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Honors
Honors Program
(440) 826-2242
honors@bw.edu
OVERVIEW
The honors program at Baldwin Wallace helps motivated and talented students make the most of their college experience by joining a community of scholars dedicated to academic excellence, leadership development and community engagement.
The Liberal Arts — Redefined
Interdisciplinary and experiential, the honors program offers unique courses and an enhanced core curriculum that blend the theoretical and the practical. Encouraging academic exploration and independent thinking, the honors program can augment any program of study and expand the opportunities available to students.
A Path of Leadership
From a student's first experiences at the honors retreat to acting as a mentor to other honors students to planning University-wide events, the honors program offers countless opportunities for students to grow and be challenged as campus leaders. Developing the skills and self-awareness necessary for leadership is one of the central commitments of the program.
Engaging the Whole Student
More than just an academic course of study, the honors program strives to develop the whole student. We work to build lasting relationships among students and between students, faculty and staff. Committed to giving back to our community, the program encourages students to make use of their talents through service opportunities like tutoring refugees in English, organizing a campus coat-drive and working with local nonprofit organizations.
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A Wealth of Opportunities
An aspiring OB/GYN now in medical school, Sarah Cunningham ‘16 received financial support from the honors program to do research in Uganda on women's and children’s issues. She utilized her research for an honors thesis. Funding is one of the many benefits of the honors program.
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Living and Learning Community
The honors program offers vibrant residential experiences for first-year students and upperclassmen in three unique residence halls. Honors students enjoy the stimulating intellectual and social atmosphere of living with other engaged students.
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Not More Difficult, but More Deeply Engaged
Honors program courses are innovative and experiential. A recent course, "Philosophy Through Sound: The Music of John Cage," examined American avant garde composer John Cage's music and the philosophical questions he sought to answer through sound.
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Learning Through Service
Honors students engage in service locally and around the world. Many projects can generate honors credit or be financially supported by the honors program.
CURRICULUM
At the heart of the honors program, honors courses offer unique opportunities to enhance your skills as an independent and critical thinker. Honors courses are small, seminar-style courses taught by the very best of BW's faculty.
Interdisciplinary and Experiential
The honors program offers a new set of courses each year that help students engage in thinking across subject areas and between the theoretical and the practical. Often involving hands-on work in the classroom, community or laboratory, honors classes provide a setting for experimentation and rich engagement with the liberal arts.
Not More Difficult, but More Deeply Engaged
Intended to be exciting, distinctive and skill-building, honors courses do not require more work than non-honors classes and should not be thought of as “harder” than non-honors classes. Our courses provide special opportunities for enriching your education regardless of your area of study.
- Recent and Upcoming Courses
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Philosophy through Sound: Understanding the Music of John Cage
John Cage is one of the most important and significant American composers and thinkers of the 20th Century. His music challenged conventional notions of music, sound, and the concert experience. It is often his words and writings instead of his music that garner more attention from philosophers and musicians. This class will examine his life, philosophy, and work.
Religion and Science
Students will examine issues like evolution, death, and the afterlife, healing and alternative medicine, and stem cell research in order to investigate the relationships between religion and science. This course asks students to consider how a better understanding of science as well as awareness of multiple religious perspectives can help us understand the complexity of issues in which religion and science come into conflict, conversation, and/or collaboration.
Diagnosing Art
Brain function and its manifestation in the visual arts has long been a topic of speculation and discussion. Students will explore theories explaining unique brain functions of famous artists and will be charged with investigating the value of such theories. The first half of the course will be devoted to lectures on selected artists and the medical/psychological issues that supposedly afflicted them. The second half of the course will provide the students with the opportunity for trips to the Cleveland Museum of Art/Allen museum to view works first hand, to conduct research on their chosen topics, and ultimately to present their research to the class.
Put Wealth Within Reach
Students will be provided an overview of personal financial planning to help individuals and families live more securely by understanding money management, investing tax planning, and major life purchases. By living below your means and saving regularly, you can retire earlier and live comfortably. Your role as leaders in your community will also be addressed. The course is taught in an interactive and engaging manner to create a positive learning environment.
- Honors Options
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With flexibility and self-direction in mind, honors options allow a student to turn any non-honors course into an honors experience by adding an additional project.
Hannah Nagy '20, Biology: For her Environmental Politics class and under the advisement of professor Franklin Lebo, Hannah researched and completed a paper discussing how the field of Biomimicry can help improve the healthcare system.
Rachel Neuerer '20, Public Health: As part of her Techniques of Spanish Translation course, Rachel partnered with the Cleveland Department of Public Health to translate various documents about diabetes into Spanish for the greater Cleveland area.
Stephen Tsambarlis '20, Music Education: Stephen transcribed a motet from Ottaviano Petrucci’s “Harmonice Musices Odhecaton” from white mensural notation into modern notation and rehearsed a small chamber group to perform Marbrianus de Orto’s Ave Maria.
- Service-Learning Classes
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Honors service-learning classes give students an opportunity to connect their classroom learning to the lives and organizations of the surrounding community. Students in a service-learning section of honors English write grants for local nonprofits, and students in a course on social justice serve meals at an area shelter and conduct historical research for a Native American organization.
Student Experiences
- Student-Directed Research
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As one of three pillars of the honors program, our focus on student-directed research is about empowering students to learn to ask their own questions and seek sophisticated answers. With numerous options available, honors students pursue research in every discipline with the guidance of a faculty mentor.
- Honors Senior Thesis
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Every honors program student will culminate his/her college experience with a thesis project tailored to each student's needs and interests. While many projects take the form of a traditional thesis focused either on laboratory or text-based research, other students choose creative or technical projects.
R. Justin Frankeny '18, "Sincere Art or Selling Out? Contemporary Art Composers and the Conflict of Creativity, Funding, and Accessibility"
Zachary Stahl '18, "The Effect of Prenatal Exposure on the Development of Food Allergies"
Paige Lindauer '18, "Bridging the Gap for Refugee Children: Promoting native Language (L1) Literacy Through Parent-Child Book Reading"
- A Wealth of Opportunities
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Additional opportunities to pursue research and produce original creative work abound at BW, many of which can generate honors credit. Honors students frequently participate in summer scholars, a competitive, funded, summer research program. Others work during the school year on collaborative research or creative projects through faculty/student collaborative research courses. Students who have completed research projects are able to get support from the honors program to present their research at academic conferences in their areas of study, or can go with the honors program to present at the Mid-East Honors Association conference each spring.
Aspiring OB/GYN physician Sarah Cunningham '16 united her passion for women's health issues with research relating to her public health major. With partial funding from the BW honors program, she traveled to Uganda to conduct field research — an opportunity she described as a dream come true.
Working under the tutelage of a leading medical school professor, honors student Benjamin Brown '15 is listed as a co-author for a groundbreaking research study published in a renowned journal.
- Leadership Through Mentoring
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Each fall, the honors leadership through mentoring program teams our upperclassmen with our incoming first-year students for a mentoring experience that revolves around service. Mentors and mentees develop lasting relationships by making meaningful contributions to the lives of others together.
- Community Engagement Opportunities
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Dedicated to holistic education, the honors program sees community engagement as an essential element of student growth and development. As one of the pillars of the honors program, service to our communities helps students develop transferable skills as well as deepening their awareness of the wider world around them.
The David & Frances Brain Center for Community Engagement offers a wide variety of opportunities to get involved in service, some of which can generate honors credit hours or can be financially supported by honors. Honors students attend alternative break programs, traveling around the country to serve over University breaks. Project Affinity is a summer service program that counts as an honors experience by placing students in nonprofit internships.
This past spring, the honors leadership board led a campus-wide drive that collected nearly 3,000 personal care items for Trials for Hope, a local nonprofit outreach program.
Honors Welcome
The first-year student Honors Welcome offers an empowering beginning to your honors experience. Before the academic year commences, the honors program hosts an overnight orientation for incoming first-year students. Designed to initiate new students into the honors community, the Welcome packs in exciting team-building activities, as well as book discussions and workshops on the transition to college.
Begin Building Friendships Immediately
The Welcome provides an opportunity for new students to start developing friendships that will last for a lifetime. Sharing this experience means that honors students have something in common right away and can build on that foundation as their relationships develop in the coming months and years at BW.
Mentoring and the Honors Community
First-year students are not the only students we involve in the Honors Welcome — we also engage a group of upper-class honors peer mentors who act as leaders, friends and advisors through the experience. These mentors will work with the first-year class beyond the orientation, helping new students adjust to college life and get engaged with our local communities.
LIVING AND LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Honors offers vibrant residential experiences for first-year students and upperclassmen in three unique residence halls:
- 21 Beech is a vibrant, close-knit residential community where lasting friendships are formed. This residence hall is all honors first-year students.
- First-year honors students can choose to live in a suite-style residence hall with other honors students. Saylor Hall is a part of the Davidson Commons.
- Honors upperclassmen can continue to live together in the centrally-located, Carmel Living/Learning Center.
Academically Supportive Environment
Join a community of ambitious, intelligent and passionate students. You will be able to live and work in a quiet environment where other students respect your goals and share your commitment to excellence.
Learning Outside the Classroom
Living together will encourage you to attend campus events and join student organizations with your honors peers. You will enjoy the stimulating intellectual and social atmosphere of living with other engaged students and together take advantage of programming sponsored by the honors program, honors leadership board and residence life.
Feels Like Home!
Being a part of a supportive, close-knit environment with other dedicated honors students helps you form friendships that last all four years and beyond. Each residence hall is air-conditioned, carpeted and equipped with a kitchen and multiple student lounges.
FACULTY & STAFF
Dr. Amy E. Lebo
Honors Program Director and Professor of Philosophy
Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Oregon
Graduate Certificate in Women's and Gender Studies, University of Oregon
M.A. in Philosophy, University of Oregon
B.A. in Philosophy and Religion, Emory University
(440) 826-2266
alebo@bw.edu
Margaret Stiner
Honors Program Associate Director and Lecturer in English
M.A.T. in English, Brown University
B.A. in English and Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
(440) 826-2242
mstiner@bw.edu
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why should I join the honors program?
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Honors students have access to enhanced educational opportunities designed to foster long-term intellectual, personal and career growth. These include unique, interdisciplinary courses that encourage creative and critical thinking, opportunities to be mentored by upperclassmen and then to become a mentor yourself, career-development workshops, leadership training, service-learning opportunities, participation in academic conferences and more. You are also part of a community of learners. Many honors students have met their friends for life through the program because of the bonding that took place freshman year through shared living in the residence hall, enrichment activities, classes and other community-building experiences. Mentoring and personal development are also a major part of the honors experience. In addition to having an academic faculty advisor in your major, you will work closely with the honors program director, Dr. Amy Story, and associate director, Margaret Stiner, to achieve your personal and professional goals.
- How can the honors program benefit my career preparation?
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Honors students have access to special educational opportunities designed to foster their long-term intellectual and personal growth, thus setting them up to be more successful in their applications to jobs or graduate school. Having studied a second language, completed a higher level math, written a senior thesis and participated in internships, research experiences and substantive service work are all important markers that demonstrate a commitment to go the extra mile to develop your abilities and to take full advantage of the opportunities presented to you. Our coursework and personal development experiences will help you become a better leader, team-member, critical thinker, and communicator—all skills that are highly sought-after in the working world. The diverse body of experiences and competency across skill sets is what sets our students apart from their competition.
- What requirements need to be fulfilled in order to graduate from the honors program?
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The honors program has a few graduation requirements that go a beyond what you might have to do for your major or the regular BW core curriculum.
Those requirements are as follows:- Complete a minimum math level of pre-calculus (MTH 140) or Honors Math (MTH 151H).
- Reach intermediate level second language proficiency (equivalent of two years of college language study), or one year of study in two languages.
- Write a senior thesis, a project intended to give you an opportunity to work with a faculty mentor and produce a final product that will assist you in reaching your long-term goals.
- Take a total of 24 credit hours in honors (about 20% of your total hours required to graduate).
The 24 credit hours will be made up of a variety of honors courses and experiences. Some courses are basic requirements, like the first-year English course (ENG 131), while others are special topics courses. Honors students can also fulfill honors elective credits through a wide range of options that encourage them to broaden their experiences, engage with community partners and build their resumes. For example, students can get honors credit for studying abroad, partaking in substantive service work, securing competitive and educational internships and doing independent research with a faculty mentor.
- What is the rigor compared to a regular course schedule?
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The honors program does require a somewhat more rigorous core curriculum than that required of the non-honors BW student, as noted above. In terms of the experience in honors courses, there is no reason to believe that these courses will be “harder” than non-honors. Instead, honors courses are of a different nature than non-honors. They are intended to be interdisciplinary explorations of specific topics and are designed to help students make connections between theoretical ideas and real-world experiences. Additionally, what you get in honors courses that is different is a more engaged and well-prepared group of classmates and thus a higher level of discussion about and comprehension of the material in the class. Honors classes do not necessarily involve longer papers, harder reading, more homework, etc. than non-honors courses.
- How will honors courses fit in with my schedule and major?
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The honors program works to create a schedule that allows the most flexibility for our students as possible, and provides priority registration times to ease our students’ ability to schedule all of the courses they may need. Honors classes typically range from 1-3 credits (most courses in departments are either 3 or 4 credits), so they are smaller and easier to fit into a demanding course schedule. We also have a number of ways that students can get credit in honors without sitting in an honors class. You can turn ANY course into an honors course by working with the honors director and the faculty member teaching the course to design an additional project that goes beyond the class curriculum. You can also get honors credit for study abroad or for internships, to give two examples out of many. Overall, while most honors courses will not be classes that fulfill your major requirements, they will fit in with your major(s) and minor(s) and should not add time to your graduation clock.
- Can I complete the honors program if I am in the Conservatory?
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The honors program values having a community of students that is inclusive of all areas of study on campus, including the Conservatory of Music. While study in the Conservatory is demanding of students both inside and outside the classroom, completion of the honors program is still possible and offers great advantages to Conservatory students in terms of broadening their community and base of experiences and opportunities at BW.
Students in the Conservatory fulfill the same honors program requirements as other students, but do have the potential to earn up to 12 credit hours through honors versions of required Conservatory classes. Classes that are offered in honors versions include the following:MUC 111H Tonal Harmony 1 2 creditsMUC 113H Tonal Harmony 2 2 creditsMUC 211H Tonal Harmony 3 2 creditsMUC 112H Solfege-Eurhythmics 1 2 creditsMUC 114H Solfege-Eurhythmics 2 2 creditsMUC 212H Solfege 3 2 credits12 total credits possibleAdmission to these honors courses, however, is based on student performance on placement exams given prior to the start of classes for first-year students and thereafter on performance in the courses themselves. In other words, students do not simply self-select into these courses and are not in any way preapproved for them based on their admission to the honors program. Students can move both up and down in terms of their placement in harmony and solfege sections (which are offered in tiers based on rigor, pace of study, and prior knowledge), and this movement is largely determined by the judgment of Conservatory faculty.Many Conservatory/honors program students will not place into the honors sections of harmony and/or solfege, but that does not mean that completion of the honors program is no longer possible. In this case, Conservatory students will want to work closely with their honors program advisor to find ways to consistently make progress on honors requirements while also completing their degree in the Conservatory. Conservatory students might be more likely to take advantage of doing honors options in their courses and seeking opportunities to gain honors waivers for experiences that do not impinge on their Conservatory course schedule. - What are the admission criteria for the honors program?
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- 3.5 or higher high school GPA
- ACT – 27 Composite with 24 English and 25 Math
- SAT – 1290 with 560 Reading & Writing and 570 Math
- We also look for second language study, AP courses and other signs of a rigorous course of academic study in high school.
In addition to the students who meet the established criteria, other qualified students may be issued an invitation to join the program based on recommendations from the admissions committee and honors program director. If you would like to be considered for the program, please contact either admissions or the honors program to alert us to your interest.
- What is a senior honors thesis?
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The honors program curriculum culminates in a senior thesis that allows students to select a topic of interest and engage in extensive research with a faculty mentor. Honors theses range from traditional in-depth studies of authors or texts to writing creative works like novellas, plays and musical compositions to constructing case-studies, business plans or web-portfolios. Ultimately, the thesis is a “product” that students can use to market themselves to graduate programs or employment opportunities.
- Is there a student organization for honors students?
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Yes! The honors leadership board organizes service, leadership, social and educational programs throughout the school year for the honors program. Events include a fall picnic, documentary viewings and discussions, holiday celebrations, trips to local events and service drives to collect items for local communities in need.
- What are some unique opportunities offered to honors students?
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Students in the honors program receive priority course-registration times in order to help them accommodate our additional expectations. Incoming honors students experience a two-day welcome orientation prior to the start of fall classes in order to start bonding as a class and becoming integrated into the honors community. Honors students can also elect to live in Honors living and learning communities, which are dedicated to fostering academic excellence and interpersonal growth.
Throughout the academic year, honors offers many opportunities for career- and leadership-development experiences, including our leadership-through-mentoring program and our leadership-and-career-development workshop.
- Are there scholarships specifically for honors students?
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The honors program does not award students with scholarships. However, honors students are able to apply to the program to request funding to support travel to conferences, community service trips, study abroad or the purchase of research supplies. Students can apply for up to $1,000 to study abroad.
- Does the Honors Program accept students with learning disabilities?
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We encourage all students who meet the qualifications for the honors program to apply for admission. Students who are interested in the honors program and may require accommodations are encouraged to contact director Dr. Amy Lebo at (440) 826-2266 or at alebo@bw.edu or associate director Margaret Stiner at (440) 826-2242 or at mstiner@bw.edu.
The BW Honors Program works with all of our students to meet their educational needs and to achieve their academic and personal potential. The BW Office of Disability Services for Students creates usable, equitable, inclusive learning environments for qualified students with disabilities by ensuring equal access to all University programs, services and activities — including those of the honors program.
- Does the Honors Program accept transfer students?
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Yes! The transfer-admission qualifications for the honors program include:
- 3.5 or higher college GPA
- Readiness for or completion of college-credit-bearing pre-calculus math or BW honors math
- Completion of the equivalent of BW English 131 (with minimum grade of B+)
or ACT – 27 Composite with 24 English
or SAT – 1290 with 560 reading & writing - Application to the BW Honors Program
If you have earned BW-transferable college credits in a college honors program, you may transfer up to 12 honors credits to the BW Honors Program.
If you want to begin your BW experience as a transfer honors student, please contact director Dr. Amy Lebo at (440) 826-2266 or at alebo@bw.edu or associate director Margaret Stiner at (440) 826-2242 or at mstiner@bw.edu. We will help you understand the requirements of the honors program and discuss options for fulfilling the requirements within your semesters at BW.
- If I have more questions, whom should I contact?
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We’d love to hear from you! You can contact the honors program office to speak with director Dr. Amy Lebo at (440) 826-2266 or at alebo@bw.edu or with associate director Margaret Stiner at (440) 826-2242 or at mstiner@bw.edu.