About the Honors Program

Image: OwlThe overall objective of the Honors Program is to engage talented students drawn from all the undergraduate schools of the university in a challenging program of study through an integrated series of courses and seminars. The emphasis is on active involvement in the learning process, and the intention is that the Program complements studies in both core and major, without having a negative impact upon students' freedom to pursue minor or elective courses. The Honors Program consists of approximately 50 students from each class, selected partially at the time of admission to the University, partially towards the end of freshman year.

The Honors Program encourages students to:

  1. Become culturally literate in the Western tradition by studying some of its 'great ideas' as expressed in the humanities, the arts, and the social and natural sciences
  2. Appreciate challenges to the Western intellectual tradition either by considering critical voices traditionally marginalized in that culture or by investigating the assumptions of a non-Western culture
  3. Learn to make connections between disciplines, and to learn to ask the larger questions that transcend any single discipline
  4. Bring the Honors experience to bear on the field of their chosen major at a high level of accomplishment through the completion of a research project appropriate to the particular discipline
Profiles

Image: Jorgenson

John Jorgensen

"I like to think in different ways and the Honors Program gives me that opportunity. There's a multi-disciplinary approach to everything we do, which brings subjects together in new ways. It's exciting to be in classes where the worldview is never narrow. The variety of interests among students and professors also adds to the energy of the program. Students from many different majors choose the Honors Program because it works for any major."

 

 

Katie Sprovieri

Image: S Provieri"My advisor told me that if I really liked participating in class discussions, the Honors Program was for me. The Program also allows students to complete curricular requirements in an unusual way by studying with committed students in small classes and often in classes team-taught by professors from different fields. Every semester the Program sponsors several events outside the classroom, ranging from Broadway plays to musical performances, to discussions of popular culture. If you like taking part in classroom discussion and want a different educational experience, I would definitely recommend Fairfield's Honors Program."