When Anna Shoup ’25 was considering her options for college, she wasn’t just interested in an academic environment that would advance her career goals. She desired a community of like-minded peers who would challenge and encourage her interests. Although her mom and grandma had attended Olivet, she wasn’t immediately convinced that it would be the right fit. However, after being invited to apply for the University Honors Program, her interest in the University shifted.
“I had no doubt that Olivet would provide me with great educational opportunities,” Anna says, “and I saw that the interdisciplinary Honors Program would be a big part of that. But finding out that the cohort format would give me a built-in group of people to interact with was a big selling point for me.”
When she moved into Williams Hall her freshman year, Anna hardly knew anyone. But she was excited to step out of her comfort zone. Participating in the freshman Honors Program retreat that occurs a few days before the official start of the school year helped her integrate into the campus community.
During their first two years of college, students in the University Honors Program take four cross-disciplinary courses which satisfy four general education courses. These core Honors Program classes ask students to consider what it means to be human through rich class discussions and meaningful assignments. For Anna, who declared double majors of environmental science and philosophy, the robust discussions with her peers and the Honors Program faculty helped her formulate a deeper understanding of how to apply theoretical concepts to practical action steps.
“I was thriving academically,” Anna says of her first two years in the Honors Program. “And my hope that I would find relational connections through the program really played out. The content was deep and difficult, and there were topics we really had to wrestle through. I especially loved the faith and film class. My friends got together twice a week to watch a movie that we would discuss in class.”
In addition to the rigorous Honors Program curriculum and balancing a heavy course load from her two majors (and two minors of legal studies and geology), Anna was highly involved in campus life while at Olivet. She worked in Benner Library and at the Ludwig Information Desk, served as a resident assistant for three years, was a teaching assistant for the earth and space sciences program and did other small jobs within the Walker School of STEM. During her time at Olivet, Anna also took advantage of multiple educational travel opportunities, including trips to Alaska for field research, the Au Sable Institute on Whidbey Island in Washington state, and Oxford University in England. These experiences helped her refine the types of work that she did (and didn’t) want to do after graduation.
“Philosophy can be a fast track to law school for undergrad students,” Anna says. “Olivet’s pre-law director, professor Charles Emmerich, had always encouraged me to consider law school as a good way to combine my skill sets and interests. Spending time at the Au Sable Institute helped me realize that I really loved engaging in conversations about the ethical implications of how scientific decisions play out in policies.”
When Anna returned to campus for the fall semester of her senior year, she was set on applying for law school. At the same time, she was deep in the process of writing her capstone thesis for the Honors Program. During their junior and senior years, Honors Program students engage in faculty-mentored research in their field of study. Under the mentorship of Ryan Himes, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biology, Anna’s project focused on completing an energy audit for Olivet. The goal was to establish a baseline of Olivet’s energy consumption data to provide key campus decision-makers with a foundation of information for how future projects like solar batteries could benefit the University.
“My initial lofty Honors Program project ideas regarding carbon emissions had to change a lot when I decided to work on a real-life project with real people at a real institution,” Anna says. “But I really wanted to work on a practical project to impact the place where I was living. Olivet had previously installed solar panels, but the University was missing out on renewable energy storage solutions. We started digging into and learning about all of these policy-related incentives that could change the cost of the project and realized that there was potential for a big profit margin.
“It was the coolest experience ever. I sat in on all these business meetings about solar batteries and learned so much throughout the project about renewable energy, electrification and challenges that the University might face. It was really interesting to see the change I was able to contribute to as an undergraduate student.”
While working hard to finish the capstone project and prepare presentations for Honors Day and Scholar Week, Anna sat for the LSAT twice and devoted time to her nine law school applications.
“Applying to law school was really brutal — it’s not for the faint of heart,” Anna says. “It’s a very competitive field of study to begin with, but there was a national uptick in applications that fall. The offers that I eventually received were really good. I visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I really fell in love with it. The city was great, and there seemed to be a lot of environmental law opportunities.”
To cap off her senior year, Anna’s academic efforts were recognized when she received the inaugural Mike and Karen Pence Award for Law scholarship. She graduated summa cum laude with a full résumé of unique experiences and a group of deep friendships.
“I wouldn’t have done anything different,” Anna reflects on her college journey. “I definitely think people should do the University Honors Program, and see it through to the end. All of the people I stayed close with over my four years of college were people who started and finished the Honors Program with me — those are relationships I treasure a lot. Give yourself the option to take advantage of every opportunity, and I believe you will have a successful and fulfilling undergrad experience.”
From Olivet The Magazine, The Parent Guide – Autumn 2025. Read the full issue here.
