony and the closing session.  Mr. Kudsi is also the secretary for the Bay Honors Consortium and teaches the honors section of Speech 1A.  The planning sessions for the symposium were held every other month for two years at the CCSF Pierre Coste Dining Room.

    The CCSF Honors Program provides enhanced curriculum via honors sections and honors option contracts for members of the CCSF Honors Program. Honors credits appear on student’s transcripts and in most cases make them more competitive when applying for highly selective universities and colleges and give them access to honors only scholarship opportunities.   Individuals interested in the Honors Program at CCSF should visit the program web site ( http://www.ccsf.edu/Departments/Honors/ ), call 415-239-3376 or e-mail skudsi@ccsf.edu. For more information on the symposium please visit the symposium web site ( http://admission.stanford.edu/hrs/ ).  Additional pictures of the symposium can be viewed at http://www.voiceslikeyours.com/ .

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