HONORS COLLEGE
THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
JOIN US. For the intellectual
opportunity of a lifetime.
A residential college enrolling
some of the most capable students
from the full spectrum of academic
programs at the University of Vermont,
the Honors College provides students with a rigorous, multi-disciplinary academic
challenge that complements and enriches the entire undergraduate experience. Honors College courses,
taught by distinguished faculty drawn
from the range of academic disciplines at UVM, provide students with extraordinary opportunities to learn from outstanding scholars in small class settings.
HONORS COLLEGE SEMINAR: “GERMANY SINCE 1945: MEMORY AND THE COLD WAR”
HONORS COLLEGE
The community you’ll live in.
Above all, the Honors College is a community of scholars—students and faculty—committed to intellectual inquiry, academic rigor, and scholarly engagement. Here, a shared enthusiasm for the world of ideas is among the givens of daily life. Because the Honors College classrooms and administrative offices are also in the residence hall, students have easy access to advising and support from the staff and faculty.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
The Honors College involves a broad crosssection of the university, existing not as a cloistered academic enclave but as a vital part of that larger community.
University Heights, home to the Honors College, is ideally located between central campus and recreation facilities.
UVM’s Office of Undergraduate Research is located in the Honors College residence hall.
The Office of Fellowships Advising, also in the Honors College residence hall, helps students land national awards.
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First- and second-year Honors College students living in University Heights North residence hall form a true community. And faculty members in residence, such as religion professor Todne Chipumuro, pictured above, are part of it. “I enjoy the conversations with students in the Honors College community because they are able to translate their enthusiasm for learning outside of the classroom so seamlessly,” she says. “More than a topdown imposition of ideas from professor to student, my interactions with H-Coll students have been reciprocal.”
A peer mentorship program connects first-year Honors College students with upper-class students, helping to smooth the transition to college.
One-credit Honors College elective courses cover a broad range of topics—music to professional development to wellness.
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Sophomore seminars, taught by faculty from across the university, are writing-intensive and introduce research methods.
Honors College students dive deep into their particular academic interests senior year, creating thesis projects guided by faculty mentors.
STUDENTS
Academic rock stars. Working in a UVM chemistry lab “glove box” at icy-cold temps of minus 33 Celsius in an all-nitrogen atmosphere, Benjamin Kagan ’18 is discovering a new, more efficient way to make metalcontaining molecules. On this new frontier in chemistry, he’s working to “make more product with less waste,” he says, “so it’s very applicable to industry.” His work has earned him national recognition. He was named a 2016 Goldwater Scholar, an elite list of top math, science, and engineering students in the country. In the past five years, 116 UVM students have won or been finalists in prestigious national scholarship competitions like the Goldwater and Fulbright. UVM’s Office of Fellowships Advising, housed right in the Honors College, equips students to put their best foot forward throughout the application and interview process. B E N J A M I N K A G A N ’ 1 8 C H E M I S T RY
HANDS-ON, FORWARD-FOCUSED. Katherine T H I NAmidon K E R S ’17, a dual-degree F O biochemistry R and microbiology major, is P RO G R E SS working on thyroid cancer research with College of Medicine professor Frances Carr. Ben Merrylees ’17, an English/Studio Art double major, is working with Professor Andrew Barnaby on creating a graphic novel for his senior thesis.
Jamie Duke ’18, a double Geography/English major, has worked with Professor Cheryl Morse on a rural geography project studying a form of welfare once used in Vermont. Sonya Buglion Gluck ’18, a natural resources major, spent the past summer conducting research and leading an environmental education program for students in the Ala Archa National Park, Kyrgyzstan. Nata Dudkina ’18, a biochemistry major, gave a presentation on global health and international collaboration at the Harvard Project for International Relations conference in Cambridge.
HONORS COLLEGE
Michael Arnold ’17, a double physics/math major, traveled to Japan in summer 2016 to research scalable solar technology for residential buildings.
After the Honors College, the world awaits. Grace Weaver ’11, an Honors College studio art major/ biology minor as an undergrad, is drawing recognition from media, collectors, and museums as a top emerging artist. Over the past year, she has exhibited her paintings in multiple shows worldwide, including several major contemporary art festivals. Working with the UVM Fellowships Office on a Fulbright grant application helped prepare Weaver for a post-graduation artist’s residency at DakshinaChitra Museum in southern India.
ALUMNI
D E C I P H E R I N G D ATA
Data visualization created for his senior thesis earned Nick Strayer ’15 a seat at the table for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. His presentation caught the attention of The New York Times, earning the new grad a summer position working on visualizations for front-page science and political articles. Strayer is currently a doctoral student in biostatistics, with a focus on genetics, at Vanderbilt University. “The education that I received at UVM and in the Honors College set me up incredibly well for my future,” he says.
BL A ZING THEIR OWN TR AILS Nat Koloc ’08 and Evan Walden ’09 met in an Honors College class, a friendship that would turn into an innovative business partnership years later. The duo is behind ReWork, a progressive jobrecruiting firm that helps match companies making a difference on some of the world’s most pressing issues with talented employees who share that commitment.
Kesha Ram ’08 was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives just months after her UVM graduation and has continued to serve in the state legislature since. At UVM, where her studies focused on natural resource planning and political science, she served as student government president. Ram is a passionate leader advocating for green job creation, education affordability, environmental issues, among other concerns.
Max Hollman ’13 landed his first job post-college with Creative Artists Agency, one of the world’s top firms. A conversation with past Honors College dean Abu Rizvi helped the economics major follow his passion for a career in the entertainment industry. A connection with a UVM alumnus at Creative Artists cracked the door open for Hollman, who is now on the staff of HBO Programming in Los Angeles.
H O N O R S C O L L EG E C U R R I C U LU M
FIRST-YEAR
In the fall semester, all first-year students take “The Pursuit of Knowledge,” a seminar that explores a wide range of perspectives on what we can know about the world and how we can know it. That course is followed in the spring semester by a collection of seminars grouped as “Ways of Knowing.” Students select one seminar, each of which applies foundational concepts learned in the first semester to particular circumstances, often involving diversity themes. In both courses, students construct their own knowledge as they proceed, expressing and supporting their interpretations of classic and contemporary texts in discussion and writing.
SOPHOMORE
Honors College sophomores take special topics courses, one in the fall and one in the spring, selected from extensive offerings proposed and taught by faculty members from across the university. The interactive and writing-intensive seminars introduce research methods.
JUNIOR/SENIOR
Our curriculum allows students to broaden their intellectual horizons and engage in stimulating discussion, debate, writing, research, and reflection. Honors College courses supplement and enrich the work students do for their major and degrees. In fact, Honors College courses may be used to fulfill some of those requirements.
In the junior and senior years, Honors College students focus more intensively on their major field of study. Requirements vary slightly by school and college, but typically consist of a 3-credit Honors requirement in the junior year, together with a one-credit thesis preparation class. In the senior year, students complete a 6-credit thesis project under the supervision of a faculty mentor. Students writing a thesis demonstrate their intellectual independence and ability to explore a topic in depth. These qualities are valued by graduate and professional schools, and potential employers. Completion of a thesis contributes to the scholarly or creative world of the student’s discipline.
SAMPLE SEMINARS
THE COMING PLAGUE GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES TEXTURE OF MEMORY
A student successfully completing all Honors College requirements in addition to degree requirements graduates as an Honors College Scholar.
IMMIGRANT ORIGINS AND INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. SOCIAL CONSTRUCT OF DISABILITY DEFINING THE ‘OTHER’ IN HITLER’S RACIAL STATE KNOWLEDGE IN THE AGE OF BIG DATA GLOBALIZATION & JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE FLOWS
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” William Butler Yeats
FIRST-YEAR
ADMISSION Admission to the Honors College is based on prior academic performance. There is no application required for first-year admission. The College reviews the academic records of the University’s entering class and invites top performers to enroll. Approximately 225 first-year students are admitted each year.
SOPHOMORE
academic excellence, it also welcomes applications for sophomore admission from students who are among the top performers as first-year students at UVM. Sophomore admission requires a grade point average of 3.4 or above at the end of the first year, a letter of recommendation from a UVM faculty member, and a brief essay. Approximately 100 sophomores are admitted to the Honors College annually.
FURTHER INFORMATION uvm.edu/honorscollege facebook.com/uvmhonorscollege (802) 656-9100 honors.college@uvm.edu
HONORS COLLEGE
Because the College exists to recognize and encourage