Changes are made to USU’s Honors Program

By Mikala Lindhardt

The Utah State University Honors Program has seen changes throughout the past few weeks with higher enrollment and a new service-learning scholarship award.

The program has a highest number of students this fall than in years past with 680 currently enrolled.  

“We are trying to get more visibility and get more people involved, like the faculty, students and organizations, so we can make more opportunities for our students,” said Amber Summers-Graham, the honors program coordinator.

Throughout the years, scholarships and awards have been added to the program, the newest being the Elaine Alder Service-Learning Scholarship Award established a few weeks ago, said Summers-Graham.

“This annual award will recognize a stellar honors student engaged in service-learning,” Summers-Graham said. “They will have significant service accomplishments.”

The requirements for the service-learning scholarship include 400 hours of community service, nine credits of service-learning course work, a capstone project, a service-learning portfolio and a meeting with a service-learning advisor. The sophomore or junior honors student chosen will be awarded the $1,000 scholarship.

The University Honors Program director, Kristine Miller, said this new scholarship, along with the honors program, “helps students by showcasing their outstanding achievements and encouraging them to continue challenging themselves to make a difference.”

Miller had the task of starting a new honors program in 2014. She changed the title from the Departmental Honors Program to the University Honors Program.

“With the University Honors, it’s more of a relationship with the entire university as a whole,” said Summers-Graham. “We are becoming more visible university wide and it has truly become a more university program.”

The honors program is based on four pillars of education. The pillars include critical thinking, independent research, interdisciplinary learning and civic engagement.

“Everything that we do, our breadth classes and the capstone project, is to engage these four pillars,” Summers-Graham said. “This is kind of the foundation and what it does will be different for each of the students.”  

Summers-Graham said the honors program committee is there to act as a support and a guide for students as they identify what they hope to accomplish.

“We are there to help them prepare for what comes next and discover what they want to be,” Summers-Graham said.