Honors

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If you’re pursuing a competitive career track, Honors makes you distinctive and demonstrates that you’re curious, motivated, and dedicated.

Why Honors at UMN Morris?

"The best part about being an honors student is the consistent chance to expand your knowledge across multitudes of ways of thinking; truly, it is a beautiful process that makes your brain go a million miles an hour."

—Bailee Bad Heart Bull ’25, Spanish and pre-nursing

While the program requires completion of several courses, there’s plenty of room to make it your own.

In the gateway course to the program, IS2001H Traditions in Human Thought, you undertake a significant research project that suits your interests and may complement work you’re doing in your major(s).

You can then further expand on this field by developing an Honors co-curricular project, designed to connect coursework in the Honors Program to co-curricular activities like internships, national student exchange, or study abroad.

Finally, the Honors capstone project is a way to carve out yet another dimension of your interests. With some forward and 360-thinking, you can scaffold these projects to develop well-rounded expertise in an area.

In addition to double (and sometimes triple) majoring, Honors students are deeply committed to campus and community life. They are athletes and tutors and gardeners and community advisors and globetrotters and interns and artists. They are singers and dancers and explorers and mentors and change-makers. Participating in Honors means that you’ll be spending a lot of time with cool people. Isn’t that what college is for?

Eligibility

Typically, students apply for admission to the Honors program in the spring of their first year at UMN Morris and begin the program the fall of their second. Recipients of the Prairie Scholarship are offered automatic admission to the program in their first year of study.

Academic success in the fall semester, faculty recommendation, and a short essay may be used to select students who are likely to thrive in the program.

 

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Capstone Project

The Honors Director holds an informational meeting about the capstone sometime in September. Anyone planning to undertake a capstone during that academic year should plan to attend. The capstone process has several important steps, but these are straightforward. The key to an enriching and enjoyable project is an engaged advisor who can lend some structure and good feedback to the process: choose one well! 

For more information about the Honors Capstone Project, please see the Honors Capstone Booklet, and especially the narrative overview that introduces the project and associated paperwork.

Email Honors Director Athena Kildegaard for editable versions of all capstone forms included in the above booklet.

Many students submit their capstone work for presentation at the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium held each year in April.

Students can also choose to have their capstone projects archived in the Honors stream of the UMM Digital Well. Contact Naomi Skulan at Briggs Library (x6174) to inquire about signing permissions and submitting your project to the Well.

Examples of Interdisciplinary Honors Capstone Projects

  • “Autism Spectrum Disorders, Music, and Music Therapy”
  • “The Route to Economic Success: Lessons from Classic and Modern Fairy Tales”
  • “A World Map by Matteo Ricci: Chinese people’s reaction to Western technology and religion in the late Ming Dynasty”
  • “Mediating Double Consciousness: Information Regimes and the Construction of Racial Identities”
  • “The Economics of Medieval Castle Architecture”
  • “Review of the Neuropsychology of ADHD and Barriers to Applying Current Knowledge in the Classroom”
  • “Historical Context and Text Painting in Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs”
  • “All Roads Lead to Rome: The Hunger Games and a History of American Anxiety”
  • “The Story of the Sulabh: Readings of Water, Sanitation, and Human Rights in India”
  • “The Economics of Medieval Castle Architecture”
  • “The Migration of Fish Due to Global Climate Change”

Honors Council

The Honors Council is a student group that plans and coordinates Honors Program events throughout the year.

Current activities include:

  • Participation in service-learning initiatives
  • Organizing the Honors Lecture Series
  • Attending dinners with professors as well as field trips and other outings
  • Mentoring new students in the Honors Program

Anyone who wants to make a difference is welcome to join the Honors Council.

The Honors Council is typically elected in April, after the new cohort of Honors students have been informed of their acceptance to the program.

Honors Frequently Asked Questions

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Honors Frequently Asked Questions

I've been admitted to the program but now feel as though my semester is going to be too busy! Can I defer a year and begin the program next fall?

Yes. The Honors Program can be completed in two years.

I've been admitted to the program but neither section of IS2001H fits into my schedule. Can I enroll in electives this year and take IS2001H next year?

Yes. You should let the instructor of the elective(s) you are taking know that you haven't yet taken the Gateway course and that you may be seeking more guidance with research than other students.

I'm not yet a student in the Honors Program, but I am really interested in an honors course. Can I take it anyway?

Whether or not you may take an honors course as a non-honors student is up to the individual instructor, who may consider your request once students in the honors program have had a chance to enroll.

How can I complete both my majors and finish all my General Education requirements while doing the honors program?

All honors courses bear a GenEd designator, so honors courses may help you get your requirements out of the way.

I want to study abroad (or do national student exchange, or do something else that will take me off campus for awhile). Can I still complete the honors program in three years?

Sure. These kinds of Academic Center for Enrichment (ACE) experiences meet the criteria for the Co-curricular Credit Option with pre-approval, fulfilling 2 of the 8 required elective credits.

I have two capstone courses for my majors in the spring of my senior year. Can I do my honors capstone in the fall?

Yep. You can also complete your honors capstone late in your junior year, provided you are making good progress on Honors electives.

I don't know if I'll be able to finish the program. Can I take classes anyway?

Yep. Once you're admitted to the program, you're in(!) and will not be asked to leave it. If there's a course you'd like to take, don't hesitate to enroll.

I have an idea for a course I'd really like to take!

Terrific! Submit your idea to the Honors Director and we'll try to recruit faculty to teach it!