Catapult

Catapult course graphic

Catapult

HNRS 3801H-001

Suzanne McCray

Spring 2025

T 3 - 4:45 p.m. 

GEAR 129

No application required. 

Honors College Catapult is designed to place ambitious, high-achieving students on a trajectory toward nationally competitive awards and/or graduate and professional programs of study. Students in the course will prepare their academic resume, construct a personal statement, and answer essay prompts, all of which will be consistent with graduate or professional school admission. Additional topics include studying for advanced tests such as the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), building a graduate or professional school timeline, and preparing for interviews.  

Catapult  is an eight-week, one-credit-hour course.  

What's in it for you:

  • Practice your professionalism through mock interviews
  • Hone your resume so that it stands out in an applicant pool
  • Develop a plan for moving forward in your academic or professional career

What's required of you:

  • Active engagement in writing, compilation and professional exercises
  • Research your post-degree options
  • Come to class prepared for discussion

About Suzanne McCray:

Suzanne McCray, an associate professor in the College of Education and Health Professions, serves as the vice provost for enrollment and the director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, an office she successfully proposed and founded in 1998. She has advised hundreds of University of Arkansas students concerning scholarship and graduate school applications, holding more than 300 student meetings each year. She has personally advised all 52 of the University’s Goldwater Scholars; all nine Udall Scholars; all four Gates Cambridge Scholars; 17 of 23 Truman Scholars; 4 of 7 Marshall Scholars; 1 of 10 Rhodes Scholars; and a Schwarzman Scholar as well as many NSF Graduate Research Fellows and Fulbright Scholars. 

In 2005 McCray edited Beyond Winning: National Scholarship Competitions and the Student Experience, a collection of essays written by foundation heads and scholarship advisors. That collection has been followed by five additional volumes:  Nationally Competitive Scholarships: Serving Students and the Public Good and Leading the Way: Student Engagement and Nationally Competitive Awards (2007), Leading the Way:  Students Engagement and Nationally Competitive Awards (2009), All in:  Expanding Access Through Nationally Competitive Awards (2013), All Before Them:  Student Opportunities and Nationally Competitive Fellowships (2015), and Roads Less Traveled and other Perspectives on Nationally Competitive Scholarships (2017).  

She holds bachelor’s (high honors) and master’s degrees in English from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee.