Honors options are required of all students in the honors program after the first semester and will be discussed in detail at honors program meetings early each semester.
In an honors option project, a student works with a faculty member on a project that will replace part of the regular requirements of a course in which the honors student is enrolled. This results in that course being labeled an honors course for that student.
Examples of honors options
- A research project on an area covered by the course.
- A video or multi-media project on a particular theme.
- A special experience designed to reinforce aspects of the course.
- A project to be submitted to the annual Academic Festival.
- A service-learning project.
- Use your imagination to create something new!
An honors option project allows you to work closely with a faculty. member on an important and intellectually interesting topic. The honors option work is recognized by an “H” designation on your academic transcript for that course.
Guidelines
These guidelines are intended to help you develop a productive honors option. Please put serious thought into developing your project. Be as specific as possible in describing the work.
- The honors work should be supervised by faculty members teaching at Penn State Mont Alto.
- The honors work should not be an add-on to the routine assignments but a modification of, or an alternative to, some part of the syllabus. It should be fun and interesting for you!
- In honors work, the character and quality of the work should be augmented, but the time required for the honors option should not create significantly greater work for you than for your peers.
- Honors work should go more deeply into methodology, structure, and theory. It should attack more sophisticated questions and satisfy more rigorous standards than expected in the same course without the honors option.
- A successful honors option experience will include planned regular meetings between you and your instructor for review, discussion, and revision as the project develops. Specific deadlines should be identified clearly in the honors option plan.
- Describe clearly on the form how this work will be evaluated. Make sure this topic has been discussed in specific terms during the negotiation phase of the planning and before the plan is completed.
- The honors option work becomes part of the graded work for the course. It will be included in your overall grade for the course.
If you or your instructors wish to discuss any aspect of the honors option, please contact the honors program co-coordinators.