Departmental Honors Track

Honors courses Challenge students to do more meaningful work. An ideal Honors course is, at its core, a laboratory. It boldly challenges assumptions about what we know and how we learn. It emphasizes rigor along with exploration, creativity, and discovery. It should provoke students to engage actively in the learning process. It should empower students to participate in academic dialogue, solve real-world problems through research, and draw creative and compelling connections within and across disciplines.

In addition to University General Education outcomes, Honors education aims to help students:

• Develop their ability to analyze and synthesize a broad range of material;
• Understand how scholars and professionals think about problems, formulate hypotheses, research those problems, and draw conclusions about them; and/or to help students understand how creative artists approach the creative process and produce an original work;
• Become more independent and critical thinkers, demonstrating the ability to use knowledge and logic when discussing an issue or an idea, while considering the consequences of their ideas, for themselves, for others, and for society;
• Work collaboratively in diverse groups;
• Reflect on individual and professional development.

Research and Creative Scholarship ("learning in depth")

Research and Creative Scholarship courses tend to be created within existing departments, with honors components supplementing regular work. The goal is specialized, in-depth learning in addition to self-reflective, analytical, and creative activity. The products are often documented scholarship that leads to new integrations, new knowledge, or new understandings of creative products; students pursue a track into postgraduate study, technical careers, or professional careers outside academe, such as telecommunications or theatre.

Breadth and Enduring Questions ("multi- or interdisciplinary learning")

Breadth and Enduring Questions courses confront students with alternative modes of inquiry, exploration, discovery, tolerance of ambiguity, and enduring questions. The products often involve creative integrations of evidence from several disciplines with an aggressive emphasis on interdisciplinarity. Assessment of the products emphasizes process rather than product, focusing on metacognitive questions such as "how do you know?" Students are encouraged to dig deep without a prescribed result.

Experiential Learning

Experiential (or applied) Learning courses focus on student-driven learning projects facilitated by faculty who provide no necessary, single conclusion to be drawn by all or many students. This includes international experience, service-learning and other forms of active learning. The process often involves continuous reflective writing and oral presentation as the students articulate their discoveries and document their personal growth.

Admissions requirements include:

1. Status as a OLL major;
2. Cumulative 3.25 GPA;
3. A Faculty Letter of Recommendation;
4. Student Statement: A one-page, double-spaced letter describing reasons for applying to the honors track, goals and potential benefits to participating in the program; and complete application cover form.

Fall honors application deadline: December 1
Spring honors application deadline:April 1

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Students admitted to the OLL honors track must complete the following:

1. Maintain a 3.500 cumulative GPA in OLL coursework;
2. Enroll in and complete the honors assignments with a minimum of 12 credit hours of OLL coursework selected from the following options:
• EDUC310H: Principles of Leadership - Honors (3 credit hours)
• HNRS351: Survey of Leadership (3 Credits)
• EDUC325H: Social Justice in the Workforce- Honors (3 credit hours)
• EDUC 405H: Service-Learning & Community Engagement- Honors (3 credit hours)
• EDUC 421H: Organizational Design & Engagement I- Honors (3 credit hours)
• EDUC 422H: Organizational Design & Engagement I- Honors (3 credit hours)
• EDUC490H: Leadership in Action- Directed Study (1 credit hour)
3. Actively participate in facilitated meetings with other OLL honors students;
4. Complete and present a student created senior project Honors Portfolio of assignments, activities and reflections geared towards students future career or graduate school goals by enrolling in 1 credit hour of EDUC490H Leadership in Action.