Honors Program Components
Two Years of Course Work Connected to a Unifying Theme
Every component of the program you are asked to complete is designed to reinforce the three main goals of the honors program. During your first two years in the program, you and the other honors students in your class will take five courses, as a group, in various areas of the Arts and Sciences. All students at Saint Xavier complete a range of courses in the Arts and Sciences in order to satisfy the University core requirements, but for honors students these courses all connect to a unifying theme and will address different questions and problems relating to that general theme.
Each of the honors umbrella themes, such as The Idea of America, The Good Life, or The Global Community is selected on the basis of its scope and its ability to expose students not only to the great classics of intellectual inquiry and theory, but also to real world problems and challenges that confront us all.
Junior Year Fieldwork
This component of the program relates most directly to the third goal mentioned above -- bridging the gap between theory and practice and between learning and doing. You will be asked to engage in “hands on” experiences in professional areas that interest you. This component of the program is designed not only to help you apply your learning to real world contexts, but also to become more conscious of the norms and assumptions that fuel the professions and to develop a healthy, critical perspective on professionalism in general.
Senior Year Project
Your senior year project is designed to reinforce the second main goal of the program -- cultivating skills and modes of thinking that will enable you to contribute to and advance learning and creativity in your fields of interest. Your senior project will require that you absorb the work or creative products of others, and contribute your own insights to an ongoing inquiry among professionals in your field.
Honors Portfolio
Throughout the course of your four year program, you will be asked to develop an honors program portfolio. Your portfolio will be a repository for selections of written work you have completed during the program, and for reflections and insights regarding your own progress and development.
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