Honors Program

Linda Dove, PhD

Coordinator

Accreditation

Member, Western Regional Honors Council

Introduction

The Woodbury Honors Program (HONR) is an interdisciplinary, active-learning based, academic enrichment program available to high-achieving students. It aims to enhance their educational experience through curricular, co-curricular, and community service experiences in a way that coordinates with their major course of study. Participation in the program results in special designation on their academic transcript and conferred degree.

Curricular Components

Honors students complete three Honors Seminars (one-unit, 16-week courses, taught by faculty in all subject areas across campus). These may be self-designed or group-designed directed studies (depending on enrollment), and may be proposed by students. Honors Seminars are open to all Woodbury students with space reserved for students currently in the Honors Program.
As part of their required WRIT 313 upper-division GE writing course, Honors students begin to develop a framework for the senior thesis project in their major. Interdisciplinarity is an approach germane to all Honors courses and will be a required component of the Honors project / senior thesis presentation, which is a set of meta-questions the Honors student designs to broaden their thesis work and suggest ways it connects across disciplines to larger issues of a sociopolitical, aesthetic, material, economic, environmental, philosophical, historical, computational, psychological, etc., import. The Honors component is completed with the mentorship of any Woodbury faculty member subsequent to the WRIT 313 course, may be an individual or group-directed study, and must apply an interdisciplinary lens to the student’s senior thesis project in their major, resulting in presentation of the project to the campus community.
Honors students preferably complete a minor; any of Woodbury’s approved minors are eligible. (This preference may be waived by the Coordinator of the Honors Program.)

Co-Curricular Components

Honors students present their senior thesis work to the Woodbury community within a framework of meta-questions that they develop as a result of their interdisciplinary experiences in HONR.
Honors students complete at least one practicum activity while at Woodbury. Options include a WISE learning experience in one of the WISE areas: civic engagement, leadership, study away, or work experience (in addition to a major internship; MORIA Literary Magazine; 7500 Magazine; an approved student- designed activity.
Honors students attend at least four Honors Program-approved events per year (readings, lectures, performances) that embody an interdisciplinary focus, or a multidisciplinary combination of events hosted by their respective departments. These events are professional in nature, rather than social.
Honors students meet with the Honors Program Coordinator at least once per semester.

Community Service Components

Honors students complete 10 hours of volunteer service to the community per year in an approved setting either on or off campus.

Overview

Mission

The Honors Program challenges students to develop as expansive and innovative thinkers, lifelong learners, and contributing members of diverse local and global communities through a rigorous engagement with curricular, co-curricular, and community-service experiences.

Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes express the abilities, knowledge, and values that students can expect to gain from the Honors Program. Students completing the Honors Program will be able to:

Describe the diverse nature of scholarship and creative work in the university (developing).
Conduct scholarly or creative work at a professional or near-professional level, and to present their work to faculty and peers (developing).
Demonstrate the ethical obligations of being an informed, engaged, and contributing member of local and global communities (developing).
Participate in leadership/service, mentorship/ practicum-based learning, and/or multi- cultural/ inter-cultural activities (developing).

Assessment Process

Summative Assessment Experiences

The coordinator and Honors faculty regularly assess individual student learning and review the collective work of students over time. Students’ written projects, presentations, group collaborations, notes on class participation, ePortfolios, records of event and activities participation, and community service are archived for review purposes, and assessment reports are regularly developed by the coordinator and Honors faculty for the purpose of adjusting and improving the program, its courses, and student learning.

Program Specific Academic Standards

Eligibility and Completion Expectations

Students who are eligible to apply to the Honors Program have:

An overall Woodbury GPA of at least 3.0.
Earned at least 30 units at Woodbury for incoming first-year students or 15 units for transfer students.
Taken or are currently taking an Honors Seminar.

Students completing the Honors Program maintain:

Cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Honors curriculum GPA of 3.5 or higher