About The UHC

As a small degree-granting college within Oregon State University, the UHC offers OSU's most prestigious degree, the Honors Baccalaureate Degree in any undergraduate major. The UHC Features:

• Challenging and creative curricula for students of all majors
• Unique honors classes of 12 to 20 students
• Courses that complement, not complicate, other course work
• OSU's finest professors, often hand-picked by UHC students
• One-on-one mentoring by faculty members while preparing the Honors Thesis

A Life Aquatic - Freshman Emily Pickering will be researching lionfish in the Bahamas this summer — and blogging about it.

When you consider Emily Pickering’s lifelong passion for marine biology —childhood trips to Newport to see Keiko the whale; convincing her family, year after year, to see Orcas in the wild off Vancouver Island; becoming SCUBA-certified at age 11 and having 95 dives under her belt by age 19 — it’s unsurprising that she’ll soon count an upcoming research trip to the Bahamas with coral-reef fish expert Mark Hixon among her experiences.

Pickering, a biology major, is the first freshman ever to accompany Hixon and his group to tiny Lee Stocking Island, where they will spend much of their summer underwater surveying the invasive lionfish — a Pacific species that was introduced into the Atlantic, where it is undergoing a population explosion and rapidly consuming native fishes on coral reefs. More

To read about Emily Pickering’s research and day-to-day experiences in the Bahamas, read her blog, A Chronicle of the Invasion.

OSU’s ‘thrill ride’ to compete in Germany - Engineering students get experience by designing, building car

Oregon State University students have built a car that goes 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, corners like it’s on rails and stops on a dime.

“Quite a thrill ride,” said Trevor Takaro, a junior mechanical engineering major.

The Oregon State Formula team, which built the vehicle, finished second out of 45 university teams in a Society of Automotive Engineers competition last month in Los Angeles. More

Against the Odds:Former high school dropout Ngan Nguyen is graduating with her eye on a career in alternative energy.

Ngan Nguyen was 15 when she climbed out of her bedroom window after a family argument and caught a ride with some friends to Portland. Unsurprisingly, graduating college was not on her mind. In fact, the idea of college would have seemed ridiculous. Nguyen had dropped out of high school earlier that year, and was heading toward a life of cheap apartments, couch surfing and working long hours for low pay in Portland.

It wasn’t promising.

But that wasn’t the life for Nguyen, at least not in the long run. After six months in Portland, she decided to go back to night school. “I don’t remember what drove that decision. I was tired of going out and partying all the time. I actually really enjoyed school. So I went back,” she says. More

Claire Rogan is learning what sustainable harvesting means

When Claire Rogan tells people she is a logger, she gets a range of reactions — anything from a sense of camaraderie from those who live the same lifestyle, to anger from people who think logging is utterly destructive. But for the Oregon State sophomore and University Honors College student, education has been the key to her understanding of the practice, its focus on sustainability, as well as the way to improvements.

“It’s like mountaintop coal removal in West Virginia,” she says. “People usually don’t say ’this is bad and we should do this instead.’ If you’re going to have a strong opinion about something, you need to go in scientifically and say ’this is why, and this is how.’” More

UHC Student Selected as Udall Scholar

Shayna Rogers, an Oregon State University environmental sciences major from Corvallis, has been selected as a 2009 Udall Scholar.

Rogers was one of 80 students selected from among 515 candidates nominated by 233 colleges and universities nationwide. Of those selected, 70 scholars intend to pursue careers related to the environment. Six Native American/Alaska Native scholars intend to pursue careers in tribal public policy; four Native American/Alaska Native scholars will study healthcare. More

Wonder Woman Piro makes time stand still

UHC Senior D'Anna Piro competes for OSU on bars, will attend Stanford Business School

One member of the Oregon State gymnastics team described her teammate as "our Wonder Woman."

The Wonder Woman on the OSU roster does not have a "Lasso of Truth," and she does not come from a Land of Amazons. Instead, senior D'Anna Piro hails from Lake Oswego and is a member of the gymnastics team. Being a student athlete is only part of what makes Piro the Beavers' Wonder Woman. More