The Honors Student Committee (HSC) is an organization that seeks to enhance the leadership, service, and learning experiences of every student at Broward College. Our goal is to have each student maximize their experience, and minimize their excuses. Here at HSC, we believe that every student can become a leader. Therefore, our organization does not have a hierarchy; we operate laterally where every member has equal status. Every student is given a chance to engage in leadership. For example, a different student runs our meeting every week; we also have a short leadership session before our meetings during which a student will voluntarily talk about any skill or tip useful in college.

Accomplishments:

Through the devotion and hard work of past and present students, HSC has been able to accomplish many of its goals. We have created a recycled reading resource program, where used books are recycled to be made available to students in need of them. We plan to expand our horizon so that every student will be able to receive a book from this program. So far, we have saved students a total of over $18,000.

We also organize Food for Thought forums regularly and a Maximize Rally once a semester. These forums aim to inspire the minds of our students to think about the world they live in, their lives and their future. At our Maximize Rally, students come out and speak to other students about the opportunities out there for them, and advise them to not miss out on the opportunities available to us.

As well as maximizing the experiences of college students, HSC aims to maximize the minds of little children. We recognize that this is the time to plant seeds of success -when they are still young- to have them dream for bigger things at an early age. That is what the coloring book aspires to do; that as the little kids color on the faces of the characters, the virtues of excellence and success is instilled in them while maintaining current use of imagination.

Expanding our horizons of philanthropy, we created our own peer funded scholarship. We raised funds by encouraging students to contribute a small amount of money towards our need-based "Prepaid Scholarship Fund" which awards an incoming Broward College student the entire tuition cost for a 2-year (72 hour credit) degree.

This is our organization—a group that thrives on the success and growth of every student of future and present generations. This is our vision. This is our goal.

Our History

When a student qualifies for Honors, they are granted the honor of smaller class sizes, scholarships, special recognition, and much more. Therefore, we believe that part of being an honors student means giving back to our community. This group began with this in mind. During Fall of 2007, Dr. Lulrick Balzora (the Honors Coordinator of BC Central Campus) conducted a series of workshops and seminar with honors students. One of the seminars was led by a philosopher on the nature of the human mind and free-will. It became so popular that he was invited to present it again in the spring semester. Dr. Balzora worked with honors students to help prepare, present, and promote each of these events.

To support these workshops, they used special funding allotted to BC full time professors for special educational projects to pay for guest speakers and refreshment (FEP Student Life Faculty Education Program). In January 17, 2008, Dr. Balzora invited several honors students to help create a group that would work on several student led initiatives which included continuing the workshops  (“Honors Food For Thought” weekly forum). Since two-year colleges experience frequent turn-over in leadership, we wished to have an organization that was built for frequent changes in leadership. Having a committee rather than a “club” set the right frame of mind for them. The word committee implies “work,” “team”, “execution”, and “purpose”. We also knew that the word committee could also imply endless meetings for the sake of meeting; therefore, we intentionally maintained a sense of immediacy.  We wanted to affect the Honors culture on campus and the community in the present.

Furthermore, understanding the many priorities that college students have, we wanted our activities to complement the college experience. We wanted to implement things; to act; and to serve immediately. Fortunately, our service did not often require funding. So, that is what we mostly did. In order to maintain this direction and partly because we did not want the distractions that come with fund raising, we applied for official group status with Broward College Student Life in March 2008. Being an official group at the college, we were recognized by the college, we were able to have access to college facilities and vehicles and became eligible for Student Life Funds. The FEP funds for professors were limited and we knew that due to the highly transitory nature of students at community colleges, that fund raising could potentially dominate most of our short time at the college.

About HSC Green Initiatives

Concerned about the lack of parking at Central Campus during peak hours and the rapid increase in pollution and the depletion of natural resources, HSC recognized the need for our college family to play a bigger role in educating others and executing changes that increase awareness, technologies, and tools that create an environmentally sustainable future. After several meetings with the Dean of Business Affairs and local Businesses, HSC developed three solutions: the Bike-Loan Program, Book-Loan Program, and Carpooling solutions.