TN Collegiate Honors Council Conference
Agenda
PROGRAM [PDF]
Friday, February 28, Out-of-Town & Community College Welcome
Paul W. Martin, Sr. Honors College
6 PM Registration
6-8 PM Building Tour & Honors Ambassador Q&A*
*Dinner or refreshments provided
Saturday, March 1, Tennessee Collegiate Honors Council
Science Building
7:45 AM Doors open (registration, poster set-up, grab-and-go breakfast options)
8:30 AM Welcome Speech by Provost Mark Byrnes and Dean John R. Vile
9-9:45 AM Pillars of STEM & the Humanities I – Breakout Rooms
10-10:50 AM Fellowship Roundtable + Q&A
11 AM Student Trivia Bowl & Honors Faculty Roundtable
11:30 AM LUNCH at McCallie Dining Hall (requires ticket), and Executive Board Meeting, McCallie Dining
Hall Meeting Room
1-1:45 PM Poster Fair & Grad School Tabling
2-2:45 PM Pillars of STEM & the Humanities II – Breakout Rooms
3 PM Essay Contest Winners, Trivia Winners, Farewell
Laura Clippard
Laura Clippard recently completed the DAAD Germany Today program in the summer of 2024, where she visited higher education institutions in Germany. She has over 25 years of experience in higher education and currently serves in the Honors College as the National and International Fellowships Advisor at MTSU. Her past employment includes 15 years of service in TRiO, where she worked with low-income, first-generation, and disabled students.
Laura has served as a non-certifying Gilman Advisor, Fulbright Program Advisor, and Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) campus advisor for the last 16 years. She served as a selection panelist for the Gilman Program, CLS, and Phi Kappa Phi Study Abroad scholarships. Laura conducts over 45 workshops per year related to studying abroad and fellowships, including Gilman workshops. Her past leadership activities include four years of service on the National Association of Fellowships Advisors (NAFA) Executive Board. She was awarded an IEA Fulbright to Japan in 2019 and has served on the JET interview panel for the Consulate General of Japan in Nashville.
Trey Straussberger
Dr. Trey Straussberger is the Director of the Office of National Scholarships, which is part of the Honors College at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He was previously an Assistant Professor of African History and completed his PhD at Columbia University. He has advised students who have received scholarships from the Fulbright, Goldwater, NSF REU, and Gilman, among others. He also takes a holistic approach to fellowship advising, working with students to identify their personal and professional goals, including post-graduate programs such as the Peace Corps, Americorps, EPIK, and Teach for America.
Meet the Panelists
Tandra Martin
Senior Associate Consultant, Higher Education Strategy and Operations, Huron Consulting Group
Tandra is a senior associate at Huron Consulting Group. She has a breadth of experience in the education sector that spans higher education, state government, K-16 policy, and international education policy. Tandra’s expertise includes program and project management, diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic planning, organizational transformation, human resources, and mergers and acquisitions.
Before joining Huron, Tandra worked as a program manager under the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Vanderbilt University. She led crisis management efforts during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and supported strategic planning as the university resumed international engagement. Tandra also held a role in student affairs at Vanderbilt University, advising student organizations and leading community engagement efforts locally and abroad.
Before joining the staff at Vanderbilt, Tandra was the director of Postsecondary Coordination and Alignment at the Tennessee Department of Education, where she was responsible for overseeing the state’s portfolio of early postsecondary opportunities and industry credentials and led initiatives to close college readiness gaps for historically disadvantaged and underserved students. As a student at MTSU, Tandra received a Daniel L. Boren Award, participated in a PPIA, won the Harold Love Community Service Award, studied in Morocco, and received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in South Africa.
Samuel Apigian
Senior Mechatronics Engineering major, with minors in math and Honors
Samuel is an Honors Buchanan Fellow. Over the summer of 2024, he was selected for the DAAD RISE Germany internship, where he was placed at the Technical University of Dresden to work on research titled “The Development of a Nanopositioning Stage for use in Ultra Precision Manufacturing.”
Formerly, he was Valedictorian at Central Magnet High School. He also worked as a referee with the U.S. Soccer Federation, responsible for games at the Richard Siegel Soccer Complex in Murfreesboro.
He is currently researching the uses and benefits of induction heating in stovetops for this Honors thesis.
Victoria Grigsby
Junior dual major in Political Science and German
Victoria is a Honors Buchanan Fellow. She studied abroad in summer 2023 in Aberystwyth, United Kingdom as a US-UK Fulbright Scholar studying Nationhood and Identity through the Lens of Wales. In summer 2024 she studied abroad in Marburg, Germany as a Gilman Scholar studying German language, history, and politics.
Victoria is involved with several organizations on campus, having served as a Senator in the Student Government Association, President of the American Democracy Project, a Blue Elite Tour Guide, and a CLA Emissary. Additionally, she has tutored students for the Political and Global Affairs Department, presented research at AASCU’s Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Conference two years in a row, and created a community research project to aid first-generation students as a Delta Scholar.
In Fall 2024 she completed an internship in Washington D.C. with the International Rescue Committee, aiding refugees in the D.C. area, through The Washington Center internship program.
She is working on her Honors thesis concerning right-wing populism and foreign policy. After graduation, she intends to pursue a graduate degree in Washington, D.C., focusing on international relations and foreign service.