Academic Excellence and Personal Growth: Life in Honors College

Being an Honors student has always been important to me and has helped shaped me into the young, independent, driven young woman I am today. I take pride in my academic achievements and awards, as they are some of my greatest accomplishments in my academic career. Being in the Honors College is a privilege and something I don’t take lightly. It’s also not as scary, intimidating, or intense as it may seem. If you are gifted academically, you will find the Honors College to be more rewarding and beneficial over all else. There are requirements to being in Honors, which I believe holds me to a higher standard and sets me apart from my classmates.

I’m so glad that while in my senior year of high school I chose to be in the Honors College at Bloomsburg. I attended a private high school in New Jersey, and I was in the National Honors Society. When it came time to apply to colleges, I knew I wanted to go to a school that had an Honors program. I got accepted into other Honors Colleges at other universities, but I knew the second I stepped foot on Bloomsburg’s campus that this was going to be my second home for the next four years. My grandfather had never been to Bloomsburg, but on Thanksgiving Day of 2021, he told me he thought Bloomsburg sounded like the best fit for me. Fast forward to February of 2022, on the night of his funeral, I came home and paid my deposit for Bloomsburg. He was one of the most influential people in my life, and I knew he was leading me in the right direction. I know I would not be the same person, student, or professional had I picked a different school.

I’m a senior RA in Lycoming Hall, home of the Honors College. This is a full circle moment for me because it felt like just yesterday, I was living in Lycoming as a freshman. In my opinion, Lycoming is the nicest, cleanest, and best place to live on campus. My residents are all driven academically, and I’ve been enjoying watching them succeed. I also wrote my Honors Minor High Impact Experience on being an RA, and I’m so glad I did because I could reflect on how my leadership role has morphed over the past few years. As an RA I host monthly programs for residents, but as an Honors student I get to enjoy attending Honors events each semester. One of my favorites was the “Smarty Plants” event where I got a succulent and decorated its pot. It brings happiness to my dorm room.

Community service has always been important to me. It’s a selfless act, reaching out and helping those in need. A requirement of being in Honors is completing a certain amount of service hours per year. I’ve been doing community outreach for a while now, and it is one of my favorite things to do. In high school, I would write happy messages and attach them to flower vases that were distributed to the homebound in my church community. Sometimes they would write me thank you notes back expressing their appreciation. Even though I never got to meet the recipients, it made me feel really good knowing I brought joy to someone’s day. I’ve been volunteering at the SPCA in Danville for over a year now. If I’m being honest, this is one of my favorite parts of my college experience. I love spending time playing with the cats and taking dogs on nice long walks. The animals desperately need love and attention, and I have plenty to give them during their time at the shelter. This is something that always warms my heart.

My very favorite class I’ve taken so far at Bloomsburg is Honors Critical Reasoning Seminar on Mindfulness and Well-Being. That class was exactly what I needed during the fall semester of my junior year. Fall of 2024 was one of the most challenging times of my entire life due to family and medical reasons, housing arrangements, and just life in general. This class helped me in more ways than I can even count and gave me the proper resources and tools to improve my physical, mental, emotional health and my overall well-being. My class took a trip to the BodyWorks Wellness Studio in East Stroudsburg, and I have to say that was a life-changing experience for me. I did salt therapy for the first time ever and that was very relaxing. The Honors classes are different from regular classes, but in a good way. They are more discussion based and hands on, and I appreciate that kind of learning.

This semester, I’m completing my Honors Capstone Project on “Women in Sports.” I chose this topic as it relates to the foundation of the internship I had over the summer working as a Ticket Sales Intern for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, a professional ice hockey team. When I was researching topics to write about, I knew I also wanted to make it personal and relatable in some aspect. As an intern for a professional sports team, even though it was only for a couple weeks, I was a woman working in a male-dominated industry. I want to dive even deeper into this topic and educate myself and others more. I’m currently in the process of researching and writing my scholarly paper. After I complete my paper, I’ll then create a poster that I’ll present at the Honors reception in early December. I’m very excited to see how it comes out on the big canvas. This is my last major project for Honors, and I intend to make it notable!

Something I value most about being in Honors is the like-minded individuals I’ve met along the way. Even though my friends in Honors are in different majors than me, they have the same academic goals of achieving excellence by making the Dean’s List or President’s List each semester. I’ve discovered we have similar values and drive to getting to where we want to be. Some of my good friends I met during my freshman year through the Honors College, and I hope to stay close with them after I graduate in May. The Honors College has pushed me to better myself academically, professionally, and personally, and I am forever grateful for this amazing opportunity.

— Lillie Corino, a senior business administration and communication studies major at Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg with an emphasis in management and organizational communication, is interning with the Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications this fall. She's a native of Bucks County who enjoys spending time with her family, pets, ESA, watching Friends, seeing Morgan Wallen in concert, playing lacrosse, and going shopping with her mom.

#BloomOnward #HuskyLife