WKU News

Langley Williams, a sophomore in The Mahurin Honors College, is utilizing her passions and creativity to develop Virtual Escape Rooms for the Kentucky Honors Roundtable (KHR) conference this spring. Langley, from Elizabethtown, KY, is double majoring in Biochemistry and Chinese. A member of the Chinese Flagship Program, Chemistry Club, Student Research Lab, Ogden College Ambassadors, and a mentor for Chinese Flagship students, Langley is heavily involved on WKU’s campus, but doesn’t allow this to hold her back from engaging with scholars beyond Bowling Green, KY.

KHR is an annual conference offered for collegiate honors students around Kentucky to “network with like minded people”; it is an opportunity for students “to present to their peers and share ideas” such as research projects and proposals. Langley was invited to participate in KHR after her Honors 251 (Honors Citizen and Self) professor recommended her because of Langley’s deliberative dialogue certificate. Impressed by her unique talents and outstanding skills, KHR leaders invited Langley to serve on the Student Planning Committee which allows students to input their ideas for this year’s virtual conference.

While communicating with other students on the planning committee, Langley came up with the idea of hosting virtual escape rooms. What was just an idea quickly turned into an amazing opportunity for Langley to apply her knowledge and interests in a unique setting. She was inspired by her hobby of creating powerpoints and flyers for her mom’s work. Langley was not expecting the outcome of her virtual escape rooms to be so far reaching: “more students have signed up to the KHR Conference this year” Langley mentioned.

The Mahurin Honors College allows “students to get out of their comfort zones” to develop and explore their passions, Langley stated. She expressed that if it were not for the MHC, she probably would not have been presented this opportunity to do “anything of this scale or nature” with designing.

We are so proud of Langley’s hard work and creativity and look forward to seeing how she continues to ascend toward excellence with The Mahurin Honors College.

To see Langley’s virtual escape room creations, click here!

More information about the 2021 Kentucky Honors Roundtable can be found here.