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The Provost’s Honors program invites high achieving and highly motivated students to engage in Honors coursework while also completing the basic curriculum assigned.

Honors coursework is designed to enrich and expand the expectations of each participating traditional post-secondary level course. 

Benefits to participating students

  • The opportunity to participate in a highly motivating and academically challenging program
  • Honors designation on transcripts
  • Honors designation on degree/diploma if 12 honors credits completed with “B” or better
  • Special recognition at graduation
  • Enhanced transfer opportunities
  • Increased emphasis on communication and critical thinking skills
  • Leadership and mentoring opportunities

How it works

Each participating course can become a Provost Honors program course upon completion and acceptance of an Honors Contract. Please use your My Gateway login information to access the form. The contract will outline the work the student intends to complete beyond the existing requirements of the course. The honors contract work should focus on achieving academic excellence in the areas of critical thinking, communication skills and academic inquiry. Honors coursework generally will be more writing, research and/or project intensive. The program is designed to engage students and faculty across all disciplines and encourage and support students in leadership and service to the college and the community. 

To participate in the Honors program, eligible students will need to submit the Honors Contract. The Honors Contract is a collaborative effort between the student and a faculty member which provides an opportunity for the student to enrich the quality of his/her education beyond what is normally expected in the course. Proposed work must be relevant to the subject of the course. The Honors project must offer challenging, experiential tasks, which may include, but may not be limited to, the following:

  • Research: library or field
  • Oral and/or written communication
  • Critical thinking
  • Creativity

The student must complete and submit the signed, original Honors Contract to the Provost for Honors program committee for approval no later than the second Friday of the semester. The Honors Contract must be approved for the student to receive Honors Credit. Approval will be sent to the student and faculty member by the third Friday of the semester. A symposium of student work will be held during staff professional development week in May.

Please view an example of a successful Provost's Honors project. This Microbiology project, founded in data from lab samples of reptile feces--was seeking the presence of Enterococcus in the fecal matter. Student Karla N. Martinez Valeriano completed the research, wrote the paper, developed Powerpoint presentation and delivered the presentation to a group of instructors. 

Honors Program Eligibility

To be considered for participation in the Honors program, the student will have had to achieve a 3.5 or higher cumulative GPA with at least 12 semester hours of college coursework completed.

Honors Credit Appeal

In the event a student wishes to appeal an unsatisfactory honors project outcome, the student must appeal the decision to the provost within three weeks of learning the honors project was not awarded credit. Upon notification to the provost, the honors program committee will convene to review the appeal.