Ask an Honors Student
At home in the outdoors, Emily can often be found climbing the steps to Sehome Arboretum.
- Emily Lewis
- Hometown: Bainbridge Island, WA
- Major: Environmental Policy
Minor: History - Ask Emily at:
lewise4@cc.wwu.edu
- What's best about Honors?
- There are so many great things about the program but I would have to say that the personal relationships with the professors, the more interactive class discussions and small class sizes make for an amazing atmosphere. You're able to take a much more in-depth look at the material with people that have a similar sense of drive and intellectual curiosity.
- Your first Western "WOW" moment?
- Once when we were discussing the Illiad in my Honors 103 class, our professor began to speak the text in it's original Greek in order for us to capture the poem's true beauty. I cannot begin to explain the sheer wealth of knowledge that the Honors department possesses. (And really any professor on this campus will shock you with their endless amounts of knowledge. The school seems to attract the most well-versed and traveled educators around.)
- Outside the classroom?
- My favorite thing about coming to this school was getting to go outside! From whitewater kayaking underneath Snoqualmie Falls to hiking in the North Cascades, there have been so many moments where I've just been astounded by the sheer beauty of the area. It is a true haven for any outdoors lover though I also enjoy going down to the Co-Op for a cup of chai or spending an afternoon wandering the shelves of Hendersons for a new paperback. (Arguably the best used book store on the West Coast.)
- What is the best book you've read lately?
- "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" is an extremely compelling read. The book follows the narrator as he recounts his ten years spent in a North Korean gulag. It will drastically enhance your awareness about the human rights violations in our world today. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
- What is your favorite memory of WWU?
- This past winter, a storm left the city of Bellingham covered in two feet of snow. Walking in the arboretum was like wandering into a different world. I've never been in a more picturesque moment. I've lived in the state of Washington my whole life and it says something that I can still be blown away by the area's beauty.