Student Representative

Mr. Brent Barge

Brent Barge (Lock Haven University) – I am very excited and honored to be nominated as Student Representative to the Northeast Regional Honors Council.  I am currently finishing my junior year at Lock Haven University in central Pennsylvania, where I am studying Secondary Education Mathematics with a minor in Special Education.   I’ve attended the previous three NRHC Conferences – in Harrisburg, Portland, and Baltimore – and one NCHC Conference in Kansas City, which gives me a lot of experience with how the conferences run and are organized.  I was also recently notified that my proposal for the 2012 NCHC conference – a general session presentation on Interactive Student Leadership Programs – has been accepted for presentation.

Since I came to Lock Haven as a member of the Global Honors Program, I’ve always known that I wanted to take on an active leadership role in Honors.  Lock Haven University is a fairly small, state-system school in north-central Pennsylvania.  We have approximately 5000 students, of which only 240 are members of the Global Honors Program.  Since the end of my freshmen year, I have served as Student Associate Director for Program Development and Leadership within the Honors Program.  Being a Student Associate Director is more than just a job, it’s my passion.  While this position requires that I work 20 hours per week, most weeks I spend much more time than that on Honors work, all the while keeping excellent grades in all my classes.  I could not imagine my Honors Program experience without this position.  As Student Associate Director, I organize speakers, workshops, panels, and other events for the program; I train and oversee student leaders for our Freshmen Development Groups and Activity Groups; and I create a schedule of events for the program.  Recently, I also organized and co-chaired the first Pennsylvania Honors Development Conference for students and directors of all 14 Pennsylvania state system universities.  This day-long conference provided an excellent venue for students and faculty to network and share ideas.

One of the most rewarding parts of my job, however – and the part that is quite possibly the most enjoyable for me – is planning social events within our program.  Our program is very active outside of our academic work, and these ‘special events’, as we call them, help to keep our students passionate about and involved in our program, as well as giving them an opportunity to have a great time and meet other students.  Some of the events I have helped organize in our program include themed dances and parties, game show nights, competitions, retreats, field trips, Scavenger “Egg” Hunts, and much more.  These events are the highlights of the year for some students, and I look forward to the possibility of creating engaging student events at the 2013 NRHC Conference in Philadelphia!

In addition to being a Student Associate Director, this year I was selected as one of two students to represent Lock Haven’s Global Honors Program on the PASSHE Summer Honors Trip, where I will spend two weeks in a hands-on learning experience in Oxford, England.  Outside of the Global Honors Program, I’m also very involved in other areas at Lock Haven.  I serve as the Student Member of the LHU Council of Trustees, where I have spent the spring semester organizing a new student government board. I am a member of the Math Club, where I serve as webmaster, and I also participate in many community service events on campus.  In my free time, I enjoy refereeing youth soccer, hunting, fishing, watching NCIS, reading, and enjoying the company of my friends and family.