Honors Program
The Woodbury Honors Program (HONR) is an interdisciplinary, active-learning based, academic enrichment program available to high-achieving students. It aims to enhance their educational experience through curricular, co-curricular, and community service experiences in a way that coordinates with their major course of study. Participation in the program results in special designation on their academic transcript and conferred degree.
Students who are eligible to apply have:
- An overall Woodbury GPA of at least 3.0.
- Earned at least 30 units at Woodbury for incoming first-year students or 15 units for transfer students.
- Taken or are currently taking an Honors Seminar.
Standards for Completion:
- Cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher.
- Honors curriculum GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Curricular
Honors students complete three Honors Seminars (1-unit courses, taught by faculty in all subject areas across campus). These may be self-designed or group-designed directed studies (depending on enrollment) and may be proposed by students. Honors Seminars are open to all Woodbury students with space reserved for students currently in the Honors Program.
As part of their required WRIT 313 upper-division GE writing course (see description below), honors students begin to develop a framework for the senior thesis project in their major. Interdisciplinary is an approach germane to all honors courses and will be a required component of their honors project / senior thesis presentation, which is a set of meta-questions the honors student designs to broaden their thesis work and suggest ways it connects across disciplines to larger issues of a sociopolitical, aesthetic, material, economic, environmental, philosophical, historical, computational, psychological, etc., import. The honors component is completed with the mentorship of any Woodbury faculty member subsequent to the WRIT 313 course, may be an individual or group directed study, and must apply an interdisciplinary lens to the student’s senior thesis project in their major, resulting in presentation of the project to the campus community.
Honors students preferably complete a minor; any of Woodbury’s approved minors are eligible. (This requirement may be waived by the Director of the Honors Program.)
Description of WRIT 313 Advanced Academic Writing Course (3 units)
WRIT 313 is typically taken during the 2nd or 3rd year and builds upon the foundations of WRIT 113 by helping students transfer those writing strategies to new situations, purposes, and audiences in both upper-division academic writing and professional contexts. Through the lens of a course topic, writing in this course aims to make transdisciplinary connections that benefit all students, regardless of major, and encourages students to engage with issues within their majors and future professions.
Co-Curricular
Honors students present their senior thesis work to the Woodbury community within a framework of meta-questions that they develop as a result of their interdisciplinary experiences in HONR.
Honors students attend at least four honors-approved events per year (readings, lectures, performances) that embody an interdisciplinary focus or a multidisciplinary combination of events hosted by their respective departments. These events are professional in nature, not social.
Honors students meet with the Honors Program Coordinator at least once per semester.
Community Service
Honors students complete 10 hours of volunteer service to the Woodbury community per year, in an approved setting (for example, the food insecurity program, working at the Library, volunteer opportunities with their sorority, civic engagement off-campus).