Liberal Studies Commons^™

Fostering Student Leadership In Honors Colleges, Jill Nelson Granger

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The architecture of student leadership in honors colleges is a formative decision that affects students’ experience and development. Through a broad view of student leadership structures across U.S. honors colleges, four common modalities are identified and described: governance, programming, mentorship, and ambassadorship. Relevant models, variations, combinations, and specializations are provided. Student leadership, as a hallmark of honors education, is one way in which honors colleges distinguish themselves both within and outside the university. As intentional learning communities, honors colleges incorporate student leadership into the nature of honors education, as part of mission, and as a defining outcome of the honors …

Promoting The Inclusion Of Lgbtq+ Students: The Role Of The Honors College In Faith-Based Colleges And Universities, Paul E. Prill

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

An estimated 11 percent of students at faith-based colleges and universities, identify as sexual-minority (LGBTQ+). Many of those students come from religious backgrounds and attend universities where they have heard and continue to hear that their sexual identity is in fundamental tension with their faith identity, leading to problems with mental health and, at times, physical health. On many such campuses, sexual minority students have become more vocal, asking that the university acknowledge their presence and provide services to help them succeed and thrive in college. Some of the schools have moved in that direction. Others continue to balk at …

Who Belongs In Honors? Culturally Responsive Advising And Transformative Diversity, Elizabeth Raisanen

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Despite a rich body of scholarship that engages with university honors advising, advising to support diversity in higher education, and the overall need for better attention to diversity within honors, the literature has not fully explored the vital role that advising plays in supporting diversity and fostering belonging within honors programs and colleges. This essay brings together the too-often disparate threads of advising, honors, and diversity to advocate for a practice of culturally responsive advising within the honors environment in order to pursue truly transformative diversity. Holistic academic advising and related programming must play a central role in any honors …

Honors Colleges, Transdisciplinary Education, And Global Challenges, Paul Knox, Paul Heilker

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The authors contend that the most significant comparative advantage of honors colleges is the combination of gifted and motivated students from every academic discipline and interdisciplinary curricula that train students to integrate diverse perspectives. The authors discuss how to harness this advantage to provide a truly transdisciplinary education through collaborative, project-based learning, both on campus and beyond. They assert that honors colleges are in a unique position to circumvent the siloed structures of academia by convening multidisciplinary groups of students guided by faculty from a wide range of disciplines. Doing so can help reimagine undergraduate education to address urgent and …

Introduction To Honors Colleges In The 21st Century, Richard Badenhausen

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This chapter introduces Honors Colleges in the 21st Century, a volume containing the work of 56 authors representing 45 different institutions, many of which are at the forefront of innovation in honors education. In addition to offering a brief overview of the nineteen chapters that make up the book, the introduction reviews the historical growth of honors colleges along with research on that trend, including Peter Sederberg’s seminal The Honors College Phenomenon (2008). The essay accounts for the recent vigorous growth in honors colleges by suggesting that they are able to address some of the most pressing needs of …

The Justice Challenge: Honors Endeavors Innovative Pedagogies Through The Grand Challenge Scholars Program, Jonathan D. Kotinek, Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson, Leigh E. Fine, Joy L. Hart, William Ziegler, Paul Knox, Timothy Nichols, Susan Sumner, Heidi Appel, Mark C. Andersen, Mary Bryk, Andrea Radasanu, Joseph Cassady, Keith Garbutt

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Honors practitioners from fourteen colleges and programs across the country at land-grant, public, and minority-serving institutions partner with agricultural experts to secure a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Higher Education Challenge grant focused on the themes of food justice, climate justice, and sustainable agriculture. Authors describe the program’s origin, objectives, and curricular outgrowths, highlighting its efficacy for empowering students in areas of systems thinking, career readiness, leadership in the service of addressing social needs, and learning through civic engagement.

Pedagogy Of Engagement, Innovation, And Reflection: Hackathons In Honors Education, Joy L. Hart, Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson, Heidi Appel, Jonathan D. Kotinek, Paul Knox, William Ziegler

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Honors practitioners from across the country help students confront pressing social problems and develop innovative solutions to issues related to food security. Authors present a cross-institutional hackathon as a flexible framework for teaching multidisciplinary teamwork, innovative and critical thinking, and an appreciation for diverse perspectives. Providing an engaging, relaxed atmosphere and concentrated time for the application and integration of knowledge, hackathons offer honors educators a pedagogical approach that is both transdisciplinary and transformative.

Environmental Justice Memoir Assignment, Seth T. Reno

Honors in Practice Online Archive

An environmental justice memoir assignment creates a reflective and research-based piece of writing for sophomore-level honors students to consider issues of race, class, and access in their communities.

Editor's Introduction [Volume19], Ada Long

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In her presidential speech at the 2022 annual conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Christina M. McIntryre set the tone for this volume of Honors in Practice. Titled “The NCHC’s Inclusive Mission,” the speech cites an honors alumnus who contributed to the Forum on “The Value of Honors to its Graduates” (JCHC 23.1, spring/summer 2022). McInyre summarizes Quimby Wechter’s essay (145–47) by noting his appreciation of “the value of engaging in course material through meaningful experiential learning; of becoming a part of a community of scholars that is nurturing, not competitive; of classmates focused on challenging each other and …

The Teaching Postdoc: What Four Early Career Scholars Learned From An Honors College, Rachel S. Gross, Kylla Benes, Lauren Collins, Holly Riley

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Authors examine the impact of honors education on four early career scholars who each spent two years in a postdoctoral position (2017–2023), highlighting how initial in-depth exposure to honors curricula and culture positively influences professional identity and teaching practice. Fellowships in a Teaching, Research, and Mentoring (TRM) Program offer nascent scholars from a range of disciplines the opportunity to work with students, extend curricular offerings, and launch career trajectories in a variety of ways. Accounts of these experiences should encourage honors program administrators to look to the ranks of early career scholars as desirable instructors.

A Pedagogical Methodology For Developing And Delivering An Honors Senior Seminar, Carolyn Matheus, Rietta Steffen

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Curricula in honors programs often include a blend of specialized courses and seminars, undergraduate research experiences, and a culminating senior seminar. Authors present a pedagogical approach for developing and delivering an honors senior seminar that can be adapted for delivery in person, online using a learning management system, or in hybrid format. Students evaluate, integrate, and thoughtfully discuss an array of constructs such as happiness, the meaning of life, passion and purpose, values, motivation, community, self-awareness, mentors, diversity, perseverance, leadership, and gratitude through a series of guided readings, videos, lectures, class activities, and assignments. A detailed overview of the rationale …

Studying Abroad At Home? A Virtual International Experience, María Luz García, Sarah Shafi, Camryn Smith, Valentyna Stadnik

Honors in Practice Online Archive

During the period of remote learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, honors programs were forced to innovate new digital possibilities for fulfilling the objectives of an honors education. Learning experiences offered during study abroad programs were among the most difficult to provide in a virtual format. The honors program at Eastern Michigan University has developed the Virtual International Experience (VIE) in response to this need. Even as the 2022–2023 academic year marked a transition back to traditional in-person classes, the VIE offers unique tools for learning skills of cultural analysis and cross-cultural communication, particularly as these occur in remote contexts, …

Beer As Text: Brewing As An Interdisciplinary Experiential Learning Endeavour, J. T. Ford, Steve Garrison

Honors in Practice Online Archive

An honors course explores brewing and its connection to human society. History of brewing, science of beer, and practical lectures on beer styles, brewing equipment, and careers in beer production are featured.

Promoting Holistic Wellness In Honors Students Through Peer Coaching, Leah Horton, Aaron Conrad, Patricia Joanne Smith

Honors in Practice Online Archive

While the conversation in honors about the mental health of students has persisted for over two decades, authors identify a marked increase in the need for student mental health support since the first Generation Z students entered college in 2015. A review of literature in honors indicates upticks in discourse relating to mental health (n = 66) since 2004, and content analysis shows peaks in publication for 2018 and 2021 (n ≠ 11, respectively). This study describes a peer coaching program that focuses on the holistic wellness and support of honors students. Authors observe a decrease in Behavioral …

Simple Is Revealing: Experiencing Public Transportation Illuminates A City, Lucy Morrison

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Author describes how a simple experiential learning assignment can provide an eye-opening, community-building, and integrative learning experience for honors students.

Can Honors Education Reach More Students?, Richard Badenhausen, James Buss

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In light of some outdated public perceptions of honors education, authors consider the advantages of orienting toward honors programs and practices, maintaining that much of what goes on in the community of honors can be useful, insightful, and easily adapted to meet broader learning objectives and advance university goals. Demonstrating the advantages of working across academic and nonacademic units at their home institutions, authors show how honors offers culturally responsive approaches to advising, community building through peer mentoring, inclusive approaches to admissions, and innovative curricula to meet finely tuned national standards. More opportunities for scholarly exchange (national conferences and print …

Relational Peer Review Practices In The Honors Research Methods Classroom: Toward A Scaffolded And Multidisciplinary Model, Holly Riley, Brenna Spurling

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Peer review exercises are an essential part of many educational pedagogy models and have been shown to successfully provide undergraduate students with requisite active learning and critical reflection skills. Teaching the peer review process in an interdisciplinary honors research methods course, however, presents its own set of challenges. As students are exposed to new processes of editorial review, they are also tasked with evaluating material across subjects and discipline areas, making subjective components of editing more difficult. Authors describe a scaffolded model of peer review piloted in an interdisciplinary, upper-level honors research methods and ethics course and provide qualitative analyses …

Empowering Student Leadership Amid Transition: Student-Centered Revision Of First-Year Honors Peer Mentoring, Jacob R. Schlange, Tamy Burnett

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Precipitated by a surge in enrollment, authors describe the three-phase revision (2017–2021) of a first-year peer mentoring program in honors. Grounded in student input and leadership, large-scale programmatic changes involve curriculum expansion, student leadership development, and co-curricular experiential support. Program objectives, implementation, and outcomes are described.

Honors Flourishing In The Midst Of Change, Hao Hong, Robert Glover, Mimi Killinger, Jordan Labouff

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In the wake of formidable institutional change, and in response to administrative concerns about honors’ place within the university, authors describe the development of a pilot course that led to a program’s critical self-study and course transformations that were long overdue. Citizen Scholarship and Human Flourishing incorporates specific practices such as peer instruction and “ungrading” to align with new institutional learning objectives and broadly defined undergraduate research experiences across disciplines. The experimental course presents honors as a model for progressive curricular change in the midst of shifting administrative landscapes.

Jnchc, Vol. 24, No. 1: Backmatter, National Collegiate Honors Council

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

About the authors

JNCHC: Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (Spring/Summer 2023) 24(1): 92-99

Forum essays on "Regime change in honors"

Journal editor Ada Long, University of Alabama at Birmingham

About the NCHC Monograph Series

NCHC monographs and journals

NCHC publications order form

In this issue: Forum essays on "Regime change in honors" and research essays