University Honors Program

Alumni News and Student Activities

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Click here to view an interview with NCCU honors student and future Harvard Medical student Annika Barnett. (QuickTime Player Required.)

Class of 2009

• Annika M. Barnett (BS, Biology, summa cum laude), Harvard Medical School
• Layla D. Brown (BA, History & Spanish, summa cum laude), Ph.D. program in history and anthropology at Duke University
• Marquita K. Drayton (BS, Biology, cum laude), graduate studies in biology, UNC-Charlotte
• Michele J. Josey (BS, Mathematics, summa cum laude), Ohio State University
• Tiffany A. Parms (BS, Biology, magna cum laude), graduate study in biology, The University of Arizona
• Natalia N. Pearson-Farrer (BA, Mass Communication, summa cum laude), Harvard University Law School
• Monica R. Ricks (BS, Chemistry, magna cum laude), Pharm.D. degree program at Campbell University
• Cierrea R. Roach (BS, Biology, magna cum laude), Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University (Commissioned Second Lieutenant, United States Army Medical Reserve)
• Tarryn L. Simmons (BS, Psychology, summa cum laude), graduate studies in journalism, S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University
• John E. Stephenson (BS, Parks and Recreation Management, summa cum laude), NCCU Law School

Additional UHP ’09 graduates

• Kendric O. Embree (BA, Public Administration, magna cum laude)
• Jackie Y. Graham (BBA, Business Management and Administration, magna cum laude)
• Kimberly Hargrove (BA, Criminal Justice, magna cum laude)
• Tiffany Holloman (BA, Criminal Justice, magna cum laude)
• Karo-Dvera Johnson (BA, Criminal Justice, magna cum laude)
• Kamel W. McMillan (BS, Biology, magna cum laude)
• Victoria L. Miller (BS, Biology, magna cum laude)
• An’gelique D. Moore (BS, Nursing, cum laude)
• Brittany B. Norris (BBA, Business Management and Administration, magna cum laude)
• Amber E. Smith (BS, Mathematics, magna cum laude)

Class of 2008

• Patrice Mobley (BA, Political Science) graduated in December 2008, and is an Emerson National Hunger Fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center.  She will serve a six- month residency in New Orleans, working for the New Orleans Food and Farm Network.
• Kenice Mobley (BA, Psychology & History) is in her second year of Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree work at Boston University.   
• Lisa Battle (BA, Psychology) is continuing master’s degree work in psychology at Oklahoma State University.
• Kevin Allen and James Crisp (BS, Biology) are at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.
• Marc Davis (BA, Music; BM, Jazz Studies) continues graduate studies in jazz at NCCU as one of the first graduate students in the new master’s degree in jazz performance program.

Current University Student Achievements 

• Leslie Garland (sophomore, Theater Arts) is a second-year member of the 2008 Honda Campus All-Stars, who was featured in USA Today for having qualified as one of the “Sweet Sixteen” teams competing for the national championship.
• Tremain Holloway (sophomore, Mathematics & Computer Science), received Academic All-American recognition as an outstanding student athlete.
• The NCCU Department of Athletics recognized the following University Honors Program Students as outstanding student-athletes:  Tierra Butler, Timberly Butler, Tremain Holloway, Desinia Johnson, Gregory Pickett, John Stephenson, Camille Strachan, Teryl White, Jr

The University Honors Program students who have participated in the UNC in Washington Internship Program:

Layla Brown, Jasmyne Jones, JaMeese Mangum, Kenice Mobley, Patrice Mobley, Natalia Pearson-Farrer.  The 2008-2009 interns: Jabari Blackmon, Danielle Copeland, Adrianne Fowlkes, Tiffany Holloman, Tremain Holloway, and Tarryn Simmons.

Chancellor’s Scholars who are members of the University Honors Program:

Annika M. Barnett, Michelle R. Bridgers, Layla D. Brown, Tierra N. Butler, Timberly R. Butler,  De Sean Craig, Brittany J. Dancy, Marquita K. Drayton, Jessica Ellerbee, Leslie A. Garland, Kenya Goins, Jackie Yvan Graham, Julian S. Green, Tiffany K. Holloman, Lillian A. Hornes, Dionne M. Johnson, Michele J. Josey, Danielle P. Kenan, Tyra A. Lamar, JaMeese A. Mangum, Victoria L. Miller, Patrice A. Mobley, Brittany B. Norris, Natalia N. Pearson-Farrer, Erica P. Perry, Michael P. Petersen, Monica R. Ricks, Cierrea R. Roach, Karmia I. Ryans, Justin T. Savage, Brian Shackleford, Tarryn L. Simmons, Amber E. Smith, John E. Stephenson, Adrian T. Stokes, Nicole D. Warren, Hadassah Watson.

A brief list of over 27 special events held during the 2008-2009 year are the following:

• The Opportunities Night event was altered to a Kickoff Dinner-Meeting & Opportunity Fair in August, featuring Dr. LaHoma Romocki (Interim Chair, Public Health Education), who spoke about her graduate school experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer.  Representatives from the Office of Career Services, International Affairs, National & International Fellowships, Community Service Learning, Boston Early Med School Program, Test Prep Program, Honda Campus All-Stars, School of Graduate Studies, Student Academic Leadership Program, and the National Student Exchange Program were all on-hand to mount displays or verbal presentations. 

• In an effort to elevate the intellectual climate of the University, a new activity was added to the UHP calendar: the Honors Forum Series, which was inaugurated in October 2008 with a viewing of the film “What Black Men Think”, made by the independent filmmaker Janks Morton, who was on-campus the day as a guest of the University Honors Program.  In November, Dr. David Beito of the University of Alabama give a lecture on his recently-published book (“From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967”), which chronicled the history of African-American mutual and fraternal aid societies in the South).  In March 2009, Dr. Darin Waters of UNC-Asheville paid tribute to the late Dr. John Hope Franklin in his lecture “The Black Community in Asheville: A Historian Uncovers Some Surprises”.  The Beito and Waters lectures were produced in cooperation with the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, and the North Carolina History Project.  The final event of the Forum series in April was an encore presentation of scholarly research done by students who presented at the National Association of African-American Honors Programs (NAAAHP) conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

• The “Yes We Can” Book Club (the temporarily-renamed Provost Book Club, in celebration of the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President in American history) continued its gatherings around the book The Measure of A Man, a Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier. 

• Student members of the University Honors Program were involved in an immense variety of intra- and extracurricular activities that benefitted North Carolina Central University.  Leslie Garland (junior, Theater) and Jordan Kane (sophomore, Jazz Studies) were members of the Honda Campus Challenge All-Stars Team, which placed second in the 2009 National Championship.  Jabari Blackmon (sophomore, Political Science) witnessed the making of American history first-hand when he was chosen to attend the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver as a North Carolina student delegate.  While in the UNC in Washington Program, Jabari worked an internship in the office of United States Representative David Price (D-NC).  Two students from the Biomanufacturing Research and Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE)—Marisol Waters and Hadassah Watson made scholarly presentations at the student research conference for the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE).  MaKendra Umstead--a BRITE and UHP student, organized the conference.  Hadassah Watson also contributed a special report for the online newsletter of the North Carolina student chapter of ISPE. Click here to view.   

• Eleven (11) students traveled to Tennessee State University for the National Association of African-American Honors Programs (NAAAHP) conference in Nashville, five of whom made scholarly presentations--La’Donte’ Garrett, Carla Perry, Leslie Garland: Cocaine Through the Years: Cocaine in Three Contexts, A Biological, Historical and Sociological Approach; Dominique Everett: Sarcoidosis, How It Affects The Body; Tyra Lamar: Assembling Synthetic Genes. 

• Layla Brown (dual major, History & Spanish) made two scholarly presentations at the National African-American Student Leadership Conference at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi in January 2009, and at the NCCU Student Symposium in African and African-American History in February.  The title of her papers were "Black Institutions, the Emergence of Black Studies Programs in Higher Education and the need for Self-Determination in a "Post-Race" Society", and “Black Behind the Ears: Blackness and Dominican Identity”.