Some millennials wished for a letter from Hogwarts on their 11th birthday, but instead, some of those millenials received an acceptance letter from Texas Tech University about seven years later. Now, select Tech students are getting to experience what it may be like to attend the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Picture courtesy of craveonline.com.
The Tech Honors College will soon be dividing freshmen students into houses, similar to the system in the “Harry Potter” series. Michael San Francisco, dean of the honors college, said he was unaware of the house system in “Harry Potter.”
“When I was a high school student in India, actually from fourth grade through twelfth, I went to a Jesuit school, and they had houses in the school,” San Francisco said. “I belonged to one of the houses, and it was very cool because everything I did in that school was directed towards the house.”
San Francisco, Ph.D., said each house at his school received points for doing well. Getting good grades, winning the soccer match and volunteering for community service earned points for a students’ respective house. At the end of the year, he said, the house with the most points won a trophy.
“It was a team-building spirit,” San Francisco said, “and while there was this nuanced competition that ran through the whole thing, it was more of this working together instead of working for yourself alone. While you’re doing that, you’re still working for the greater good.”
The house system will work similarly in the Honors College. San Francisco said freshmen and older, current students who choose to participate will be separated into four houses, which will be named after the founding members of the college. Each house will represent one of the virtues of the college: knowledge, service, courage and integrity. Right now, students are being randomly selected for the houses through a computer system.
Each house will have its own unique crest symbol and colors, and students will receive scarves to match their houses. San Francisco said this will help students identify other house members across campus.
“‘Harry Potter,’ this is the new version,” San Francisco joked.
According to San Francisco, each house will have a faculty and staff mentor, as well as student captains from each classification. Priscilla Ortiz, a junior biology major, was chosen to be a junior-year captain for one of the houses.
Ortiz said she is very excited for this opportunity. The Lubbock native said the captains serve as role models for the younger students, and this year’s debut captains will decide the traditions and government.
“I think the majority of us are excited,” Ortiz said, “because I think many of the people in the Honors College are pretty nerdy, and as soon as they hear something like ‘Harry Potter,’ they get super excited about it.”
Marcos Palacios, a freshman electronic media and communication major and a member of the Honors College, said he is not sure what to expect yet but is delighted to be a part of the inaugural group. He said other students he has talked to are interested as well. Palacios said the dedicated honors students will help to make this system a success.
Picture from the Honors College website.
“I think this will work well because the Honors students are academic achievers and competitors,” Palacios wrote in an e-mail. “If the House Cup is awarded to one house based on academic merit and service, it will definitely be a close call between all the dedicated students.”
Students will be initiated into their new houses at a convocation ceremony on October 9. San Francisco said about 550 students will be sorted during the ceremony.
“Being the diehard ‘Harry Potter’ fan I am, I would love to have a wizened, knowledgable hat dig into my personality and assign me to a community where I will thrive,” Palacios wrote. “One can dream.”
About Sarah Self-Walbrick
