Welcome to the NMU Honors Program's Latest News Page!
This page is dedicated to celebrating All Things Honors: Perhaps you're a current student working on an amazing project in your field of study. Maybe you're a NMU Honors Program alumni that recently graduated with your Doctorate. Or, you're Honors faculty that just published an article. Whatever the reason, we want to hear from you! To be featured, check out our submission form below.
Latest News Stories
Honors Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Nick Dupras
One of our thoughtful students nominated Honors Program & History professor Dr. Nick Dupras to be featured on our page! Keep reading to learn more about the man behind the infamous mustache and exciting RTTPs.
When did you start working at NMU? I started as an adjunct in 2015, then was on a full-time term contract for 2020 and was hired tenure-track in 2021.
Is there a particular historical event/time period that ignited your passion for history? My grandpa was in the Navy in the Pacific during World War Two and always told me stories about it. Then, reading about one thing in history would lead me to another, and another, and another. Even though now my specialty is the European Middle Ages, I still love learning about the history of many different times, peoples, and places.
Why did you choose to teach history? Originally I wanted to be a high school history teacher, and that was my plan when I became a student at NMU in 2002. However, as my main interest came into focus I realized that while I still wanted to teach, what I really wanted was to teach at the college level. Besides the opportunities for research, I wanted to be able to go deeper into a broader range than is usually possible within a high school history curriculum.
What do you enjoy about teaching in the Honors Program? There are a lot of things that make teaching in Honors enjoyable! By far the best thing is the students. They almost never have any experience with the subject matter (what do you mean there was science before Copernicus?) but they dive into it with enthusiasm. Even though a lot of it is challenging, Honors students have a tendency to go above and beyond in their desire to learn.
How do you spend your time outside of the classroom? I spend time reading, and with my family. I also like to make things; I like to sew, do metalwork, those sorts of things.
What's your favorite memory from teaching at NMU? It would have to be some things that happened in the Reacting to the Past (RTTP) games I use in many of my classes. Students have stood on tables and harangued the crowd, made secret deals and betrayed allies for political power, and gotten down on their knees pleading for their life to be spared. I should clarify that these are historical roleplay games that immerse students in the ideas and conflicts of a particular time, and nobody actually dies. Students that "die" always respawn in a new role. At the end they come away with a much deeper appreciation for and understanding of the event than they might have had I just assigned a paper on the topic.
What's your favorite spot(s) to visit in the Marquette area? Big Bay, probably. Is that still the Marquette area? My family has had a camp out there since the '70s, and it's my favorite place. Closer to town it would be Presque Isle and Sugarloaf Mountain (my great-grandfather was the stonemason that built the monument to Bart King at the top!)
What's a fun fact that not many people know about you? I don't know what I look like without a mustache. I've had one since I was 14, though I didn't grow the handlebars until 2010.
2024-25 Honors Program Recap
Written by this school year's Honors Student Ambassadors!
Fall 2024
Written by Honors Student Ambassador, Erin O'Donnell '25
Our Fall semester kicked off the night before school started with our second annual Honors Program Opening Banquet! Our class of incoming Honors students enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by our catering department while getting to know each other and learning more about Honors. A few weeks into the Fall semester, we held our annual Ice Cream Social! Honors students met up in Whitman Commons to chat, play ice breakers, and eat ice cream together.
For the entirety of this semester, Northern’s construction crew has been working on renovations to the library in Harden Hall. Good news: once construction is complete in late 2025, the Honors Program will be moving into the brand new building! Although we’ll miss our home in Whitman, our new offices in Harden will be much closer to the center of campus.
Honors student Amber Wager and 2024 Lundin Summer Research Fellowship recipient Olivia Brill attended this year’s NCHC Conference in Kansas City along with Dr. Joy. Amber presented on "Analysis of Trace Heavy Metals Within Produce in Marquette", and Olivia Brill presented on "Development of a Rapid Assay for Detection of the Isocitrate Dehydrogenase 2 (IDH2) R172K Point Mutation Using Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA)".
Dr. Joy and Dr. Zimmer were invited to present at this year’s Sonderegger Symposium, which honored NMU’s 125th anniversary. They presented “Well-Read Wildcats: A History of the NMU Honors Program”, including the legacy of Honors Programs that existed before our creation.
Winter 2025
Written by Honors Student Ambassador Meliina Kesti '26
We started our winter 2025 semester optimistically with a “Hakuna Matata!” by visiting the Appleton’s Fox Cities Performing Arts Center for a day trip in late January, where our Honors students, along with the English Department students, were able to see The Lion King in musical form! The students were also given some time to explore downtown Appleton and get away from campus for the day.
This winter semester was snowy and cold, but that didn't stop our Honors students from taking advantage of the weather. On February 23rd, the Honors Program, along with the Department of Languages, Literatures and International Studies held a Skate Night utilizing the on-campus outdoor ice rink. The evening was filled with good times with friends, accompanied by some light exercise.
Each semester, we also hold a catered Meet Your Professor lunch where our upcoming Honors faculty can present their classes for the following semester. Several of our students attended and heard from enthusiastic professors about their creative and innovative ideas for Fall 2025 classes. The students in attendance were excited about the upcoming class offerings and got a bite to eat as well!
To round up our semester, the Honors Student Ambassadors held an annual Bob Ross painting event where they followed a tutorial from the infamous painter called “Mountain Ridge Lake.” The afternoon was relaxing and inspired by the joys of painting, as well as a lunch of grilled paninis and snacks.
NMU Honors Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Corey Green '13
Article written by Honors Student Ambassador Meliina Kesti '26 & Honors Admin Assistant Sam Marier '11
NMU Honors Program graduates are involved in a broad range of opportunities after graduation, and Honors Alumni Dr. Corey Green is no exception. Corey earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology and Ecology in 2013. Inspired by his experiences abroad as a Northern student – which included studying mosquitos in the Amazon rainforest and teaching English as a second language to rural K-6 students in South Korea – Corey was invested in furthering his education on a global scale. While earning his Master’s from Sam Houston State University, Corey spent a summer in Zimbabwe investigating mercury contamination from small-scale gold mining and its environmental impacts. (Check out his article published in Science of the Total Environment.) After earning his Master’s in 2017, Corey spent a year working with invasive insects, bat surveys, parasite work in arctic waterfowl (USGS), and Red Cockaded Woodpecker conservation.
For the next five years, Corey pursued his PhD at the University of Texas, as well as working with a private consulting firm, Abt Global. With Abt Global, he assessed injuries from Perfluoralkyl and Polyfluoralkyl substances (PFAS), a grouping of synthetic chemicals known broadly as “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment and the human body. His findings supported litigations for the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration. (Click here for more details.) At the University of Texas, his dissertation focused on the neurotoxic, behavioral, developmental, and mechanistic effects of polychlorinated biphenyls on zebrafish. (Check out his work sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, recently published in the journal Chemosphere.)
After finishing his PhD in 2023, Corey is now an assistant professor of biology at Eastern New Mexico University. He teaches several courses, advises graduate students specializing in environmental toxicology, and mentors undergraduate students working in his lab. Since his third semester at ENMU, Corey has been awarded $650,000 in grant funding, and his dedication to scientific research was recently recognized and featured in the New Mexico Water Resource Research Institute’s monthly newsletter.
Dr. Corey Green believes that his non-traditional career path was influenced heavily by his time spent at NMU, particularly the Honors Program. He was challenged to think critically and be open to new experiences, which has made a foundational impact on his career:
The time I spent at NMU has been foundational for my entire career. The Honors Program in particular challenged me to think outside of the traditional paradigm we as scientists often find ourselves. Being open to new experiences and ways to view the world has been a through-line throughout my career and has led me down a rather non-traditional path. This has allowed me to put everything I do as a researcher and a mentor into a much broader context, opening up more opportunities and reaching many more students.
Apply for the NMU Stratford Festival Experience!
Are you interested in an international opportunity that will earn 4 credits towards Upper Division Honors? Check out this message from Dr. Wood:
Greetings, NMU Honors Program students:
My name is Dr. David Wood, and I serve as NMU English Professor and Department Head. I'm writing to you to announce NMU's Fall 2025 Stratford Festival field course, designed to give NMU students an opportunity to enjoy first-hand the incredible theatrical experiences available in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Since 2009, more than 140 NMU student participants have enjoyed this experience immensely. Here's why.
"The NMU Stratford Festival Experience" is a field-based course designed to give NMU students an opportunity to experience first-hand Canada's world-renowned Stratford Festival. Over the course of a five-day international field trip, participants will view and discuss SIX PLAYS, including: 1) an adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic Canadian tale, Anne of Green Gable; 2) an adaptation of Jane Austen's incredible novel, Sense and Sensibility; 3) an adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos's novel Dangerous Liaisons; 4) arguably Shakespeare's most sublime Romance, The Winter's Tale; 5) arguably Shakespeare's most extraordinary Comedy, As You Like It; and 6) arguably Shakespeare's most intense Tragedy, Macbeth.
What a truly exceptional lineup!
Participants in this course will read these plays during the upcoming summer, before we head to Stratford to view them from August 18-22, 2025. Upon our return to campus, students work with the course Instructor to develop a research project to pursue for academic credit during NMU’s Fall 2025 semester, based upon their experiences with both text and performance in Stratford.
For more information, including the incredibly minimal cost of the trip, please see the attachment below. Those interested should submit their application (as detailed in the flyer, as well) to Course Instructor Dr. David Wood (dwood@nmu.edu) by 5pm on Friday, February 7, 2025.
Sincerely,
David.
Isabelle Honkomp Awarded at the American Association of Geographers Conference
Written by Honors Student Ambassador Meliina Kesti '26
Isabelle Honk
Award winners for the American Association of Geographers conference for the East Lakes/West Lakes division undergraduate research paper competition.
Below is a list of additional Honors Program-affiliated conference participants and their research initiatives:
- Lola Rigano: Stakeholders’ Engagement on Sustainable School Garden Implementation: What it Means and What it Needs
- Jelili Adebiyi: Growers’ Adoption of USDA GAP, Other Harmonized GAP & Group Produce Audits: Drivers, Constraints, and Fostering Improved Implementation and Exploratory Investigation of the Plastic Consumption Habits of Marquette County Residents, Upper Peninsula Michigan
Participating students of the EEGS department of Northern Michigan University at the American Association of Geographers Conference for the East Lakes/West Lakes division.
Isabelle's research is centered around an event that assists local leaders and community members of Marquette County in adjusting to climate change. She contributed to this initiative by developing and hosting six community-wide learning circle events. This event format brings stakeholders, community leaders, and elected officials together to have informed discussions about the region's future. She explains “Essentially, we are hosting conversations today so that our community is ready for the next 25 years of climate change adaptations and resilience.” After each event, Isabelle summarized the key themes that were discussed. The learning circles centered around key concepts including food systems, trash and recycling, healthcare, housing/transportation/public services, economic development/diversification, energy/power, and water/land use. A specific topic was explored at each of the six sessions. Through these discussions she was able to understand different perspectives, proactively think about the future of Marquette County, and collaborate with others to form a shared vision of our environment.
The conference was extremely impactful to her research. She had the opportunity to present and explain her research to other students and faculty. She also interacted with other students and faculty from other universities and learned about their programs, especially graduate students, which significantly impacted her strive to further her education in research.
Amber Wager Delivers Crime Lab Seminar
Written by Honors Student Ambassador Erin O'Donnell '25
Amber was quite happy with how the seminar went, saying “it was really successful! There were a lot of attendees, and lots of questions were asked. I was able to share my experience with the entire Chem faculty.” Amber is grateful to have gained such substantial real-world experience in her field of interest, and looks forward to applying this knowledge to her degree.
Meet the Fall 2024 Honors Program Team!
Dr. Michael Joy, Professor of Spanish, became Director of the NMU Honors Program in June 2019. He had previously served as the Interim Director and then the Assistant Director from 2013-19. He holds a BA in Spanish from Carleton College as well as an MA and PhD from the University of Minnesota. His area of research is the literature of the Spanish Renaissance. He has taught an Honors course centered around the novel Don Quixote since 2011.
Dr. Anna Zimmer, Honors Program Assistant Director
Dr. Anna Zimmer, Associate Professor of German & International Studies, became Assistant Director of the Honors Program in October 2019. She has taught at NMU since 2015 and for the Honors Program since 2017. She holds a B.A. from Carleton College, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in German from Georgetown University. Dr. Zimmer researches twentieth- and twenty-first century Germanophone literature, memory, and migration studies. Some of this research inspired the development of her Honors 201 course, which focuses on art and literature from around the world after 9/11.
Sam Marier ‘11, Honors Program Principal Administrative Assistant
Samantha (Sam) Marier earned her B.S. in English Writing at NMU in 2011. After graduating from Northern, she dabbled in a variety of roles with film festivals and in banking before her current position with the Honors Program and the Department of Languages, Literatures and International Studies. Sam has been supporting both departments since April 2019. In her free time, she enjoys walking around Presque Isle, and volunteering as a screener for film festivals in D.C., Vancouver, and Marquette.
In April 2024, Dr. Michael Joy, Dr. Anna Zimmer, and Sam Marier received the NMU Distinguished Team Award! They are pictured here with Former President Brock Tessman.
Erin O’Donnell is a senior at NMU who is currently completing her undergraduate degree in Secondary Education and English. During the upcoming Winter semester, she will be completing her student teaching, part of which she hopes to complete in New Zealand. She has served many roles on campus, including Resident Advisor, Orientation Leader, Honors Ambassador, and NMU Ambassador. She is also the secretary of NMU’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta (an English honors society) and a board member of Future Educators of NMU. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, watching movies, and spending time outdoors.
Meliina Kesti is a junior at NMU working towards her undergraduate degree in Biology with a concentration in microbiology with a minor in integrative science. Along with her position in the Honors Program she also is a stockroom worker in the Chemistry Department on campus. She has been involved in several clubs on campus as well including Feminism For All and Art Therapy Club. In her free time she enjoys spending time running and hiking the trails around Marquette, relaxing by the water to read in her hammock, and visiting the local farmers market.
2023-24 Honors Program Recap
Written by the Winter 2024 Honors Program Student Ambassadors, Mary Kelly '24 and Erin O'Donnell '25.
Fall 2023
We had a jam-packed school year here in the Honors Program! Things kicked off right away with our first-ever Honors Program Opening Banquet for incoming freshmen. This event took place at the Northern Center on Sunday, August 27th, which was the evening before classes started. We have a whopping 122 students in this year’s freshman cohort, almost all of whom were able to join us for this night of delicious food and wonderful conversation. Additionally, some current honors students joined us for dinner in order to greet our new students and answer any questions they had. This event also gave us a great opportunity to snap a photo of our incoming freshman class (left).
Less than two weeks after our banquet, we held our yearly ice cream social for all Honors Program students. This event, which was held at the Wahtera Pavilion here on campus, gave honors students the chance to mingle with each other, catch up on their summers, and get to know each other better. While enjoying our ice cream, we played a few ice breakers and various lawn games.
On October 7th, we departed for our annual fall Honors Program overnight trip! This fall, we went back to Minneapolis, this time partnering with students and faculty from NMU’s English Department. During this two-day extravaganza, we visited the Mall of America, saw an absolutely hilarious staging of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Guthrie Theater, and explored the Minneapolis Institute of Art. We also had plenty of time on our bus ride to chat and get to know each other.
Pictured on right: Honors students Erin O'Donnell and Claire Branding outside of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
On November 9th, the Honors Program team (Dr. Joy, Dr. Zimmer, and Sam) and four students departed for the 58th annual National Collegiate Honors Council Conference in Chicago, IL. Over our four days in Chicago, we attended conference sessions, connected with fellow honors students and faculty, and explored the city. Senior Honors Program and environmental science student Kata Rothhorn (pictured below) also won an award in the Diversity category for her poster entitled “Rural LGBTQ+ Oral Histories at Northern Michigan University.”
Winter 2024
As a fun start to our Winter semester, some Honors students and faculty members were invited to watch an NMU hockey game from the Presidential Suite! During the game, we got to enjoy some delicious food and chat with Former President Brock Tessman (pictured on the left watching the game with his daughter, who was quite invested the entire time). It was a close and exciting game, and we ended up winning 3-2!
We had a busy February, with two events. On February 21st, Honors students gathered in Whitman Commons for a HSO game night with sandwiches from Northern Center catering. Students played cards and assembled a 500 piece puzzle. A few days later, on February 25th, students, faculty, and staff from both Honors and the English department traveled to Appleton, Wisconsin to see the national tour production of Les Misérables at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. While in Appleton, we caught up with Honors Program alum Veronica Line (‘22)!
To celebrate this semester nearing its end, the Honors Program and HSO hosted a Bob Ross Painting Night on Friday, April 12th. Eighteen students joined us to create their own renditions of the Bob Ross piece titled “Sunset Aglow.” Although many of us failed to reach Bob’s level of painting prowess, we were all quite happy with our pieces!