University Honors Program

By Kaitlin Lewis

Michele McDonald, program coordinator for the University Honors Program, has spent over a decade learning, growing and working at the University of Dayton. From starting as a first-year student in 2011 to now working full-time, McDonald has learned some of her most important life lessons while in Dayton, Ohio. The UHP took the time to ask McDonald about a few of her favorite memories at UD, as well as how the university has helped shape her career path today. 

Undergrad at UD

McDonald graduated from UD in 2015, earning a bachelor’s in adolescent to young adult education with a concentration in social studies and minors in German and history. While she originally had no interest in UD, her mom set up a campus tour during her college search in high school, which McDonald said was not “totally” against her will, “but I wasn’t happy about it.”

“Needless to say, as soon as we started the campus tour and I began to see how beautiful our campus is and how many cool things there were to get involved in, I was hooked,” McDonald said. “I toured six schools and while everyone was nice, there was something about UD where those gestures felt genuine.” 

As an undergraduate student, McDonald said her biggest time commitment was to the River Stewards Program, and shared that she loved the orientation paddles that the group put on every year. McDonald was also involved in Running Club and tried out Gymnastics Club for a year. 

In addition to campus organizations, McDonald was also a part of the honors program, and was awarded a Hull Fellowship to use toward her studied abroad program in Salzburg, Austria, in the spring of 2013.

McDonald said that one of her favorite memories as an undergraduate student was when the men’s basketball team went to the March Madness Elite 8 during her junior year. 

“I remember watching them play OSU during the first round in the Hangar and winning at the last second with the entire building erupting with cheers,” McDonald said. “I might have skipped class that day to watch the game, but it was totally worth it.”

Teaching Abroad: McDonald’s Year as a Fulbright

Following graduation, McDonald spent a year abroad in Thailand as a Fulbright scholar from September 2015 to October 2016. She first discovered Fulbright after hearing a presentation from Laura Cotten Howell, associate director for the UHP, in her education course sophomore year. Howell now serves as McDonald’s mentor and supervisor in the UHP office.

McDonald said she applied to teach English abroad in Thailand because she found a connection through sports. As a life-long fighter, McDonald currently practices Thailand’s national sport, Muay Thai. 

“I have been doing martial arts since I was 17 and after getting my black belt in Kung Fu, I transitioned over to doing more combat sports such as Muay Thai and MMA,” McDonald said. “So it was the perfect connection to make when writing my application.”

McDonald added that talking about her Fulbright experience is her favorite story to tell, and said that living and teaching in Thailand “was the best and most transformative experience of my life.”

“I don’t think there is a day that goes by when I don’t think about it,” McDonald said. “I grew both personally and professionally and was able to live in a community full of the nicest people on the planet for an entire year.”

“I always tell students if they are able to do something immersive like this and travel that they need to,” McDonald continued. “The way I understood the world, especially from an American perspective, dramatically changed from living in a rural Thai community. I think it is so important not only to see the world but see other humans around the world and the ways they live, worship, engage with each other and just enjoy life.”

Lessons abroad leading to answers at home

McDonald said that her decision to apply to Fulbright was also the catalyst for her coming back to UD for graduate school. As McDonald was abroad, Howell and her stayed in touch, and it led to McDonald doing presentations for students interested in Fulbright as well. 

“I realized I loved helping these students apply for amazing opportunities like I had way more than I enjoyed teaching social studies to high schoolers,” McDonald said.

This realization ultimately led McDonald to pursue a masters in higher education administration in 2019 and work as the UHP graduate assistant. McDonald graduated from the masters program in 2021, and in June 2021, she was hired for a full-time position with the UHP.

McDonald said that while it might be “cliche to say,” she has stayed at UD for so long because there’s no other community quite like it. 

“When I was finishing up graduate school, I was actually worried I might have to go somewhere else and it just wouldn’t compare to here,” McDonald said. “The Honors Program specifically is the best work environment I have ever experienced and for the moment, I can’t picture myself anywhere else.”