Comics, quiz bowls, physical challenges and pomp and circumstance are all just another day during the University of Northern Iowa’s annual Honors Week to celebrate academics and the scholastic achievement of students on campus this week.

This week emphasizes the efforts of those in honor societies and organizations, as well as the University Honors Program by providing several events that are open to the public. This also gives them the opportunity to connect with students who may be interested in joining such programs.

“[Another purpose of Honors Week is] to show honor students other organizations on campus that they can be a part of because they’re an honors student,” said sophomore biology major, Elli Smith.

Smith is a member of Phi Sigma Pi National Honors Fraternity, and her organization will be one of several that will be involved in this weeklong event.

The week will kick off tonight at 7 p.m. in the Lang Auditorium where Sigma Delta Pi, the national Spanish Honor Society on campus, will host author Sonia Nazario to discuss her novel “Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother.”

The 3rd annual quiz bowl, hosted by the honors student advisory board (HSAB), will also take place tonight in the Maucker Union Ballroom at 7 p.m. Ali Henkle, senior performing arts management major and member of HSAB, described what happens at the event.

“We have teams of four compete head-to-head, and we do different rounds,” Henkle said. “The questions are all about different things, so some of them are like history or science or math and other ones are like pop culture or sports.”

On Tuesday, a session hosted by professor of sociology and humanities, Harry Brod, and members of his Honors seminar, “Graphic Novels: Narrative Art and Sequential Story Telling,” will analyze and evaluate topics on sex and violence in comics at the Honors Cottage at 7 p.m.

The panel will be split into two parts. The first part will include three students focusing on violence and villainy in comics; the second part will have two students discussing sexualities and sales in comics.

While discussing the panel, Brod mentioned the diverse group of students that his seminar has attracted this year.

He said the graphic novel medium combines a traditional literary approach with a more visual appeal and perfoming arts aspect.

“So you have some people coming from a more literary, English background and some people coming from the arts, whether it be visual arts or performing arts, and it’s really interesting conversation,” Brod said.

On Wednesday, the history department’s honor society, Phi Alpha Theta, will be holding their induction ceremony in the Great Reading Room in Seerley Hall at 5 p.m.

Following the event, keynote speaker and UNI alum Chris Shackelford will be discussing the importance of student activism.

Because she is a relatively new member to the group, senior economics, finance and history triple major Sabrina Santos, is looking forward to the experience of the ceremony and the public turnout.

“I’m mostly excited for our induction [ceremony] to see how many new members that we get, but also, I’m interested to see if anyone from the public does come to see our speech,” Santos said. “I wasn’t a part of Pi Alpha Theta until this year, so I have no idea how popular it is so it should be interesting.”

On Thursday night, the Honors Student Advisory Board will be hosting their second event of the week, honors Olympics, at 6 p.m. on the lawn of the Honors Cottage. This event will have a combination of obstacle courses and brain games to test the participants in different ways.

Henkle said this event was an inspiration from something similar she did in high school. Since it is a new event that is coming to Honors Week this year, Henkle was anticipating a good turnout.

“It’s just a really fun event. You get to challenge yourself mentally, as well as a little bit physically,” Henkle said.

Sigma Gamma Epsilon, an honors society that provides programming related to the earth sciences will also be hosting an earth science museum from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Latham 140 on both Thursday and Friday. This event is open to the public.

On Friday night, Phi Sigma Pi national honor fraternity will be presenting “Lift the Blindfold – A Documentary on Homelessness in New York.” This event will happen at the honors cottage at 2 p.m.

It is requested that those who plan to attend the viewing of the film bring a canned food item, preferably canned meat, fruit orpasta. These items will be donated to the Northeast Iowa Food Bank.

All events throughout Honors Week are free and open to the public.