March 29, 2026

Inspiring the Next Generation of Honors College Tigers

Story by Logan Jackson When Heather Humphrey recently received an invitation to share career advice with University of Missouri Honors College students, her first call was to her son, Jim, a sophomore business administration major at Mizzou who is also pursuing the Honors College Certificate. Jim was immediately on board.   “I was thrilled to learn that she had been invited,” he said. “I love hearing her talk about her career and what she’s accomplished because I look up to her so much. She’s an incredible role model for me, and I knew it would be…

Dec. 16, 2025

An Energizing Experience

Story by Logan Jackson Brent Steele’s recent return to the Mizzou campus brought on a wave of nostalgia. Steele interacted with a variety of students, including several in the Honors College, took in a football game and visited many of his favorite spots across campus. It was Steele’s first Mizzou visit since he earned accountancy degrees in 2006. “I love Columbia; it’s such a great town,” Steele said. “It’s changed a lot – both the coffee and bagel options have radically improved – but in many ways, it felt the same. It was very comforting to…

April 24, 2025

Bringing History to Life

Story and photos by Logan Jackson As Andrew Fialka’s junior year at Mizzou was coming to a close, he was struggling to come up with an engaging honors thesis idea to finish out his history degree. A chance encounter after the Mizzou men’s basketball captured the Big 12 tournament title sparked not only a thesis idea, but a decade-long passion. “I was out celebrating – like so many of my peers were – and I happened to run into Joseph Beilein, was who a teaching assistant in history and had become a really good friend,” said Fialka,…

March 29, 2025

Marc Canellas has Built a Career Advocating for Others

Story by Logan Jackson Like his peers, Marc Canellas spent his final year at the University of Missouri balancing academics, applications and social activities, as well as preparing for the next phase of his personal journey. He somehow also found the time to co-create an entire professional conference centered on politics and science. Canellas spent the summer between his junior and senior year interning in Washington, D.C., with SAE International as part of the WISE (Washington Internships for Students of Engineering) program. His work during that internship fueled an already strong passion that Canellas had for science…

Dec. 16, 2024

Making an Impact Through Giving

Story and photography by Logan Jackson Susan Duncan couldn’t help but smile as she listened to Chris Josey praise one of the students in his Extended One Read course. Josey, an associate teaching professor of communication, is one of three Tarkow Teaching Fellows in the University of Missouri Honors College, a program funded, in part, through an endowed gift given by Duncan. Duncan recently had dinner near campus with all three Teaching Fellows, who are named in honor of Ted and Marjorie Tarkow. Ted Tarkow, who also attended the dinner, was an incredibly influential professor who Duncan…

Dec. 16, 2024

Seventy Years of Joy

Story and photography by Logan Jackson “Find the fun without sacrificing complexity.” Throughout her nearly 30 years as a professor in the Humanities Sequence, Rachel Harper has made it a priority to create a learning environment that allows students to gain a deeper appreciation for the world around them. Through discussions on literature, philosophy, art, history, religion and music, students are introduced to the big ideas, questions and debates of the Western tradition. Harper, along with the other outstanding faculty across the University of Missouri campus, have led those conversations, aiding students in their efforts to make sense…

March 5, 2024

Uplifting and Supporting Others

“… the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.” Those words appear in Tracy Kidder’s book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World. A medical anthropologist and physician, Farmer was a professor at Harvard University and served as the chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Farmer, who wrote extensively on health and human rights, was the co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health, an international non-profit that provides health care services and…

Sep. 24, 2023

Prepared for the Future

Of all the skills Luke Pittman gained during his four years at the University of Missouri, time management proved to be one the most vital. When Pittman graduated in May, he did so with three degrees – constitutional democracy, economics and political science. Balancing that workload was key as Pittman pursued his interests in politics and policy. “I did come to Mizzou with quite a few credits, which helped, but I worked hard to manage my time wisely,” Pittman said. “When I had four assignments due in the same week,…