The Honors Club hosted the first student-run event in the new building last week for its 10th anniversary to commemorate the most important part of the honors program: the teachers.

Skyline currently has 25 honors classes per semester, and the teachers who put in countless hours preparing and teaching the honors courses were recognized. Each teacher got a certificate, which was presented by one of their honors students. The event was important to the students in the honors program because they wanted to show their professors how much they really appreciate them.

“We just wanted to give back to the honors professors,” said Nina Smirnov, an event coordinator. “They stay extra hours, they do honors classes that have harder curriculums, they have to work really hard, and we just wanted to show them thanks.”

The event was organized as a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the honors transfer program. Many ideas were put on the table, but Katherine Harer, coordinator of the honors program, said the concept behind all the brainstorming was the same: to give back to the teachers who do so much for the program. The students decided to have an awards ceremony and reception to let their honors professors know how much they mean to the students in the program.

“I thought it was perfect,” Harer said. “This is a way of saying, ‘You’re really appreciated by all the honors students.'”

The program consisted of awarding certificates, a speech by honors program alumnus Edith Arias (now at San Francisco State), and the distribution of letters from other Skyline honors program alumni who are also now at prestigious four-year colleges such as Cornell. The stories were inspiring and reinforced the message that teachers are imperative to the success of the students.

Aside from the scheduled program, the honors students organized a reception for the benefit of their professors. Many of the honors students made food for a potluck and made a video that was on a loop on the projector. The video showed honors teachers and students and was playing to the Beatles’ song “With a Little Help from my Friends . ” Additionally, the honors students arranged to have cosmetology students come in and give the professors free massages while they enjoyed the food and the video. The honors students also presented their teachers with a cake after the awards ceremony to thank them for all their hard work.

The honors transfer program has a long history at Skyline, and it’s something that distinguishes Skyline from many other community colleges.

“One of the things about Skyline that makes it better than other community colleges is that we have honors classes,” Diana Kozlova said. “And the teachers are important because you can’t have honors classes without honors teachers. They make it possible for us to do this.”

To participate in the honors transfer program, students must meet certain requirements. They must be eligible for English 100 and Math 120 and either have a 3.5 high-school GPA or a cumulative college GPA of 3.25 in at least 9 units of degree-applicable classes. Honors transfer program students must also do community service. There are many perks, however, to putting in the hard work.

“It’s just a good experience to be in (the program),” Smirnov said. “You get the transfer help, you get priority registration, and you get to meet with counselors that are more in tune with your transfer goals.”

Attending professors who won an award at the event: