Honors Students in Action

(left to right)Honors Student Lauren Tousignant, Honors Student Chelsea Comeau, Secondary Ed Major Kevin Lawson, Secondary Ed Major Chris Herget.

Honors Students Create a Course and Lead a Campaign: "Stop Genocide in Darfur, Sudan!"

Last spring, Chelsea Comeau and Lauren Tousignant had a vision. So they designed an Honors Component project in their Education class with Professor John Carroll.

Their objective: they wanted to use the Component to develop a course they could teach in the future and a course that would immerse college students in the urgent reality of the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

Their vision became reality and a smash success. That Component project led to "Darfur Film and Discussion" the first-ever student-led course at Lasell College. Together with Secondary Education majors Chris Herget and Kevin Lawson, they taught the course this fall, and inspired a fascinated and committed group of 16 peers.

As a result, these twenty students organized the first "DARFUR DAY" for awareness and action, held across campus on November 14. The day brought campus attention to genocide through:

• A petition drive and letter campaign sends action requests to US Congress and Chinese Consulate
• Facts and statistics posted on campus sidewalks, walls, and information video screens.
• T-shirt sale fundraiser
• Candlelight vigil
• They raised $350.95 to contribute to the organization Save Darfur Coalition

Read how The Darfur Four inspired three students in Honors 101.
Interview: Lauren Tousignant on the media, Bono, and genocide in Darfur, Sudan

Dr. Stephanie Athey Director, Honors Program Director, Mexico Shoulder to Shoulder Associate Professor of English Read our FACULTY BLOG