News from The Mahurin Honors College

September 15 through October 15 was Hispanic Heritage Month. It celebrates the rich cultural contributions of Hispanic communities. Spanning from mid-September to mid-October, it honors their heritage, traditions, and influence on global culture. One of the Mahurin Honors College’s (MHC) freshman Apollo Menendez (he/they) from Elizabethtown, KY is a Cuban-American scholar majoring in visual arts, but as a self-design study major. The self-design study major offers students the opportunity to personalize their major to pursue niche interests and career objectives rather than finding the closest related major.

As well as being an aspiring fashion designer, he is a reporter on the College Heights Herald, the WKU newspaper. Through a Herald assignment he interviewed Seth Howard— who recently had taken a group of students to New York Fashion Week— and was able to make a crucial connection that began his self-designed study creation. “Seth Howard got to take a group of his students to New York Fashion Week, and I got to interview a couple of those students and talk to him about how it went last time,” Menendez said. “Which, because of that, we got to a sidebar conversation about how I'm probably gonna take his intro to sewing class in the spring, and then he's like: I can totally come next time.”

Apollo got their job at the Herald during H4, the freshman honors retreat prior to the school year beginning. They believe that without the honors college, their self-design study major and fashion design aspirations would not have blossomed. “Even though I haven't been a part of it for a very long time, I've already been working with a lot of really helpful people,” he said.

Through the MHC, Menendez has been able to work with Assistant Director of the WKU Office of Scholar Development (OSD) Lindsey Houchin, who he credits generously for his success through the self-design study major. He explained that Houchin was able to sit down with him on numerous occasions and help him create the perfect schedule to achieve his goals. “I'm an aspiring fashion designer. That's what I actually want to do. Even though I'm not a fashion merchandising major.”

With help from the art department and the MHC, Menendez was able to achieve the goal of beginning on the right path to carve his future. “I'm really appreciative of everybody thus far that has been helping me figure out my goals and ambitions,” they said. “And as for my goals and ambitions, I'm hoping that I can start a shop sometime soon.”

When it comes to their shop, Menendez wants to create an alternative-style brand with inclusive sizing. “I want super, super inclusive sizing. I'm not going to just stop at XS or 4XL, we need to keep going,” they said. “Everybody deserves to get to wear cute clothing. Everybody deserves to feel beautiful and feel cute, because they are beautiful and cute.”

In order to achieve this dream, Menendez wants to achieve a bachelor’s degree in a major that will perfectly equip him for how the real world of fashion’s demands. “The whole reason we did this [self-design study major] is because there is not yet an illustration concentration, individual visual arts major,” he said. “What I was focused on is that certain thing. While they [WKU art department] are still trying to gain enough interest for it to be an actual concentration, they still don't have enough right now.”

Creating a self-design study major is no easy feat, and takes intricate class organization and scheduling. “I will take fashion illustration next fall, 2d design was a requirement [for that class]. So we've been covering the different bases of things that I need to get to my goals and aspirations such as having that shop with the fashion illustration class to help me,” Menendez said. “We've been planning it all around what I actually want to do instead of just focusing on the fact that I'm a visual arts major.”

Although unconventional, Menendez is confident that their choice to build a major tailored specifically to them is the perfect path for their goals. “It's a lot deeper than a lot of people think, and people spend way too much time focusing on the label rather than what I'm actually setting out to do and how we're actually crafting it,” they said.

Through this process, Menendez discovered the beauty in WKU and the MHC as a whole. “I found out that the Honors College gives you this opportunity,” he said. “You can really put your mind to it and you can design your classes and your major to what you actually want to do.”

Menendez has not only begun flourishing through the MHC in this aspiring career path, but in their Hispanic roots as well. They went to their first Hilltopper Organization of Latin American Students (HOLAS) meeting, which was advertised through the MHC. “I walked into that room and it was all people that looked like me, and I have literally never had that experience, because nobody here looks like me usually,” they said.

It is this comfortability created by inclusivity that Menendez would also like to harness in their clothing brand. “I don't believe in just staying in a little box,” they said. “I believe in breaking barriers and showing people who you are, because your life is going to suck if you hide who you are.”

Through his exploration of his heritage with fellow HOLAS members, and the aspirations to break social barriers in fashion through the MHC self-design study major, Menendez has a similar goal in many aspects of life: “I just really want people to be able to feel beautiful and love themselves,” they said.