Honors Enhancements

What is an Honors Enhancement?

An enhancement is established through a contract between the Honors Program student and faculty member and the completion of this form. When the form is complete and has collected all required signatures, the appropriate Dean’s office (the Dean of the school in which the course is offered) should send copies to the Kathwari Honors Director, the Registrar, and the student. The deadline for submitting the completed approval form is the third Friday of every semester. Summer and Intersession enhancements will only be approved under extremely exceptional circumstances.

Parts of an Honors Enhancement Form

PART ONE: Enhancement Contract:

The student must provide (and attach) a description of the honors course enhancement project by using the following contract format (section titles and numbers). A minimum of at least a page is required.

A. Rationale:
The student must outline (1) the objectives of the honors component, (2) the reasons for undertaking the enhancement, and (3) how the planned activities enhance the course to honors level in at least three ways (i.e., adding to the syllabus, making the course interdisciplinary, creating a multi-cultural element to a course, including a dimension of public service, etc…).

B. Enhancement:
List and describe, in some detail, the particular elements of the honors component. At a minimum, the student must undertake at least 20 extra workload hours for the enhancement. Include whatever activities are supplemental or alternative to the regular requirements of the course (i.e., extra written or lab work, projects, presentations, meetings with outside mentors, etc…).

C. Evaluation Process:
List the grading components of the honors enhancement using the percentage OR point system. (i.e., meeting discussions, PowerPoint presentation, research papers, written summaries, research annotations, journals, etc.). Describe the grading process of the honors component (i.e., the student is graded on all work, including the honors component; or a separate grade is given for the enhancement which is then averaged in with the grading for the regular requirements of the course, etc…).

D. Scheduling:
Provide a schedule of deadlines and/or due dates for specific activities (i.e., weekly meetings, interviews with outside mentors, attendance at events on or off campus, all assigned work, etc…). At a minimum, at least one weekly meeting between the faculty member and the student for one-half hour must occur.

PART TWO: Kathwari Honors Course Enhancement Form:

The student must fill out the top half of the approval form, attach the enhancement contract described above, then send the complete file to the faculty member for review and signature. The faculty member will then send the signed form to the remaining requested approvers for signature until all signatures have been collected.

Past Enhancements:

Enhancement Sample