West Chester University Honors Program
West Chester, PA
http://www.wcupa.edu/honors

Unique:

The central element of the Honors Program is its curricular focus on personal leadership development and community service that appears on students’ transcripts and allows them to be recognized at commencement. The core of cross-disciplinary writing intensive courses that are reflective of a liberal arts education and often team taught, fulfills the general education requirements for this distinctive cohort of academically gifted students. The Honors Program features an association with the Bonner Leader Program and AmeriCorps and supports community needs assessment projects in South Africa. The program provides a living-learning community environment where students reside in a designated Honors residence hall and boasts an active Honors Student Association which coordinates co-curricular service learning projects and social/learning activities.

Website Features:

Offers information on the Honors Program, requirements, a letter from the director, course listing, faculty involved, service projects, alumni, and Q/A.

Program Objectives:

1. To be honorable is to serve (motto); student leadership and student reflection are key
2. To prepare students to become forces for positive change in the co-curricular life of the campus and broader community through scholarship, service, teamwork and leadership
3. To motivate students to develop character and value life-long learning
4. To share leadership and allow students to become active resources for one another

Structure/Governance:

West Chester University’s Honors Program founded in 1981, under a “great books model,” experienced a dynamic curricular change in 2001. The Director of the program (a tenured faculty member), inspired from leadership and service experiences during a three year Kellogg National Fellows Leadership grant, spearheaded a group of progressive faculty to draw from the liberal arts tradition and develop a core of courses that could educate students to become stronger leaders and motivate them to utilize their gifts of leadership in the service of others. Thus, leadership and community service became the thematic thrust of a redesigned Honors curriculum. Each class of entering students forms a learning community, representative of 32 distinctive academic majors, and remains together through a sequence of nine cross-disciplinary, writing emphasis seminars that run through the junior year. Each seminar, generally team taught by faculty from different disciplines, addresses a key component of leadership development. The program focuses on the student’s personal reflection and connects the student to social/community change by raising critical leadership and service issues in a variety of diverse course offerings. Students are encouraged to consider international travel and the program culminates with an intensive capstone project that is service based and requires students to synthesize learning from the nine core courses and their unique academic major in preparing them to tackle leadership challenges confronting those who face the challenges of society.

Relationship of Program to Institution’s Mission:

West Chester University, a member of the Pennsylvania state System of Education, is a public, regional, comprehensive institution committed to providing access and offering high-quality education. Modeling a commitment to liberal arts and cross-disciplinary education, the Honors program celebrates outstanding students and encourages them to strive for a high level of academic excellence. Honors Program membership comprises students with outstanding achievement in scholarship, community service, the arts, and/or leadership, which builds on West Chester’s academic status and embraces the universities ‘plan for excellence.’ Membership in Honors is competitive with a maximum of 40 seats open each fall. Current membership includes students from 32 different academic majors. Incoming first-year and transfer students normally are invited to apply to the program if they demonstrate at least two of the following:
1. minimum high school GPA of 3.6
2. minimum SAT score of 1200 (based on a combination of the verbal and math sections)
3. top 20 percent of graduating class
4. record of achievement in high school Honors/AP courses

Foundational Pillars:

Co-curricular courses are integrated with specific academic coursework relating to the certificate requirements of the Honors Program. The program is intense in that it requires students to devote an average of 10 hours per week for a semester working with, and towards enhancing, a community agency. The program requires 9 courses with a culminating capstone, which takes students four years, a multi-year model, to complete within their academic career. The Honors Program focuses on leadership and contribution within a developmental and sequential model. The program seeks the support of other academic disciplines to join forces in bridging student interest. Some courses touch upon poverty but the topic is not at the center of study. The program highlights experience, reflection, and academic/personal connection and ties it amongst global coursework, such as a Project in South Africa, where a team of approximately 25 Honors students conduct a community needs assessment in Guguletu Township, just outside of Cape Town. Courses provide hands on, out of class experiences, linking student passions and gifts to social issues and arenas needing social change. Thus, the program allows students to consider public policy – which is integral to the Honors program, both in academic and co-curricular arenas. Interdisciplinary by spanning over 32 disciplines, the program successfully links students from music majors to pre-med majors to discuss, for example, strategies for economic enhancement, formation of ethical standards for genetic testing, and approaches to survey research.

Program/Course Architecture:

A Lead In Course – Introductory course entitled, “Honors 100: Self-Awareness” – Required first semester of all new students. Course emphasizes self reflection through a battery of personality inventories (eg., Myers/Briggs) and team building through an out-door adventure based program. Students are also required to attend a special two day summer orientation program.
Poverty Course – Few courses touch upon poverty; some merging issues of violence and race with the economic structure of the US, One course addresses philanthropy and fundraising and guides students in the development of a grant proposal to assist a community partner group.
International Exposure – Coursework focuses on global connections; travel to South Africa provides space for relationships to develop (bridge differences)
Full Time Internship – Required; 10 hours per week for a semester with a community agency. Most of the core courses have a service learning component that requires field work.
Capstone Seminar – Culminating paper that combines the service work completed at an agency about a specific leadership issue. Project requires students to address was the nine core courses in leadership and service equipped them to go beyond the base line of service.

Specific Courses of Study:

I. Courses in the Honors Core (27 required hours)
A. HON100 Self Awareness and Development (3)
B. HON211 Decision Making & Public Discourse (3)
C. HON212 Ethics & Moral Choice in a Technological Age (3
D. HON310 Theories & Strategies of Community Change (3)
E. HON311 Stewardship and Civic Responsibility (3)
F. HON312 Educational Systems & Social Influence (3)
G. HON313 American Government, Democracy & Public Opinion
H. HON314 Science, Technology & Environmental Systems (3)
I. HON315 Community & the Arts (3)
II. Interdisciplinary Special Topics Seminars (6 required hours----HON352 plus one free choice)
A. HON352 Leadership and Nation Building: Lessons from South Africa (3)
B. HON351/451/452 – Special topic seminars (3)
III. Capstone Project (3 hours required---senior standing, all core courses must be completed
A. HON490 – Capstone Project
IV. Elective Options
A. HON340 Junior Capstone (1) – course designed to allow students to explore graduate and professional school options
B. HON341 Civic Engagement (1) – course designed for Bonner Leaders and students committing to an extensive commitment to field service and reflection for a given semester. Sophomore standing. May be repeated for up to three credits.
C. HON399 Independent Study (1-3) – designed for students with research interests leading to conference presentation and/or publication.

Learning Outcomes for Students:

To demonstrate the knowledge of:
A. Team work; bridging across difference
B. Service or servant leadership
C. Recognition of personal gifts for leadership in oneself and in others
D. Effective written and oral communication
E. Critical and analytical thinking
F. Sensibility and understanding of a person educated in the liberal arts tradition
G. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies
H. Thoughtful response to diversity and poverty
I. Ethical and informed decision-making

Strategies for Bonner Connection

Role of Service: A service-learning scholarship opportunity was begun through a partnership between the Honors Program and the Bonner Foundation of Princeton, NJ. Twenty Bonner Leaders are involved in AmeriCorps annually.

Student Leadership: The program provides qualified Honors students, who have a strong commitment to serve others, the benefit of a $1,000 education voucher from the AmeriCorps Foundation for 300 hours of verified community service. Bonner leaders use their leadership skills in our local area for educational enrichment at the Police Athletic League, create projects and plan events for residents of The Hickman (a senior residence facility) and develop one-to-one friendships with adults with intellectual disabilities at Best Buddies. Students in the Bonner Program use their leadership and specialized training skills to perform meaningful service and help create positive change in the lives of others in the local community and act globally as they raise awareness of poverty, hunger and disease (notably HIV-AIDS) in South Africa.

Community Partnerships: No formal partnership structure currently exists however students regularly interface with the office of service learning for field placement opportunities that tend to be with repeat local organizations. Additionally, the Honors Student Association---the co-curricular arm of the Honors Program---has regular interactions with such groups as The Hickman and the West Chester Salvation Army. Annually the program hosts either a breakfast or “thank you” reception for our community hosts. Internationally, we have a partnership with The Rev. Professor Deon Kitching, Director of Youth Net, who makes arrangements for community interface in South Africa and in particular the impoverished community of Guguletu Township just outside of Cape Town.