Traditional Academic Catalog 2021-2022 > Academic Regulations and Procedures (Traditional) > Honors Program

Honors Program

Program Director, W Brett Wiley, PhD

Required Courses

The MVNU Honors Program is not about having gifted students simply do more work; instead, the program exists to enrich the academic and cultural experience for gifted students by offering unique and challenging courses, special extracurricular opportunities, and a supportive environment in which students can excel. Honors courses feature smaller class sizes, emphasize seminar/discussion formats, and move at a pace appropriate to gifted students.

The Honors curriculum begins the first semester on campus with an Honors version of the University's introductory course, HUM-1012G Discipleship of the Christian Mind. This course will incorporate a Summer Reading Program (SRP) that asks students to complete a reading and essay prior to arriving on campus for their first semester. From there, honors scholars complete two interdisciplinary courses, HON-1003G and HON-1013G, Core Conversations I and II, respectively. As the title suggests, this sequence of courses invites students to dialogue with each other, with their professors, and above all with some of the seminal thinkers in the western tradition. The conversation focuses on the perennial human concerns, the nature and purpose of humanity, the interplay of faith and reason, the quest for justice and the need for mercy, the balance between individual liberty and the well-being of society, and so forth. Core Conversations reminds students that our most basic questions have a history and invites them to explore answers already posed. At the same time, the course fine-tunes their skills in reading, writing, and analysis. 

Core Conversations and General Education requirements: Students completing Core Conversations I satisfy the General Education requirement for "Explorations in Literature." Students completing Core Conversations II satisfy the  General Education requirement for "Communication Arts". Thus, students completing the six-hour sequence will receive six hours of credit within the General Education program.

As an ideal complement to Core Conversations, students enroll in an Honors Seminar during six semesters; two seminars are offered each semester, but students typically take one course per semester. These courses explore contemporary issues and questions from multiple perspectives and involve guest lecturers from MVNU and other area universities, field trips, experiential learning opportunities, and even travel-study options. While Core Conversations introduces students to a rich, textured background, Honors Seminars examine problems as they confront us in the particularity of our current situation, inviting a more nuanced approach to the complexity that is present in the world.

In their junior year, students begin the Honors Project, which is a self-designed and self-initiated research project specific to each student's major. One member of the faculty serves as a mentor, teaching students how to conduct research and directing them through the project. Once completed and approved, honors scholars present their findings to students and faculty at sURC, the University's annual symposium for undergraduate research and creative work. The honors project often serves as a critical link between undergraduate and graduate education. It is an ideal preparation for "the next step" that honors scholars frequently aspire to take. Completion of the required hours of Honors Seminar, Honors Project Preparation, and Honors Project satisfies the requirement for ITD-5013G, Contemporary Concerns, in the General Education Common Core.

Students graduate with University Honors when these requirements are met.

• 2 hours of Discipleship of the Christian Mind
• 6 hours of Core Conversations
• 6 hours of Honors Seminar
• 1 hour of Honors Project Preparation
• 1-3 hour(s) of Honors Research
• A successfully completed Honors Project (including presentation)

The admission criteria for freshmen include (students are admitted to the program only as incoming freshmen):

• ACT composite score of 26 or above or SAT combined score of 1240 or above;
• high school cumulative GPA of 3.50 or above (on a 4.00 scale).

Transfer students who have participated in an Honors Program at their previous institution may be admitted to Honors at MVNU on a case-by-case basis.

To continue as an honors scholar, the student must maintain at least at a 3.50 cumulative GPA on all college work.

Additional questions about the honors program should be directed to the Director of the Honors Program.

Students not in the honors program may graduate with Departmental Honors by taking a maximum of four hours of honors project and successfully completing a research project according to departmental specifications.