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College should be a transformative experience—a journey of discovery undertaken among friends and mentors you’ll remember forever. The Mount Union Honors Program is dedicated to serving students with the curiosity and commitment to get the most out of this journey.

Our students come from a wide range of backgrounds and bring an equally wide range of talents and interests. All are welcomed into our community-within-a-community, a collaboration between students and faculty for creating opportunities in the areas of social life, service work, and scholarship.  

There are two different ways to participate in Honors at Mount Union, University Honors and Honors in the Major. You can even do both, if you wish.

There are also many perks that Honors students enjoy during their time on campus. And yet the greatest benefits may be those that come after graduation. The distinction of having Honors on a resume or graduate school application definitely matters—everybody knows that it signifies exceptional promise—but the habits of mind that an Honors student brings to those next stages will pay off for a lifetime. So will the inspiration that comes from working with fellow Honors students, and the support of Honors mentors who are here to help you along the way. 

This webpage is designed to provide helpful information for prospective students, current students, and the Mount Union community at large. More than this, we hope that it will also give you a feel for the Honors Program here at Mount Union. If there is anything you can’t find here, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Spotlights


University Honors

The University Honors track is a learning community for students that provides academic and social support to engage in a different kind of learning, encouraging open inquiry, empathetic engagement with diverse perspectives, and safe spaces for intellectual risk-taking. The curriculum parallels the Integrative Core with specially designed honors sections and exciting co-curricular opportunities. Professors in the Honors Program are innovative teachers and dedicated scholars who come from a variety of disciplines. Honors courses emphasize intellectual contexts, student autonomy, and connections among fields of study.

Curriculum

First Year Seminar (FYS) (first year): FYS focuses on a specific topic and develops skills in writing, oral communication and critical thinking.

Honors Foundations (first and second years): These courses focus on four major areas of human knowledge – humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and arts, building on the skills students learned in FYS. Students are required to take Honors Foundations in three of the areas and may fulfill the fourth area with an appropriate elective.

Theme and Theme Project (third year): Students take an honors course related to the theme of Engaging Diversity, in which they develop a proposal for a diversity project to be completed in conjunction with a course of their choosing the following semester.

Capstone (fourth year): Students engage in collaborative work around a complex issue with real-world application. They draw upon knowledge, skills and thought processes acquired throughout their educational experience.

University Honors Curriculum