Established in 1985, the Honors Scholar Program at High Point University is now home to 300+ student scholars dedicated to pursuing intellectual curiosity and educational excellence. Honors students engage in multidisciplinary, collaborative project-based learning experiences throughout their courses and co-curriculum, and they reside for their first two years in a living-learning community in Finch Hall, forging meaningful relationships with one another both inside and outside the classroom.
Program Mission
With a commitment to the rich traditions of the liberal arts, the High Point University Honors Scholar Program takes a multidisciplinary, holistic approach to higher education, empowering students to cultivate contemplative selves and to build meaningful public lives.
Program Vision
To be recognized as a leader in interdisciplinary, project-based learning, as evidenced by our students’ post-undergraduate successes and our program’s role in the national dialogue on honors education.
Program Principles
The Honors Scholar Program has three principles that inform its scope, structure, and delivery.
- That a liberal arts education should empower students to be agents of their own learning, in school and throughout life;
- That a core curriculum should teach the habits of mind indicative of a liberal arts education: critical thinking, inquiry, synthesis, contextualization, and reflection;
- That the value of a liberal arts education should be continually, rigorously, and publicly analyzed by students and faculty.
The Honors Core Curriculum consists of 39 credits amassed through twelve courses and over seven semesters. It includes EXP 1101 President’s Seminar and a modern language course. The Foundations Courses introduce five areas of the liberal arts: humanities, social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences, and arts. The core is arranged vertically, with higher course numbers indicating greater expectations for students’ prior knowledge and abilities to lead class activities and work independently. All courses engage students in project-based learning and entail direct writing instruction. Seminars require students to lead 40% – 60% of class activities. The Qualifying Signature Project is the defining piece of the curriculum, requiring students to work in multidisciplinary teams to plan, propose, and complete a project related to a public issue or problem. The capstone course helps students connect their liberal arts education to their personal and professional goals.
Students who complete the program’s core curriculum will demonstrate high levels of competency in the areas described below. They will showcase these competencies through personalized online portfolios.
- Traditions: Investigate questions of enduring and contemporary importance by engaging the intellectual traditions and research methods that shape studies in the sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts;
- Ethics: Recognize and analyze ethical issues within real-world challenges and make sound judgments when engaging in research, creative works, co-curricular experiences, interpersonal relationships, civic activities, and professional duties;
- Awareness: Describe and analyze their roles as global citizens, demonstrating deep awareness of the differences – often invisible – between cultures and individuals, as well as knowledge of the processes of global interconnectedness and subsequent opportunities and tensions;
- Communication: Communicate effectively, often publicly – in writing, speech, and visual media – employing careful analyses of rhetorical purposes, audiences, messages, and modes of delivery;
- Collaboration: Collaborate productively in diverse groups to complete multifaceted projects that affect real communities;
- Integrative Learning :Using critical, creative and reflexive thinking skills to synthesize learning and experiences across the curriculum and co-curriculum.
The Honors Scholar Program outcomes are informed greatly by the AAC&U’s Essential Learning Outcomes for liberal education.
Honors students form an immediate community in Finch Hall, which is centrally located on campus. Finch Hall contains multi-use common rooms to promote collaboration, creative expression, and even meditation and mindfulness. Students are required to reside in Finch Hall for their first two academic years.
Honor Scholars register for courses at the start of every registration period. This enables honors students to build schedules that best fit their co- and extra-curricular activities.
Every year, many honors students work closely with faculty across the disciplines on projects that lead to presentations and publications.
The Honors Scholar Program regularly invites and sponsors renowned scholars and artists to speak at High Point University on a variety of topics. Honors students receive priority access to these events, as well as to other on- and off-campus cultural events.
Honor Scholars can access non-circulated DVDs and receive extended check-out time for books with High Point University Libraries.
The Honors Scholar Program awards one annual scholarship to the rising senior with a high GPA, evidence of student leadership.
Students in the Honors Scholars Program receive a $3,000 scholarship in addition to any High Point University Presidential Scholarship. The award is automatically renewable for all four years as long as students remain in good standing in the Honors Scholars Program.
Honors Scholars at High Point University have access to a dedicated Faculty-in-Residence (FIR) in Finch Hall as part of the Honors living community. The FIR is available to discuss academic and professional topics, provide research and career development support, and lead a blend of experiential, community-focused academic, social, cultural, and networking opportunities.
The Honors Scholar Program will offer financial support to cover conference travel to local, regional, and national academic events.