The mission of WKU’s Honors College is to be an institutional multiplier for developing young minds and promoting the university’s overall educational mission. An Honors College advances this mission by promoting collegial associations, pooling talent from across the institution and providing a challenging, yet supportive, living/learning environment in which motivated high achieving students develop an understanding of the life of the mind.
The Honors College is designed to promote these goals by creating the intellectual environment of a small elite liberal arts institution within the larger context of a major public university.
In short, WKU Honors College re-creates the atmosphere of a small college experience, while providing these high achieving students the many advantages of a large public institution.
The heart of the Honors College experience is a unique curriculum, taught by a set dedicated Honors faculty. The Honors College curriculum offers students the opportunity to challenge themselves through a year-long freshman seminar called “The Great Conversation,” which combines a close examination of seminal works with small seminar discussions to provide the opportunity for students to examine the “eternal questions.” The move to an Honors College will also see a transition from the current 24-credit curriculum, focused primarily on a student’s first two years of General Education requirements, to a 40-hour model which will have a greater emphasis on taking Honors courses in the student’s major discipline. In addition to the unique Honors offerings which stress independent and critical thinking, development of advanced writing and speaking skills, and a broader worldview, Honors students have the opportunity to complete an Honors thesis. An Honors thesis is an original piece of research or a creative activity conducted under the mentorship of one of WKU’s top scholars. The culmination of the Honors intellectual experience is the receipt of an Honors Baccalaureate, a degree which will be jointly conferred by the Honors College and the student’s academic college. The WKU Honors College will be one of less than a score of Honors Colleges in the nation which offer an Honors degree.
The primary goal of the Honors College is to provide opportunities for high-achieving students to build community with other like-minded students to motivate and encourage them to make the most of their college experience. This includes, in addition to the academic component of the Honors College experience, Honors students being active in independent research, study abroad, internships, and leadership opportunities, serving both their campus and home community. Honors students, taken as a discrete community, are often the most engaged students on campus.
The educational challenges and opportunities that Honors provides are immeasurable, both now and for the students’ futures. The intellectually motivated community creates a cadre of students who create a mutually supportive community that empowers students to excel. This type of Honors experience can be an important factor when competing for that perfect job, a competitive spot in one of the nation’s top law, medical, or graduate programs, or a highly prestigious internationally award, such as a Rhodes Scholarship;, a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, a Marshall Scholarships, Truman Scholarships, or a Fulbright Scholarship.
In the past two years the development of this community of young scholars in the Honors Program has enabled students to compete successful for the following prestigious scholarship/awards:
- Barry Goldwater Scholarship – Two Full Scholars and one Honorable Mention. (WKU received 60 percent of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship awards in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 2007).
- Fulbright Scholarship – Egypt and Austria
- U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholarship – Tunisia and Yemen
- Freeman Asia Scholarships – Japan and Vietnam
- Benjamin Gilman Scholarships – United Arab Emirates, China (multiple), Japan, and Spain.
- National Collegiate Honors Council – 2006 Honors Student of the Year
A fully developed Honors College will be able to attract and develop a growing number of students who will be able to compete nationally with any students in the country. Successfully competing in these internationally prestigious opportunities not only benefits the students who receive the awards, but also the institution and every student with a WKU diploma.
The Honors College at WKU has outlined the following priority initiatives for the New Century of Spirit Campaign.
Academic Scholarships - Dedicated Honors College scholarships will enable us to more effectively recruit both the Commonwealth’s, the region’s, and the nation’s top students. The smaller scale of the Honors College allows students to put a face to the scholarship award and thus personalize the award process. Additionally, this personalized scholarship process helps develop an interdisciplinary collegiate community, which is at the heart of the country’s top honors colleges. The Honors College goal is to have sufficient resources in order to provide every Honors student in the College some level of scholarship support throughout their time at WKU.
Premier Scholarship Program – The Premier Scholarship Program is intended to create an intentional process to recruit and groom exceptionally talented students for the nation’s most competitive post-baccalaureate opportunities (e.g., Rhodes Scholarships, Marshall Scholarships, etc.). This program will offer a full four-year scholarship to WKU that will include an annual scholarship covering full tuition, student fees, housing, meals, and book allowance with a set of fully funded Summer Engagement Programs beginning the summer before the student’s freshman year.
Honors College/Academy Students Program - The goal of this scholarship program will be to keep students of the Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky at Western Kentucky University for the completion of their degrees after their two-year Academy experience. Due to the intellectual abilities of the students, and the educational opportunities provided by the Academy, Academy graduates will receive offers from various Ivy League institutions. This scholarship program is intended to provide an incentive to keep these students at WKU. The three-year scholarship will provide flexible funding to support three additional years at WKU. It will include two years of scholarship covering full tuition, student fees, housing, meals, and a book allowance while attending WKU. In addition, the student will receive an undergraduate research stipend each semester for engaging in research with a WKU faculty member, a travel allowance to present the research, and a number of enrichment activities, programs, and field trips. Funding for a third-year stipend is provided to support a fifth year of undergraduate study, a one year master’s degree at WKU, or a year study abroad. This Academy/Honors College program is intended to serve the specific needs of Kentucky’s most gifted and high-achieving students.
Summer Lifetime Experience Grants – The goal of the Summer Lifetime Experience Grants will be to create a program allowing Western Kentucky University Honors students to design an engagement based intellectually or professionally challenging once- in-a-lifetime summer experience. The program will provide life-changing educational/service experiences outside the classroom. The grant is intended to focus upon service to humanity, serving the less fortunate, or engaging in an enriched engaged internship/research experience, but summer study abroad may also be appropriate. The summer project/experience can be either domestic or international, but it must take students outside of their personal community or comfort zone.
Undergraduate Research Scholarships – This scholarship program would create a set of stipends for Honors students who wish to engage in a semester or a summer of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activities (URSA) in close collaboration with a WKU faculty member. The opportunity for undergraduates to work on an intellectual project in a close collaborative relationship with a faculty mentor is one of the most important and valuable experiences a student can have during his or her time at WKU. These grants will allow Honors students from any discipline to propose a semester or summer research project and have the project funded by this endowed scholarship program.
Travel Abroad Scholarships – The Travel Abroad Scholarships will be a set of scholarships to help fund students who wish to travel abroad in order to study, intern, participate in public service,or conduct research. This scholarship initiative supports the university internationalization priority and the long-term goal of the Honors College to create a series of funding mechanisms to enable the College to provide financial support to every Honors student who wants the opportunity to travel and/or study abroad. We endeavor to have the resources in place to support every Honors student to travel/study abroad at least once during his or her academic career at WKU
Domestic Engagement Scholarships - The Domestic Engagement Scholarships will be a set of grants to help fund students who wish to travel domestically in order to study, intern, participate in public service, or conduct research. As the university continues to promote opportunities for students to be meaningfully engaged in their education and to experience other cultures, domestic travel/study experiences are becoming more the norm. Opportunities could include a summer researching at a national laboratory, or interning in a major metropolitan city (e.g., Washington D.C., New York, Boston), or participating in public service, such as working on a Native American reservation.
Building upon the foundation established through The Center for Gifted Studies, the Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky, and the already outstanding Honors Program, the Honors College at WKU will be an independent college within the larger University, serving as an institutional multiplier and promoting academic excellence, leadership, and service above self at the highest level.