New face at the Honors College

Lipscomb alumna joins the Honors College as program coordinator.

Janel Shoun-Smith | 615.966.7078  |  01/27/2020

The Honors College welcomed the 2019-20 school year with a new program coordinator, Kristen Thompson (’95), a Lipscomb University alumna who has previously worked in health care marketing, nonprofit fundraising and Metro public schools.  

During her own college career at Lipscomb, Thompson studied marketing and French, studied the Russian language for a year in Kiev, and organized student mission trips to Ukraine.

Thompson brings not only career experience in problem-solving but also a love of learning and an enthusiastic attitude to get to know, serve and enhance the lives of Lipscomb honors students.

A significant part of Thompson’s work with the college is to work one-on-one with students to make sure their college experience and their honors experience runs smoothly and effectively.

“These young men and women are so ambitious, talented, smart and driven. They really impress me!” she said. “If a student comes in with a problem—maybe he or she is worried they will not have enough honors credits to graduate with distinction. If I can help figure out how… to alleviate some stress, that is a really rewarding day.”

Thompson is in charge of coordinating the impressive slate of extra-curricular events, designed for educational and cultural enrichment, that the college offers each year. Such events “serve to build a stronger sense of community among our 700 honors students. We take our students to the Nashville Symphony, to theater productions, the Nashville Zoo and special lectures, among other things, each semester,” she said.

“These enriching activities show that a student is not only brilliant academically, but they are well-rounded and share a broader worldview than they might have had when they arrived as freshmen,” she noted. “If someone comes to Lipscomb from another state, they should at least have an opportunity to go to the symphony hall or the performing arts center with their peers.”

This year, the college has been able to utilize its new location in a free-standing house on campus as an events venue

Thompson also works with Honors College faculty to encourage students to attend cultural events or conduct service projects for extra credit in particular courses, to fulfill service-learning course assignments or to boost students’ resumes for graduate school or for applications for fellowships and internships.

“The Honors Diploma is fantastic to have on graduate school applications and sets a person on the path to becoming a more responsible global citizen,” Thompson said of such efforts.