Honors program full of challenges, rewards for students

As a sophomore, Krystal Griffith was a leader on campus who received the opportunity to attend and present at local and national conferences.

She was a member of the University Honors Program or, to be exact, vice-president of the Honors Student Association.

Now a junior, Griffith, a human development and family studies major, is president-elect of the HSA for the upcoming academic year.

She also serves as a University Assistant and an Honors Peer Advisor.

According to a handout about the Honors Program, the program is "designed to provide you with maximum reward and challenge through your ISU education. … [Honors students] participate in a core of small, powerful classes, taught by faculty selected for their expertise and devotion to academic excellence."

Greg Bierly, the director of the University Honors Program and associate professor of geography, said the program is partly curriculum and partly co-curricular.

"The program is designed to enhance the academic experience," he said. "It arranges a faculty member with students. … It's [also] a clearinghouse for advanced opportunities for students."

There are requirements to being admitted, however. Incoming freshmen who have an SAT score of 1100 or greater (verbal plus quantitative) or an ACT score of 26 or greater, have a high school grade point average of 3.7, or are ranked in the top ten percent of their high school graduating class are eligible to take honors classes and join the honors program.

Transfer students or current students who have a cumulative GPA of 3.3 in classes from a 4-year institution or a 3.5 from a 2-year institution are also eligible.

Some honors classes that have been offered in the past are Critical Studies of the Holocaust, Prohibition: Morals, Policy and Behavior and Classical Cultures of Greece and Rome, Bierly said. Students in the Critical Studies of the Holocaust course traveled to Washington D.C. and went to the Holocaust museum.

"I took an introduction to performing arts class that I received honors credit for, but is not in my major area," Griffith said. "This course took us to different performing arts events and allows me to learn how things happen behind the scenes and what comes together to make a performing arts show work and not work."

Most classes are small, Bierly said, most consisting of only 10 to 12 students. This allows students to interact more closely with faculty.

"These classes really deepen understanding," he said. "Students get intensive experiences and see more connections."

Being part of the honors program isn't just going to classes though. Honors students also have the opportunity to do community service projects throughout the year, go to conventions and serve as leaders in the program, as well as doing social activities, Griffith said.

"We built a float for Homecoming, had game nights, movie nights and cookouts," she said.

Junior electronic media major Gina Atkins, who also serves as vice-president of the President's Scholars Association, another branch of the Honors Program, said the PSA tries to be involved in the community.

"We try to do each year … the Martin Luther King Day of Caring, Jam the Bus, and any other service projects that we have time to take part in on and off campus," she said.

Getting involved in the program wasn't difficult, Griffith said.

"I got involved in the Honors Program by first filling out an application for the Honors Program on my first Orientation day," she said. "I then received an e-mail after I got onto campus inviting me to the first Honors Student Association meeting and I went to check it out. I was then elected as the VP of the organization."

Atkins said she got involved in the honors program because President's Scholars like herself are automatically enrolled in the honors program, but the program has helped her a lot.

"It's helped me in school by giving me an opportunity to be challenged academically while fulfilling my electives," she said.

The two organizations within the honors program, the President's Scholars Association and the Honors Student Association, allow students to become leaders in the university, Bierly said.

"Both groups are aware of their voices in campus politics," he said. The Honors Student Association is open to anyone who is in the Honors Program, while the President's Scholars Association is open only to President's Scholars, however.

The Honors Program helps its students after graduation as well. Completion of the Honors Program is of value to potential employers and graduate schools, Bierly said.

A recent graduate of the Honors program is Rachael Chase, a chemistry major who is headed to Vanderbilt University's Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., this fall.

Petra Hendrickson, a political science honors graduate, was one of 11 students in the country to be named a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow last year. She starts the Ph.D. political science graduate program at Michigan State University this fall.

Honors student and English major Hannah Steele received the Bakerman Student Research Award for the second year in a row. She will enter ISU's English graduate program in the fall.

Bierly said the Honors program is a great way for students to not only enhance their education, but also meet other students and faculty who have similar interests.

"It's a fact that if you were in a class with fewer students, you can meet like-minded students and become friends," he said.

Griffith agreed. "I have been able to go to conferences, and I have even been able to present," she said. "The honors department has allowed me to take leadership position and learn how to run an organization. Honors has offered me the opportunities to develop my leadership abilities, network, and get experiences in conference presentations. These are opportunities and skills that I will use when I enter the workforce."

(Michelle Pattison can be reached at sascamed@isugw.indstate.edu)