This website is a project created by the Students of the Arts Science Honours Academy (SASHA).
The Arts and Science Honours Academy (ASHA) and SASHA have no clear-cut definition which can make it confusing for students considering applying. This website aims to show how ASHA and SASHA have unique definitions that vary between current students, alumni, and professors. It truly is what you make of it!SASHA is the official student-led body for members of the ASHA at the University of Calgary. By being a member of ASHA, students are automatically members of the SASHA club.Since its establishment in 2006, the club's goal has been to enhance ASHA's interdisciplinary culture through events that strengthen the community, provide academic enrichment, and offer networking opportunities. The executive council works throughout the academic year to create opportunities for students across all cohorts of ASHA to connect and continue meaningful conversations outside the classroom.
The SASHA lounge located in the Social Sciences building (SS 816) is home to Orville, the club's penguin mascot!
SASHA aims to:
1. Support the community of ASHA students by creating resources (like this website!) and advertising other opportunities such as SASHA's mentorship program and regular events.
2. Provide opportunities for students to share their ideas and opinions, and pursue intellectual growth and social fulfilment.
Closer look: SASHA's Mentorship Program!
SASHA offers a year-round mentorship program where first-year ASHA students (mentees) are connected with an upper-year ASHA student (mentors). Partnerships are created by SASHA's executive team members and are based on shared interests and goals. This way, mentors can offer advice beyond the scope of ASHA to university more generally.
What is ASHA, exactly?
In your first and second years of university, you will complete four ASHA classes (one each semester). Your fifth and final ASHA class is typically taken in the final year of your final semester of university.In your ASHA classes, you will receive instruction from several professors who specialize in different topics across the arts and sciences and collaborate with students in a discussion-based class.ASHA intends to create a setting conducive for creative minds to understand the complex issues of today's world, consider their interdisciplinary scope, and discuss potential solutions. By sharing insights from a wide range of disciplines, ideas inspire and build upon each other.
ASHA students will develop critical thinking skills and engage in thought-provoking discussions in a unique, tight-knit community. Through SASHA's resources you will have the ability to: connect with alumni, professors, and peers from across different cohorts; participate in events; study and relax in the ASHA lounge; join the mentorship program; and join the executive council to learn the ins-and-outs of operating a SU-registered club. A key aspect of ASHA is the Experiential Learning Activity (ELA) which is an opportunity to learn outside of a traditional classroom. An additional bonus is that ASHA fulfills Arts majors' science courses requirements.
Disclaimer: The Students of Arts and Science Honours Academy (SASHA) does not speak on behalf of the University of Calgary’s ASHA administration. The information displayed on this website is current up to Winter 2025. Access official UCalgary resources to obtain faculty and program-specific advice.
In the third year, ASHA offers the opportunity for students to enrich their education and personal growth with the Experiential Learning Activity (ELA). An ELA can be defined as an immersive, off-campus learning experience where you are presented with new challenges and perspectives, and a departure from one's regular course of studies. Students have creative freedom to fulfil this requirement and have many resources for support.
In the past, students have:
Engaged with new communities internationally or close to home.
Completed internships for official government bodies.
Studied, volunteered, or worked abroad.
Conducted independent research.
Ultimately, the ELA’s purpose is to encourage you to develop new ways of thinking and understanding the world.
Closer look: a few students from Cohort 16 shared their ELAs!
Shafaq Batool
"For my ELA I am working with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO) as part of the Youth Advisory Group to address systemic barriers that youth face in advocacy spaces. Through the SyncTogether initiative, we are developing a toolkit to support youth advocates by creating policies and resources that challenge power dynamics, privilege, and oppression. This hands-on experience in policy advising and toolkit development aims to empower young voices and foster inclusive spaces in both advocacy and academic environments."
Maggie Byrne
"My ELA project is dedicated to my volunteer work with individuals who have experienced domestic abuse and/or intimate partner violence. I volunteer with Sagesse, an organization that provides peer & group support, educational workshops, and various other avenues of empowerment, resiliency, and care for survivors. As a psychology student wishing to work in a clinical environment with those from vulnerable communities, it is so important to me to gather experience and compassion outside of the academic environment and be rooted in the lives of those I want to foster healing with."
Olivia Monette
"Olivia is a 3rd-year Political Science and Education student who has been doing her ELA since her first year as a volunteer tutor. She has been tutoring 2 students in social studies and English language arts virtually, and the experience has helped her develop skills in not only teaching but also public speaking and source analysis. It has been a rewarding experience with the opportunity to make a positive impact in her students’ lives!"
Disclaimer: The Students of Arts and Science Honours Academy (SASHA) does not speak on behalf of the University of Calgary’s ASHA administration. The information displayed on this website is current up to Winter 2025. Access official UCalgary resources to obtain faculty and program-specific advice.
"My name is Tatiana MacKeigan, and I was a member of Cohort 13 and majored in neuroscience. As an enthusiastic participant in the SASHA community, I was the VP of Events for SASHA from 2020-2023 when I graduated. Being a part of ASHA was perhaps the most enriching and certainly the most unique experience of my undergraduate degree. My rigorous degree program did not afford me the ability to take many options or branch out into other disciplines. ASHA expanded my worldview and appreciation for the arts by offering unique course materials, engaging discussions, and connecting me with other students I might not have met otherwise. The benefits of ASHA are many, but the most valuable to me were the supportive faculty, opportunities created through SASHA, and the ability to build strong bonds with my peers through sharing our experiences, healthy class discourse, and events. I have been influenced by ASHA in how I engage with my education and relate to my peers. I intentionally sought out multidisciplinary research projects, particularly when I was choosing my undergraduate thesis project, and am excited to learn from those with unique training and backgrounds. To me, the mission of ASHA can be summarized in one profound lecture when we were taught by Dr. Pablo Policzer; he said the goal of ASHA is to nurture students to become producers of knowledge rather than consumers of knowledge. That lesson has stuck with me and informed the decisions I make throughout my time in academia and all the projects I am a part of. ASHA helped me feel like I belonged to the University of Calgary and will continue to influence the person I become."
"My name is Zoe Cascadden-Jassal. I was part of Cohort 9 which started in 2015. I completed a BSc in archaeology, which I graduated from in 2019. My experience in ASHA was my favorite part of my undergraduate journey - my cohort was filled with amazing people and we had the opportunity to be taught by some awesome professors. I still recall my 300-level ASHA course where we had to creatively present on topics of invention and had such a blast learning and working together. My team had so much fun presenting the invention of the pop-up toaster and creating our own version of a balaclava face mask. ASHA taught me how to think outside of the box and exemplified what active learning was. Without ASHA, I don't think I ever would have been able to find the confidence to continue in my journey in graduate school and pursue research that integrated transdisciplinary work. I now work in heritage and research the use of digital preservation methods using technologies that I was first exposed to by my Cohort members in Computer Science. I have brought much of my learning experiences into the classrooms that I teach now to create an active learning environment. I also had such an amazing ELA experience. I had the opportunity to attend the University of Manchester in the UK for a year. It happened that another of my ASHA cohort colleagues, Olivia, was accepted to the same exchange program so we had the opportunity to explore Europe together! The best part of ASHA is the people! ASHA is such a great program for bringing together people from all different backgrounds and pushing us to think in new and exciting ways. It is a great program for fostering relationships across different fields which is paramount in not only research but also in creating active, thoughtful citizens outside of the academy. When someone asks me about ASHA, I usually tell them that it was the best opportunity I had in undergrad and it was the first step I took to become the researcher I am today. I encourage all students entering university to apply for the program because it will help expose you to all the opportunities and amazing outcomes of human collaboration."
Isaac Caverhill, 1st ASHA Cohort, BA Political Science 2011"ASHA was an incredible educational experience that, while letting students dive deeply into their field of study, kept them grounded in the wider world of science, art, literature, and humanity. Alongside my international experience abroad, I truly appreciate this holistic perspective as an essential grounding for a global career in diplomacy where you solve problems in a multitude of foreign contexts. It still benefits me by helping me put aside my assumptions and biases from particular paradigms and actively listen to others from different perspectives. If someone asks what ASHA is, I point to the classical, cross-disciplinary education methods that institutions used to give before specialization became the name of the game, one that fosters curiosity and seeks to consider fundamental truths across disciplines. Or just a great time with other young excited students, which is probably more accurate."
"My name is Hafsa Maqsood from Cohort 11 and I majored in Communication and Media Studies. ASHA was a wonderful experience where I was able to balance my interdisciplinary interests. I always enjoyed the sciences, so I was disappointed I would have to let that go as I pursued a major in the Faculty of Arts; but, with ASHA I was able to get that balanced academic experience. As someone who went on to pursue academia professionally, the research skills I gained in ASHA that pushed me to do an honours thesis impacted my career path by showing me how much I genuinely enjoyed research in my field and equipping me with some great research skills. I went to Singapore in exchange for my ELA experience (at the time, study abroad was mandatory) which was incredible and exposed me to the media and politics of a whole other part of the world. This also had an impact on my career as I went on to Master in Journalism, especially in international and global reporting. The benefits of ASHA are that it really gives you a holistic, unique interdisciplinary experience you cannot find in university. One where you build relationships with so many interesting people from different faculties and learn so much more than you would in your specialized field bubble. When someone asks me what ASHA is, I tell them exactly that. It's a specialized program that introduces you to disciplines, diverse experiences, different professors, and students you would normally never stumble across in your university experience. It's a program that really indulges your curiosity and supports a high-achieving student's desire to build a balanced academic portfolio without letting go of specialized interests."
Pablo Policzer
ASHA 321 – Representation, Fall 2020
"Teaching an ASHA course online in 2020 remains one of my favorite pedagogical experiences. ASHA brings together brilliant students from across a range of disciplines, embodying what John Brockman called "the third culture"—a space where arts and sciences deeply intersect. For my course, I took inspiration from Thomas Kuhn’s insight that good scientists, like good artists, must be able to "live in a world out of joint." Guided by this idea, we explored diverse representations of order, disorder, and complexity across fields as varied as physics, politics, economics, urban planning, music, and dance. Through these different lenses, students discovered surprisingly similar tensions and parallels across disciplines. The students were amazing, bringing boundless enthusiasm to our shared exploration. Each session was a dynamic exchange that I learned so much from. We reveled in lateral thinking, an intellectual synergy that ASHA provides the ideal space for. None of us holds a monopoly on the truth, and the ASHA approach equips us to learn from each other in navigating some of the big challenges ahead of us. I can’t recommend the program strongly enough."
Lisa Young
ASHA 322 – Representation, Fall 2024
I'm a Political Science professor, specializing in Canadian politics. One of the things I worry about a lot is whether democracy is in danger. I taught ASHA 322 - Questions of our Time in Fall of 2024, in the midst of the US Presidential election, and posed the question 'Is Democracy in Danger?' To explore the question, we read some political science and also delved into work from history and psychology. Where the class really came alive, though, was when we delved into fictional accounts of ways that democracy could die. Students read novels or watched series like The Handmaid's Tale and The Plot Against America and related them back to the central question. ASHA students brought a wide range of perspectives to our conversations. Students with an interest in computer science and technology enriched conversations about social media and democracy. Psychology majors contributed their understanding of the ways human psychology makes us susceptible to authoritarianism. Humanities students offered insight from critical theory and philosophy to diversify the conversation. As an instructor, it was a real pleasure to get to know this engaged and thoughtful group of students.