The Honors College thrives on the intellect and creativity of its students. A group of four students in the Honors College who call themselves the Honors College Critical and Creative Society, or HCCCS, take that a step further by highlighting the best of art and science from OU.

According to Jacob Nick, the society’s vice president, HCCCS accepts short stories, essays, poems, photos and research papers from OU students and puts them into a creative journal. Their mission is to get Grizzlies published.

“If you can write creatively or write research, think it is Honors College quality and want it published, send it in and we will consider it,” Katy Hayward, president of HCCCS, said.

The students edit all of the submissions as a group and decide what they want to publish. Hayward said that when they run into conflicting opinions they discuss the piece and make a decision based on the group’s opinion. That way, the submissions are looked at by more than one set of eyes.

Due to change of leadership and loss of the majority of their board, the students had a rough time getting started this year.

“We have experienced some difficulty in figuring out what we need to do moving forward, but Dr. Harper from the Honors College has been great in helping us get started this year,” Nick said.

HCCCS has been able to get the publishing of their second edition in motion. They are hoping to have the issue available within the next week. Reece Scheuer, treasurer for HCCCS, said that they will work on getting the third edition published in the winter so they can give their full attention to their fourth edition, which they are now accepting submissions for.

“We want to make a name for ourselves and become a popular creative journal,” Scheuer said. They hope to be known on campus and a tool students use.

Despite all of the work they do together, they are a close knit group of friends who like to see newcomers help out with the journal and have a good time reading the submissions together.

“One of the main reasons I was looking forward to coming back to OU this year was HCCCS,” Cory Quigley, secretary for the society, said. “It’s truly a great time; I get to hang out with great people and read what students have written.”

While it only allows Honors College students to join the society as members and editors, the group allows any OU student to submit writing or art to them.

For this school year, HCCCS is looking for Honors College students to join their editorial team.

“All our editors have to do is come to a monthly meeting. We look through and proof the works submitted. It’s very laid back,” Scheuer said. “Since there are a few of us we all look through most of the pieces, so we don’t require our editors to have a vast knowledge of creative writing or science. For the most part, you read what interests you.”

HCCCS is accepting submissions and looking for editors. They can be contacted at [email protected].