AUNHS - AUN Honors Society

Posted at 3:40 PM, Tuesday, July 7, 2009

We started a new club in AUN called the American University of Nigeria’s Honors Society (AUNHS). The criterion for selecting student members was CGPA of 3.3 and above, and completion of a certain number of credit hours. I and all my siblings were also invited to join the club. The first meeting was held in early October, 2007 (that's when I started writing this entry!) Professors in attendance were from the three different schools and the three deans were also present. Well, the meeting was spent familiarizing everyone with the purpose of the club, and discussing why someone would want to join the club. At the end we decided to meet twice again the coming week to finalize the constitution and select the executive members.

As agreed, we met next week and were able to finalize the constitution and select the executive committee. The president’s position was given to Dean Norman Wright! I was really happy cos I wanted him to win. It was a secret ballot, and we were voting for either Hamman or Dean Wright. So we (me and siblings, including Hamman) voted for him! The position of the Vice president was give to Hamman Samuel (yes! This time we all voted for Hamman). Patricia Akubo won the most votes for the position of Secretary, and Adunni Rufai was voted the Treasurer. There are different member types that constitute the society. These are the charter members, members in course, honorary members, and associate members. Of course, over the years there have been new elections and new members to take the positions in the executive committee. Somewhere along the line we as a society decided it was in our best interest to have students run the society so consequent executives after 2/3 terms were all students. I think last semester, the president of the society was Temitope, the vice was Heriju, the secretary was Omasiri, and Bimbo was the treasurer. Anyways, I, Hamman, Nousheen, Omasiri and Nayyara were elected to form the website committee. There were lots of other committees created by the society such as a tutoring committee, events committee, movie nights committee etc

There were also numerous event organized by the AUNHS - Dr. Korie Handweger made all the arrangements for the first few events (from what I recall). We also had an event where Patrick Okata (a board member) gave a speech. Like earlier events, this also was really good. And like the earlier events also, I wasn’t able to attend. This time I had a mid-term in History of Art, and I couldn’t afford to get a low score on that. So I decided to forfeit the speech . BTW, when I was writing this entry back in October, 2007, I wrote this:

"Speaking of board members, I just read from a newsletter that Desmund Tutu has joined the board of Directors for AUN! Isn’t that amazing? I’m grateful to God that we have very distinguished dignitaries in out board of directors - (Written on Oct 30, 07)"

There were other events organized by the society in one of which we were to have poet from Ghana come over. The event that I got to attend was the career counseling - it was a really good event. Lots of professors from all the schools were present. The event was organized basically for seniors and juniors to better equip them for their future endeavors. Some sophomores also attended. There were two meetings in the event - the first was among facutly and students in the same school (e.g. SITC held its meeting and dicussed careers in IT and professors addressed any questions students from SITC had), and the second was a meeting with everyone from all schools present. The second meeting was kinda funny cos professors and deans from the schools started competing with each other, haha. Dr. Smith (dean of SBE) said that "if you want to make money you should join the school of business and enterpreneurship" to which Bill Hansen (representing the dean of SAS) reacted "if you want be an intellectual you ought to join the school of arts and sciences". Dr. Kah being the last of the deans to speak said "if you want to make money and become an intellectual, you have to join the school of IT and communications". Really funny seeing all of them trying to get attention from the students. The event was fun and I'm glad I attended it . Dr. Fonkam and Patricia organized it very nicely.

Ok then, here are some random pictures from various Honors Society meetings, mostly from the AUNHS Awards Night and Career Counseling. The Awards Night was organized for all graduating seniors that were part of the AUNHS members. Outstanding graduating seniors were recognized during the event - awards given included graduating class valedictorian, students with 2nd and 3rd highest CGPAs, service awards, contributions awards, etc. It was a really cool event - the venue was the faculty club and the food was totally delicious! Well, enjoy the pics! I'll write about graduation and other awards nights in one of my later entries.

Seniors at the AUNHS Awards Night (Left) --- Bill Hansen, Mohammed Sani, & Adi Bongo at Career Event (Right)

Oma at Awards Night (Left) --- Temitope & Judith being awarded by David Kosoko (DSA) at Awards Night (Right)

Nayyara being awarded by DSA at Awards Night (Left) --- Me, Saima, & Nousheen at Career Event (Right)

Me being awarded by DSA at Awards Night (Left) --- Nayyara and Sam at a General Meeting (Right)

Nayyara, Oma, & Frank Azeke at Career Event (Left) --- Hamman speaking at Awards Night (Right)

Hamman being awarded by DSA at Awards Night (Left) --- SITC Faculty & Students at Career Event (Right)