The Honors College is an educational community for undergraduate students at HCU that aims to educate students in wisdom and character. Built on the scholarly activities of reading, writing, questioning, thinking and discussing, the program provides an experience perfect for students who want to challenge themselves academically. The Honors College is not a major, but rather a unique way for students to satisfy the liberal arts core requirements of any degree offered at HCU. Students in any major can participate and transfer students are welcome.
Pursue Excellence With a Scholarly Community
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Why Join the Honors College?
The Honors College is a great place to form lifelong friendships because it is a community designed to make its members better people. As a scholarly community, the Honors College is founded on the belief that learning together cannot be replaced by individuals learning alone. Solitude and silence are an important part of an Honors College education, but the Honors College opposes the atomization and alienation of the age. Learning together and face-to-face helps us see what we could not have on our own.
If you are looking for a group of fellow students who are serious about their education and who love to read, write, question, think, and discuss, then you will find it in the Honors College. The goals of an Honors College education are wisdom and love, goals shared by both students and the teachers and faculty mentors who lead by example because they themselves are seeking the same things as their students.
In addition to its inherent value in cultivating the life of the mind, an Honors College education is also excellent preparation for a wide variety of vocations such as law, ministry, medicine, technology, education, homemaking, and journalism. Honors College alumni have gone on to success in these and many other fields because they are characterized by humility, curiosity, and an ability to learn how to learn.
The program provides an experience perfect for students who want to challenge themselves academically. Because of their commitment to excellence, Honors Scholars get the most possible out of their college education, and, of course, graduate with a higher level of distinction.
Discovering Wisdom and Character with the Great Texts
As W. E. B. DuBois wrote in 1903, “The true college will ever have one goal—not to earn meat, but to know the end and aim of that life which meat nourishes.” And as Winston Churchill wrote years later, “The first duty of a university is to teach wisdom, not a trade; character, not technicalities.”
The Honors College is an excellent way for undergraduates to discover the aim of life and to build the foundation of wisdom and character necessary to achieve it. Honors Scholars read a wide range of texts in the course of their studies, from The Iliad to The Brothers Karamazov, all in service of exploring goodness, truth, and beauty. Through extended study of the great books of Western civilization, Honors Scholars have a cohesive understanding of how they fit into the God’s universe and plan as well as their history and cultures.
About the Honors College
HCU's Honors students study a unique general-education core curriculum in the liberal arts and the social and natural sciences via many of the great works of Western civilization. They hone their reading, writing and critical-thinking skills through spirited discussions with their peers and distinguished faculty. Most students will complete their Honors College curriculum in their first three undergraduate years, but we also offer specialized plans for nursing and engineering students.
The Curriculum
HCU’s Honors College provides a unique general-education core curriculum in the liberal arts and the social and natural sciences for exceptional undergraduates. It fosters curiosity and creativity; challenges students to grow intellectually, socially, and spiritually; and inspires lifelong learning. Whatever your major, the Honors College has a clear pathway to graduation.
Additional Information
“The Honors College at HCU is the best academic experience you never knew you needed. If you’re up for the challenge it is worth every second you put in.”
— Callie Mayer
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