The 18-credit program includes three basic types of courses. Refer to the sections below to learn more about Colloquium, Seminar, and extended courses.
Honors Program (HP) students complete, in two consecutive semesters, Honors Colloquium I (HNR 204) and Honors Colloquium II (HNR 205) as part of their
Honors Program and graduation requirements. Each Colloquium is a three-credit course that meets for three hours per week.
In Colloquium I and II, discussion and analysis focus on a reading assigned for the semester.
The course consists of the reading and analysis of individual assignments and other related sources. Oral or written exams or other forms of assessment may be given at the completion of each reading assignment. For each class meeting, students are responsible for completing assigned reading and for commenting upon the reading in a discussion, journal or response paper. The daily responses or recitations are meant to encourage students to reflect on what they have read by reacting to what they have learned and pondered. The Colloquium instructor may also assign questions about the reading to be answered in the response, yet another way to communicate with the instructor.
Movies and other visual media may be used during or outside the Colloquium class hour to supplement the discussion and reading.
Guest speakers are invited to visit. The
Honors Program often funds the visits of university professors, authors, artists, community members and public figures who come to share their ideas with HP students.
While in Colloquium classes students have the opportunity take trips to theatres, lectures, concert halls, other community college campuses and research and scientific centers or laboratories, etc.
These learning experiences may occur during or outside of class time, as necessary. The HP student is expected to participate in four of those events per semester and to write a response paper for each one. The response, along with the ticket, program or brochure from the facility is due within one week of the event.
In addition, students visit Arizona's public universities (ASU, NAU, and Uof A) during the two semesters of Colloquium I and II.
A trip to one of these universities is required per semester. This requirement also includes a response paper due within one week of the visit.
In order to graduate from the
Honors Program, students complete at least nine credits (3 courses) of "extended courses" as well as three Honors Seminars.
The extended courses taken for Honors credit enable academically talented students in the
Honors Program to chose "regular courses"--those found in the regular curriculum--but to imbue them with extended depth. These three selected courses extend the curriculum by giving students and faculty opportunities to work closely together on in-depth projects, which often focus on individual interests within the subject area of the extended course. For example, the student might want Honors credit for a literature course (LIT 201, for example) and might want to do a project that involves an in-depth study of epistolary writing to extend its relevance on a personal level.
General Procedure for Extended Courses
Students choose three courses of particular interest. Only courses that transfer to at least two of the three state universities as the same or equivalent courses (rather than as electives) may be taken for Honors credit. To take a course for Honors credit, the student initially enrolls in a regularly scheduled course. However, before registering for a class, it is wise to discuss the possibility of getting Honors credit; keep in mind that granting Honors credit is at the discretion of the professor. Once the professor has agreed and the student is registered, s/he then officially arranges with the professor (by writing and signing a seminar contract) to take it for Honors credit. The contract explicitly details the expectations of the project to be completed. What follows below is the procedure for creating an Honors Extended Course.
