Honors Steins and Medallions
The Honors Stein
During the 1998-1999 academic year, at an early Student Advisory Board meeting, Molly Barker ’00 proposed that graduating Honors students should receive steins like the ones shown here.
As you can see, they are labeled with the class year and the Honors logo. They are hand-made each year by local potters and embellished with the Honors Logo, modified slightly to incorporate the year of graduation (rather than 1935, the founding year of the Honors Program at Maine).
The first Honors steins were presented to Honors graduates in 1999. Since then, each graduating Honors student has been presented with a stein at the annual Honors Celebration. The Honors College has also presented a few former graduates with steins as a token of our appreciation.
The Honors Medallion
In the past, Honors graduates were given a double gold cord to wear at commencement to signify the completion of the Honors Program. However, as more and more honor societies on campus presented cords to their graduates, it became increasingly difficult to distinguish Honors graduates from other students. Shortly after the Honors steins were instituted as a graduation gift, we endeavored to find a solution to this problem – the result was the Honors Medallion.
These medallions are presented to graduating Honors students at the Honors Celebration. The student’s thesis advisor bestows the Honors Medallion to them at the ceremony. The student also has the opportunity to have their medallion engraved with their name and graduation year.
At Commencement, the President of the University of Maine recognizes our students wearing these medallions and what they represent, instructing all students graduating from the Honors College to stand and receive congratulations from the audience and their peers.