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Location: LLC, Building A, Room 112
Phone: (435) 797-2715
E-mail: honors@usu.edu
Website: honors.usu.edu
Overview
The University Honors Program (UHP) supports a community of highly motivated students who recognize the personal and professional value of putting learning into practice. The program prepares students for the future by building their skills in research and discovery, clear and effective communication, critical thinking and self-reflection, and collaboration and community engagement. The UHP exemplifies Utah State University’s (USU) land-grant mission as a premier land- and space-grant institution committed to excellence, access, and inclusion. In keeping with this institutional mission, the program aims to recognize and develop the potential of students to become global citizens and positive change agents, even when students do not yet see that potential in themselves. Our vision is to build an increasingly active and engaged community of students, faculty, alumni, staff, and stakeholders who represent the best that USU has to offer.
Students seeking either associate or bachelor’s degrees are eligible to apply to the UHP. If an honors student completing an associate degree continues on to pursue a bachelor’s degree, the requirements to earn the Associate with Honors credential become the foundation of the remaining requirements to earn the University Honors bachelor’s credential. These credentials are stackable and complementary.
Program Structure
Honors students earn a combination of points/credits that reward engagement in and beyond the classroom, and these points are tracked in a UHP Canvas course. Students completing an associate degree must earn a total of 14 points/credits, while students completing a bachelor’s degree are required to earn a total of 28 points/credits.
Honors students who enter the program as first-year students begin college by exploring various academic disciplines and creating connections in the honors community of peers, faculty, and alumni. First-year honors students take one of the following Honors Broad Views courses, which meet USU’s General Education Breadth requirements:
These courses investigate big questions about cultural, socio-economic, scientific, and technological issues facing our global community and thus introduce students to shared concerns across academic disciplines. In addition to their coursework, honors students participate in structured Honors-in-Practice (HIP) work and attend in-person and virtual co-curricular academic events that extend learning beyond the classroom. First-year students earn honors points in the UHP Canvas course by completing these course credits and/or documenting HIP work and co-curricular engagement.
Students seeking an associate degree complete a special course, HONR 1900: Honors Associate Portfolio Preparation, in their first year to prepare for the construction of a required professional portfolio, which they will build in Canvas, using the Portfolium tool. This portfolio curates the student’s best academic work, features their experiential learning and reflective writing in the UHP, and includes a meta-reflection on the personal and professional value of their experience as an honors student in their associate degree program. The professional portfolio works as the capstone experience of the two-year degree program in the UHP, much as the Honors Capstone Project does for students seeking a bachelor’s degree
Second-year honors students may continue to take Honors courses for additional USU Breadth credit. They may also enroll in a team-taught, cross-disciplinary Honors Deep Dives course that satisfies one of USU’s General Education Depth requirements (HONR 3010, HONR 3020, or HONR 3030). These courses model civil discourse among scholars and community leaders from different disciplines and engage students in seeking creative approaches to specific local and global challenges. Sophomores also engage actively in independent and structured HIP work, which connects them with mentoring professors on topics of mutual interest and allows them to earn Honors points as they document and reflect upon the value of their educational experiences. They continue to attend co-curricular events and opportunities to interact with Honors faculty, alumni, and special visitors to USU. Students completing their associate degree in this second year are required to polish and submit a professional portfolio as they complete HONR 2900: Honors Associate Portfolio.
If the first two years in the UHP empower students to ask big academic questions and to join the honors community, the junior year (for students seeking a bachelor’s degree) allows them to take charge of putting their knowledge into practice by applying the skills learned in their majors, minors, or areas of particular interest. Attending co-curricular activities takes on new meaning as students begin to develop more specialized skills: they now represent their disciplines and specific interests at interdisciplinary events. Students can complete research, study abroad, serve internships, design academic projects outside the classroom, write grants, work in laboratories, or develop service projects – all earning honors points when documented and submitted in the UHP Canvas course. Transfer students and new applicants are awarded up to 14 Honors points upon admission, based on their past work or existing transfer agreements, and they can thus join the UHP as juniors and still graduate with University Honors, providing they complete all required honors milestones (typically over four semesters). This work, along with HONR 3900 (a specially designed pre-capstone course), helps to prepare honors students to complete an Honors Capstone Project in their final year of a bachelor’s degree program at USU. Students who have earned the Associate with Honors credential from USU and then choose to pursue a bachelor’s degree can also continue in the UHP, applying the 14 points they earned to complete the Associate with Honors requirements to the total 28 points required to earn the University Honors designation with a bachelor’s degree.
Senior honors students must complete a capstone or thesis project in an area of particular interest, typically earning points by registering for and successfully completing HONR 4900. These projects vary according to discipline, but all involve focused research or creative reflection (often in the major) and yield a final product with professional and intellectual value for the student. Final products may take many forms, including a traditional thesis; a single- or co-authored paper based on sustained research; a performance, fieldwork experience, or exhibition with process and reflective writing; or a detailed professional portfolio that goes well beyond the normal requirements of the major. Seniors have the opportunity to join interdisciplinary discussion groups exclusively for senior capstone writers and to share their work with other interested honors students, alumni, and faculty. As the most experienced students in the honors community, seniors also take on leadership roles in the UHP and in clubs and organizations across the university. Once again, they earn honors points in the UHP Canvas course by documenting the work of putting their honors knowledge and experience into practice. Their attendance and reporting in Canvas on co-curricular activities by senior year should be driven, at least in part, by their involvement in shaping those activities for the USU community.
Showcasing the important work that these undergraduate students can do, the UHP is central to USU’s land-grant educational mission.
Admission
The University Honors Program seeks students who bring a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and skills to the Honors Aggie community but who all share a passion for taking learning beyond the classroom.
The program welcomes applications from incoming, transfer, and current USU students on any USU campus. These applications include two brief essays, a current transcript, and an extracurricular resume. While application review does include an assessment of grades (most students enter with a 3.25 GPA), the essay-based holistic approach to admission gives all applicants the opportunity to demonstrate more than an ability to earn good grades: the program is equally interested in what students care about and how they plan to bring that passion to their work at USU.
Honors is therefore looking for highly motivated students who are…
- CURIOUS and passionate about changing the world;
- CREATIVE and thoughtful in problem-solving;
- COURAGEOUS and resilient when challenged; and
- CONNECTED and engaged with their communities.
Students with at least two years remaining at USU are encouraged to apply (see honors.usu.edu for more information).
Transcript Designations
Honors students may graduate with any combination of the following transcript designations, each of which indicates a particular kind of outstanding achievement at USU:
- University Honors
- Undergraduate Research
- Community-Engaged Scholar
- Global Engagement Scholar
For more information, please see the University Honors website (honors.usu.edu) or contact the University Honors office at honors@usu.edu or (435) 797-2715.
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