Hello, my name is Hilary Tanner! I am a Senior working toward a Business Management Major, Finance Minor and International Peace & Security Certificate. This is my fourth year in HSAB, my second year as an Executive Board member and my first year as Vice President. I greatly enjoy working with the Peer Program as well as participating in HSAB activities and volunteer opportunities.

I am so enthusiastic about this year because I am newly involved with several organizations on campus: Omicron Delta Kappa, PALS, and the Peer Teaching Assistant Program. Last spring I was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa, an Honors Society on campus, and I look forward to getting to know the rest of the members. In the near future I will begin mentoring a middle school student in Waterloo through PALS, a group that is new to UNI this year. What I am most excited about is my new position as a Peer Teaching Assistant (PTA) for a Cornerstone class. Not only do I get the chance to work with new students, I am able to learn from the professor, Dr. Janopoulos, and all of the fantastic PTA coordinators.

When I’m not busy on campus you might find me at Jimmy’s Johns, where I work part-time. I also like to read, watch movies, and make crafts.  If I’m not in Cedar Falls, I’m in my hometown: Davenport, Iowa. Family is my first priority and I love spending time with my parents, brother and three wonderful dogs.

Hello everyone! My name is Amanda Arp. I am a Junior English major with a minor in Professional Writing. I am a writing tutor here at UNI, and last year I was even a peer teaching assistant for the Cornerstone course. My goal is to one day be a professor of English. In order to help achieve this goal, it has been one of my priorities to keep my grades high throughout college. Sometimes it is hard to balance classes and a social life, but I’ve had plenty of experience so I manage it.

As an Honors student, I have appreciated the benefits of being enrolled in small-sized Honors classes. These Honors classes have helped me to learn and grow as an individual. I have also enjoyed attending the events hosted by the Honors Student Advisory Board (HSAB), especially the Honors Hayride and the Honors Picnic. I am currently an executive member of HSAB and as the Communications Coordinator for HSAB I will help coordinate blog posts, posters, and other communications for the group.

             In my spare time, I enjoy listening to country music, especially songs by Keith Urban and Taylor Swift. I also enjoy singing in the Women’s Chorus choir here at UNI. One of my favorite pastimes is reading, especially works by authors like Tamora Pierce. I also like to make crafts and hang out with my friends and family.

            Coming to college at the University of Northern Iowa has been one of the best experiences of my life thus far, and I look forward to spending another two years at this wonderful university.

           Poems, a professor, and pizza were the three p’s of the Honor’s Student Advisory Board’s (HSAB) Professors with Pizza. Roughly fifteen honor’s students gathered on the night of Wednesday, March 7th at 5:30 pm in the Honor’s Cottage for this installment of Profs n’ Pizza featuring English assistant professor Dr. Jeremy Schraffenberger. Dr. Schraffenberger presented a brief lecture over the poetry and life of James Hearst, an Iowan native and poet.

           Dr. Schraffenberger began to speak about the life of James Hearst, and it was easy to see the passion he has for Hearst’s life. He brought this passion into his teaching speaking about Hearst’s early life and how he was more than Iowa’s regional poet. Hearst’s eventual fame as a poet may have never have occurred had it not been for his accident during 1919, when he broke his neck while jumping into Cedar Fall’s own Cedar River. For the rest of his life, he was forced to rely on others to help him. His dependence led to him permanently living on the family farm, which was located in what now is Cedar Falls, with his brothers. Hearst was able to occasionally help with the farm work, and it was during this period of his life that Hearst gained that deep commitment to farming that would come to define his poetry. Eventually, however, he could no longer do even this and ended up working as a professor at the University of Northern Iowa. Hearst married late to Miss Carmelita Calderwood, but they never had children.

            Dr. Schraffenberger had the honors students read several of Hearst’s poems, including earlier poems such as “The Reason for Stars” and “Voices,” as well as later, more mature poems such as “Plowman,” “The Vine,” and “Landscape-Iowa.” The earlier poems were not as well developed, lacking the contemplative attitude of his later poems. For example, Hearst’s very early poem “Voices” was a less well developed poem that used redundant imagery of a sailing ship and expressed his desire to leave Iowa. “The Vine,” a more mature poem, did not use a redundant rhyme scheme as he described a farmer pulling a strong weed out of the ground, which was a metaphor for the farmer’s, as well as all farmers’, connection to the earth.

            Dr. Schraffenberger then let the students know that he was willing to answer questions, and so student Theresa Luensmann asked Dr. Schraffenberger if “Hearst wrote any poetry before his accident?” Dr. Schraffenberger replied that he really only became a writer of poetry after his accident. Another student, Jessica Clark, asked him, “What aspect of Hearst’s poetry makes it good and famous?” Dr. Schraffenberger answered her by saying that Hearst was famous because he was an Iowan farmer poet, but was good because his poetry was complex and able to transcend his farming roots.