Loree Crow is the Executive Director for Undergraduate Academic Engagement to oversee the Honors Program, McNair Scholars, and is now a Coordinating Advisor and First Point of Contact for the Student-Designed Major. The office can also help students navigate higher-level and national scholarships as well as university-scholarships. Typically they have a graduate student assisting with advising and mentoring the honors students. Margo Stebbins is the current grad student.
Action Items:
- ASK your honors advisees what their theme or projects are. Use this as a connection point and understand how their honors program is progressing at each meeting you host
- Encourage students to speak with the Honors Advisor (Margo this semester) and then
email their withdrawal from the program if wanting to drop honors
- As an advisor, we need to keep an eye on Honors students and ensure they either drop or plan to complete their requirements before the graduation application timeline
- You might frame this as... "It is uncomfortable to give notice when leaving a job someday too. Think of this as practice."
- Honors programming can double-dip and coincide with major or minor requirements. Help
your advisees identify potential courses to take back to the Honors advisors.
- Degree Works is misleading and appears like they need 12 additional credits when they actually substitute existing courses, including internships, field experiences, study abroad, and student teaching. Most honors students take 3-6 “additional” credits (and could still be part of the 120 anyway)
Honors Program is often mistaken for Honors Societies and AP classes by incoming students. Check out the FAQ Page for other common misconceptions and questions.
Topics Covered
Start
Introductions and Responsibilities
~15 Minutes
Overview of Honors Philosophy
- Honors Programs were developed for students to “break out” of the boundaries of traditional curricula and courses. The philosophy is in providing students with more ownership of their educational experience and self-identified projects, research, and added work
Wholistic Philosophy: looking for factors with motivation and finding people who WANT to make the most of the education with additional things
- It can fit and be completed within every single major and completed within 2-years
- Interdisciplinary Honors Program with course or theme-based options
- Upper Division Honors is project-based and must have 45+ credit hours
~35 Minutes
Curriculum Overview
- A mix of coursework or themed projects to build out the best plan for student needs
- Many courses double-dip in the LAC, OR students in the more prescriptive majors have options to limit the extra credit hours. They can embed the honors program into classes they are taking anyway (Education and Pre-Health tracks especially)
~49 Minutes
Interdisciplinary Studies B.A.
- Well-suited for students just starting at UNC—mainly if they want an extensive combination of majors and minors (triple major, etc.)
- It CAN NOT be used retroactively to account for various courses taken. The program must be 60-credit hours and approved.
- At least 45 of the credit hours MUST be taken after the program was approved and added to their Degree Works
- Must finish with a capstone experience and fits well with the Honors program
- Send interested students to Loree for the next steps and consistent program advising throughout the significant steps. Loree will connect the student with the faculty sponsors and help them navigate the plans of study
