Ask an Honors Student
An activist and artist, Brooks speaks out about the Honors program.
- Brooks Hassig
- Hometown: Tacoma, WA
- Major: Graphic Design
- Ask Brooks at:
hassigw@cc.wwu.edu
- What's best about Honors?
- The best thing about Honors is the tight community of intellectually inclined, fun loving students.
- Your first Western "WOW" moment?
- This year I've started a club called YES!+, a group for service and de-stressing. I was going around to the different AS organizations and clubs to spread awareness about a rally YES!+ was doing, and when I went to talk to the President of the AS Board, I was dumbfounded. As I was telling him about the rally, he told me about the procedures to gain Board support and even called up the coordinator of the Social Issues Resource Center all without any prompting. His unrestrained help and enthusiasm made me walk walk away from his office thinking, "Wow. Thank you, Western."
- Outside the classroom?
- There is much to do here! I keep myself busy by volunteering and working on projects for both service and for fun. Biking around Bellingham and playing frisbee on campus or at the water front dominate a majority of my outdoor time, but each season brings unique enjoyments to Bellingham. My friends and I do a lot of off the wall things, like organizing Nerf wars or developing North Campus' own epic tale of origin. We like to put on social events that bring people together. There is always someone doing something fun at Western. It's okay, you can be an honors student and have a life, too!
- What is the best book you've read lately?
- I've just finished reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. The amazing life story of Yogananda is a reminder of vastness of human potential and continues to inspire me to greater heights on a daily basis.
- What is your favorite memory of WWU?
- There are too many memories to choose from, but one that stands out at the moment is the night of Convocation, walking out of the PAC and being swept between the seemingly endless cheering upperclassmen. I would advise no freshmen to ever miss that ceremony. The sense of acceptance found there is profound.