Daron K. Roberts is originally from East Texas. As a student at The University of Texas at Austin he earned degrees in Plan II Honors and government and served as student government president. He teaches about the intersection of leadership, sports and business, and was recognized as one of the Harvard Kennedy School’s 75 Most […]
Features
Teaching While Learning in Graduate School
“When I found out that I was going to TA in the beginning of the semester, I was very nervous. Not only was this my first semester in grad school, but I’ve also never taught anything at this academic level. I’m so incredibly glad that I registered for this class. I learned so many valuable […]
An Education for Life
Michael Stoff was raised in Merrick, New York, and was the first in his family to graduate from college. He received a bachelor’s in history and American studies from Rutgers College, and a master’s of philosophy in history and doctorate of philosophy in history from Yale University. He has taught at UT Austin for 36 […]
Humanists Make Great Doctors
Dr. Kimberly Monday is a Plan II alumna, the 1988 Texas Parents Association’s Outstanding Female Student and a Dean’s Distinguished Graduate from Huntsville, Texas. She attended Baylor College of Medicine and completed her neurological residency there before taking a fellowship at Emory University. She is the owner of the Houston Neurological Institute and president of […]
No Stone Unturned
Zachary Stone is a Plan II senior from Dallas, Texas. He has served as the chief justice of UT Austin’s Student Government, been published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and will be attending the UT Austin School of Law on a Massey Scholarship, the school’s top merit award. Why Plan II? […]
The Campaign for Your Vote: Just Add Brand Power
After months of being bombarded by pollsters, campaign ads and the most outlandish sound bites on repeat, the moment will come for you to finally cast your ballot. Whom will you choose? “The presidency is the one office that represents the American people: all their wishes, dreams, desires, hopes, fears and everything else,” says history […]
What’s So Funny About the Liberal Arts?
We’ve all heard the jokes about liberal arts majors, inspired by stereotypes that students in the humanities, social sciences and languages are destined to lives of underemployment: The science major asks, “Why does it work?” The engineering major asks, “How does it work?” The business major asks, “How much will it cost?” The liberal arts […]
Passion for Social Activism Inspires Truman Scholar
A passion for learning and public service inspires the life and work of Zoraima Pelaez, a Liberal Arts Honors and humanities junior at UT Austin who was named a 2016 Truman Scholar. Congress created the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation in 1975 as the nation’s living memorial to President Harry S. Truman. It has since […]
UT Austin Student Developing App That Can Help Diagnose Skin Cancer
A psychology and biology student at The University of Texas at Austin is using the accessibility provided by the web and smartphones to help people who could be in medical need. Rachel Graubard, a Liberal Arts Honors (LAH) senior from Houston, Texas, has been working on an app that can diagnose and monitor skin cancer since […]
Government Grad Explains How Liberal Arts and Tech Can Come Together
John Newcomb, a recent government alum who graduated in December, used his liberal arts education and preparation from Liberal Arts Career Services to help him land a job at Facebook. Read more with Newcomb on his college experience, the value of an internship and the power of critical thinking below. What made you want to […]
Economics Student Takes the Road Less Traveled to Campus
Tyler DiGiovanni, an economics senior with a Spanish minor, isn’t your typical undergraduate student. At 27, he’s lived abroad, transferred schools, taken time off to create a new company and reevaluated his path countless times. All of that led him to the UT Austin economics program. Prior to college, DiGiovanni spent 2008-10 living Buenos Aires, […]
Journeys
Why do we travel? What impels us to leave behind the comforts of home and endure the indignities of airports or the toils and snares of an interstate highway? We travel because it is in our nature. Humans have always been on the move, sometimes out of necessity — hunting and gathering, or fleeing from […]
Spark Your Interests: Five Liberal Arts Classes That Ignite Critical Thinking
It’s not uncommon for the College of Liberal Arts to break the Registrar’s website. Not on purpose — the interdisciplinary nature of the courses offered in liberal arts do not always mesh well with a system that was designed around rigid department codes. The level of collaboration among faculty members across departments to create in-depth, fascinating […]
Forever Shakespeare: The Making of an Icon
Editor’s note: As the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death approaches, five UT Austin scholars share how they celebrate his work and his ultimate staying power. In 10 years, people won’t care about Kim Kardashian’s face-contouring regimen or that she had 35 million Twitter followers. But William Shakespeare? Four centuries after his death he’s still […]
Living The Examined Life
The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic […]
Teaching An Understandable World
The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic […]
Leading His Longhorn Family
The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic […]
Chatting in Chatino
Graduate Students Revive Early Languages In Rural Oaxaca In a rural village between two rivers outside of Oaxaca, Mexico, Ryan Sullivant walked door to door like a salesman, asking neighbors to conjugate verbs. The village, Tataltepec, is one of few within a small mountainous area between Oaxaca and the Pacific coast where a dwindling population […]
Spooky Research: The Unexplained Explained
To the ancient Celtics, Oct. 31 marked the end of harvest and the beginning of barren winter, or a time when life and fertility ended and arid death began. Today, cultures around the world celebrate Halloween as a day where life and death intersect with traditions based on mystery, magic and superstition. Within the College […]
A Gigantic Step Forward: LAC President Details ’15-’16 Plans
Initially denied an interview to join Liberal Arts Council his first semester on campus, Austin Reynolds received an interview slot through a last-minute cancellation and earned his spot in the organization with an impressive question and answer session. Two years later, the English honors junior from Texarkana, Texas, became the organization’s 2015-16 president. The following […]
Students Make an Impact with 2015 Summer Internships
This summer, liberal arts students took to professional settings with internships that helped sharpen their skills and develop their roles as employees. Below, read about three students who interned in a variety of settings, from nonprofit organizations, to innovative local companies, to reputable news organizations. Madeleine Toups Major: Government and Liberal Arts Honors senior Hometown: […]
A Q&A with English Alumna Ashley Hope Pérez, Author of ‘Out of Darkness’
In March 1937 a gas leak caused a massive explosion that killed almost 300 children and teachers at a school in New London, Texas. Amidst the backdrop of this catastrophic event, a Mexican-American girl falls in love with a Black boy in a segregated oil town. In a town where store signs mandate “No Negroes, […]
Meanwhile in Peru: Report from an Epicenter of Climate Change
In the Peruvian Andes, the future is now. In fact, people there are incredulous that lawmakers in the United States actually debate climate change, and baffled that many North Americans challenge the worldwide scientific consensus that Earth’s average temperature is steadily on the rise. South American climate observers (i.e., regular citizens as well as scientists) […]
Field of Dreams
Larry Carver’s Got a Marshall on First, a Truman on Second and a Rhodes on Third It’s been more than 20 years since Larry Carver began working with UT Austin students applying for the nation’s most prestigious graduate school fellowships, and he can still tell you the names of all the nominees from memory. It’s […]
Diagnosing Disease Faster: Q&A with Courtney Koepke
Courtney Koepke is a Plan II Honors and biomedical engineering junior from Austin, Texas. She works as an undergraduate research assistant at UT Austin’s Laboratory of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Bionanotechnology. What made you want to be a research assistant? As a freshman entering college, I didn’t know much about research or understand the important […]