Natalie Pothoven

Third-year student

Hometown: Rock Island, IL

Major: Communication Sciences & Disorders

Minor: Educational Studies

Certificate: Linguistic Studies

Career Goals: I plan to become a speech-language pathologist, helping young children with communication difficulties to find their voice and become confident in their communication.

How has HSP participation enhanced your college experience at UNI? This program has created a lot of friendships, based on the frequent small-group discussions in class and the community-based environment of the program. It has also helped me to apply learning in other classes to real life, to learn to ask more questions and seek more answers, and to dive deeper into topics, rather than skimming the bare minimum.

What is your favorite part about being in HSP? My favorite part about the H&S program is the variety of interesting classes. Many of the Honors classes are topics that I would never get to learn about otherwise and I enjoy having a class that is so different from the traditional academia. I also love the discussion-based teaching and the back-and-forth between students and professors, which I believe enriches the learning environment.

How has your HSP experience prepared you for life after UNI? The H&S experience has taught me to chase knowledge and pursue learning. This will be very beneficial after UNI, as learning does not end with the close of formal education. The skills I have learned in this program will help me to continue learning about things I am interested in and to make informed decisions based on knowledge. I will benefit in grad school, in completing continuing education for my future career, and in everyday life.