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 design an honors thesis, a major research writing or creative project. The honors thesis 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 may coordinate with students’ senior project in their major.

Honors students complete a minor; any of Woodbury’s approved minors are eligible.

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 honors thesis to the Woodbury community.
  • Honors students complete at least one practicum activity while at Woodbury.
    • Options include:
      • A WISE learning experience in one of the WISE areas: civic engagement, leadership, study away, or work experience (in addition to a major internship)
      • MORIA Literary Magazine
      • 7500 Magazine
      • An approved student-designed activity
  • Honors students attend at least four honors-approved events per year (readings, lectures, performances) that embody an interdisciplinary focus (the Cabaret Voltaire series, for example) or a multidisciplinary combination of events hosted by their respective departments.
  • 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 (Prof. Schockman’s food insecurity program, for example).

Honors Courses (HONR)

View the two courses we’re offering in Fall 2021 (HONR 2700 and HONR 2701), and learn about the pilot course that was offered in Spring 2021. The Honors Program envisions offering two or three HONR courses per semester, designed around faculty members’ passion projects and current research.

Spring 2022

HONR 2700: Accelerate the Present: Forecasting Trends, Seeing the Future

“I am not a speed reader,” Isaac Asimov writes, “I am a speed understander.” This course will enable students to develop observational and trend forecasting skills that will empower them to better understand, on both an individual and a cultural level, the dynamics of change and how trends emerge from our present moment. Students will uncover consumer trends, new thinking, and drivers of change to pinpoint tomorrow’s business and design opportunities.

Professor: Wendy Bendoni, School of Business

Spring 2022

HONR 2701: Dangerous Landscapes: The Landscape Imaginary in the Age of Technology
Description: Through a close exploration of film fragments, literature of fiction and fact, art works and artefacts – a deeper cultural reading of dangerous landscapes is revealed. The wasteland, the swamp, the forest, the landfill, and the underland – all hold within a treasure trove of ancient and future imaginaries which structure the way current concepts of environmentalism and sustainability are understood and misunderstood.
Professor: Berenika Boberska, School of Architecture

Spring 2021 Pilot Course

INDS 3702: This Is America: Racism and Pop Culture

Description: When Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in 2008, many believed that the country had entered a new “post-racial” era. American society finally saw beyond the social construct that was race, electing to the highest office in the land a man whom they believed was best suited for the job, despite his multiethnic background. However, throughout his presidency, the public was besieged by images of President Obama as a monkey or in blackface, and tasteless jokes – centered around race and culture – flooded the internet. Arrests and shootings, appropriation and mockery, mistrust, and outright hate continued, directed not only towards the Black community, but other people of color as well. America was decidedly not post-racial. This course will examine racism through the lens of 21st-c. popular culture, looking at such artifacts as film, books, fashion, and music videos. Throughout the course, we will ponder this question: does popular culture reflect our reality or create it?

Professor: Ayanna Gaines, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion / College of Liberal Arts

Learn More About the Honors Program

Learn More About the Honors Program

Learn more about the Honors Program in this Q&A with Linda Dove, the Honors Program coordinator. In the interview, Linda shares the vision of the program, why it was launched, courses offered, and more!

Linda Dove is is a poet, scholar, and Participating Adjunct Professor in the Writing Department. She has been teaching academic writing, creative writing, and literature courses at Woodbury since Fall 2016, including the online publication course, which resulted in Woodbury University’s first national literary magazine, MORIA, staffed by undergraduate student-editors. Read the rest of her faculty bio here.

Read the interview about the Honors Program here.

Learn more about Linda Dove here.

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