Honors Scholars Program
Program Director: Elisabeth Wengler
For students beginning the Honors Schloars Program in Fall 2020 and later:
The mission of the CSB/SJU Honors Schlolars Program is to provide an intellectual community for a self-motivated and diverse group of students to take intellectual risks, participate in a challenging, integrative, and interdisciplinary liberal arts curriculum, develop their collaborative leadership skills, and apply their learning to projects that contribute to the common good.
Key Features:
- Integrated Curriculum: The curriculum consists of a common set of five Honors seminars that students move through with their cohort. Each course builds on the next with scaffolded learning outcomes and civic engagement through developmental experiential learning activities. Through interdisciplinary courses, one of which will be team-taught in two different Ways of Thinking, students will learn to apply concepts, methods, theories and skills to complex social issues. Students meet Integration Curriculum requirements in the five Honors seminars.
- Collaborative Leadership: The program embeds learning goals developed from the “Social Change Model of Leadership.” It features a collaborative understanding of leadership and a commitment to the common good that is consonant with the Benedictine notions of the responsibilities of living in community and with the aspirations of CSB/SJU for transformative inclusivity.
- Liberal Arts in Action: The interdisciplinary liberal arts curriculum of Honors provides students with the opportunity to wrestle with universal questions about the human condition in particular contexts, to uncover the root causes of diverse societal inequalities and the particular nature of power dynamics. Students will integrate coursework and leadership skills in experiential learning projects in which they identify opportunities and challenges, develop proposals, and design strategies for change that support the common good of their communities.
Requirements for students entering in Fall 2020 and later
Admission to the Honors Program – 3.85 High School GPA and an application is required ordinarily at the time of admission. Additionally, current first year students may apply to the Honors Program in their first semester at CSB/SJU. Contact the Honors Director for an application.
Students must maintain a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA at CSB/SJU.
Course requirements (20 credits):
Honors 120 – Community and Identity (CI)
Honors 201/202/203/204 – Interdisciplinary Approaches to Communities of Scholarship (Thematic Encounter: Truth; 2 ways of thinking)
Honors 300 – Communities and Systems (CS)
Honors 360, 361, 362, 363, 364 – Community, Research and Social Change (Thematic Encounter: Truth; 1 way of thinking; EX)
Honors 395 – Liberal Arts in Action: Capstone (Learning Integrations)
For students who entered the Honors Program before Fall 2020:
The Honors Program gives students opportunities to engage in independent thinking, research, and writing and enroll in Honors versions of Common Curriculum courses such as. Honors First-Year Seminar, Mathematics, Fine Arts, Social Science, Natural Science, Theology and Humanities, as well as upper-division Theology and the Ethics Common Seminar. Students may earn 4 credits toward All College Honors by writing a Distinguished Thesis. Students in Honors may also earn 4 Honors Option credits by contracting with instructors of Common Curriculum or departmental courses to supplement normal course work with an additional reading, research and/or writing project. The Honors Option application requires the approval of the Honors Director. In exceptional circumstances, students may be allowed to earn 8 credits. Students are encouraged to plan Honors Common Curriculum courses into their four-year plan of study carefully, especially if they intend to study abroad.
To graduate with "All-College Honors," students who entered the program before Fall 2020 must earn 32 credits or more in Honors courses, including 12 credits in 300-level courses. For students who enter the program in their sophomore year or who spend a semester abroad, the 32 credit requirement is reduced to 28 credits.
For the most current information about the Honors Program, please consult our website at: https://www.csbsju.edu/honors