Honors Digital Time Capsule

While it has undergone several iterations, the Honors College began in 1966 as the General Honors program. University-wide Honors programs on college campuses were still very novel then. Honors education at UMD began in the disciplines, or rather what is today known as Departmental Honors, even before the campus-wide model in 1966. You are now a part of a much larger Honors community of more than 50 years. Welcome!

Given that history, we invite you to participate in your very own Honors College Digital Time Capsule. You will interface with the Digital Time Capsule via ELMS/Canvas just as you do for your classes. What you deposit into your Honors Digital Time Capsule will be saved in Canvas.

It is completely voluntary to participate.

“Take care of yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually. Practice mindfulness and stay open minded. Reflect on yourself and your journey and find the balance you need to thrive on campus.” 

– May 2022 Honors College graduate’s advice to incoming Honors Terps

Your time in Honors and UMD is going to be a special time, like no other. You will meet people, make memories, have incredible experiences, run into difficulties and, yes, experience failures. You will also grow from those failures.

“You get out what you put into it!”

– May 2022 Honors College graduate’s advice to incoming Honors Terps

The moments you have here matter. And they will matter to you four, ten and even more years from now when you reflect on how you have grown. You will reflect on what you accomplished and how the world has changed. You will also think about how who you are now, the things you experience, and the people you meet along this journey will influence who you become later.

How much you put into the capsule is exactly what you will get out of it. You are the first cohort to help us launch this new Honors tradition. Opening your time capsule four years from now and seeing your future self will be worth the investment and the adventure.

What you put in is yours forever.

There are no rules about how you use your time capsule. You will get a message via ___ with a link to a prompt, which will land you on the Honors Digital Time Capsule Canvas page. You will be given a period of time to submit. Once you submit, your submission is locked. For this to work, you may not go back to edit your submission. While the reflection prompts might require you to think a little deeper than others, we encourage you to not overthink any of the prompts and to think in “first draft,” meaning it should be your first, unedited thoughts. First draft is raw and honest. It’s in the moment. It’s what you think and how you feel without filtering. Submissions might be selfie uploads, drawings, poems, links to songs, selfie video or audio recordings. It’s up to you how you respond to the prompt, and you can do something different each time.

All entries are confidential. Most of your submissions will not be read/reviewed by Honors staff, but some will. This is your personal space to create, vent, ponder, etc. If you submit an entry to a prompt from which you would like a response, reach out directly to Dr. Dula. Otherwise, there will be a team of reviewers who will periodically check to see if students are submitting, to which prompts and how they are choosing to respond. Again, this is not a class so you should not expect to get “graded” and receive regular feedback.