The Honors Program interdisciplinary minor creates, encourages, and challenges a community of engaged student scholars who are interested in addressing complex issues facing our world.

Advantages of the Honors Program

  • Scholarship: Receive an annual presidential merit scholarship. You may apply for a higher honors merit scholarship instead.
  • You're eligible to apply for $250 per year in Honors Scholar funds to support engagement activities.
  • Be immediately part of the Honors community by attending Honors events each semester.
  • Receive early registration for courses.
  • Enjoy use of the Honors Lounge (5 Lourdes Hall).
  • Take Academic and College Success 101 class, with fellow Honors students.
  • Take Honors sections of courses — including the Core Milestone Experience.
  • Be part of a vibrant Living-Learning Community with other first-year Honors scholars

What's Required

  • Complete Honors foundation courses.
  • Complete one of three engagement tracks of intensive study and create a signature capstone project.
  • Share your capstone project through the Nazareth Creative Activity and Research Showcase (CARS).

Honors Foundation Courses

  • ACS 101 Academic and College Success (Honors Section): 1 credit
  • ENGW 250 Written & Visual Rhetoric (Honors Section): 3 credits
  • HON 200 Scholarship Expanded: 1 credit
  • HON 484 Honors Capstone Proposal (substitutes for Core Milestone Experience): 1 credit
  • HON 485 Honors Capstone: 3 credits
  • HON 499 Honors Defense: 0 credits

Engagement Track Options

  • Research Scholar: Develop expertise in research and writing, culminating in an original interdisciplinary thesis capstone project or creative research capstone project. Includes research methods and interdisciplinary courses, as well as service on the Honors Advisory Board or as a Peer or Research Mentor.
  • Engagement Scholar: Make significant impacts on the community by designing and planning a community-focused capstone project. Includes upper-level service learning/community-focused courses or clinical/practicum, sustained community engagement, and a service trip.
  • Global Scholar: Engage deeply with global communities, research, and create a globally-focused capstone. Includes a study abroad program, intermediate-level foreign language courses, and upper-level globally-focused courses.

Eligibility

  • Eligible incoming first-year students receive a letter of invitation to join the Honors Program interdisciplinary minor. Invitees are students who have achieved the highest level of academic performance in their high school environment and have demonstrated leadership outside of the classroom.
  • Transfer students and other matriculating students recommended to the program by faculty may add the minor upon consultation with program leadership.
  • New students with strong first-semester performance are invited to join the Honors program.
  • A 3.5 GPA is required each semester to remain in the Honors Program.

Program Requirements and Course Descriptions

Questions?

Email honorsprogram@naz.edu

Aubrey Baldauf with professor Leanne Charlesworth

Honors Program Research

For her honors program thesis, social work major Aubrey Baldauf (left) researched how income, housing, food, and structural and interpersonal racism contribute to racial health disparities — and what can be done. Her in-depth honors project "was a reason to push myself, to learn more, to become more confident in the field I want to go into. It was a self-driven learning project, that I'd never done before. I had to set my own due dates. It also helped me understand how to do research. I have a feeling it's going to help me a lot in the future — both the practical information and the skills I learned." Read more about Aubrey's experience >

Recent Thesis Examples

  • “Effect of Breathing Exercises on Task Induced Stress and Frustration,” by Mark VanDeusen (research track), physical therapy major
  • “Culturally Confused? A Field Guide for U.S. University Students Studying Abroad,” by Willow Clark (global track), global studies and political science double major
  • “Maternal Mortality: Facing the rising maternal deaths in the United States specifically those affecting Black women,” by Rosie Morse (engagement track), nursing and public health double major
  • “Environmental Migration Policies: The Need for a Unified Legal Framework,” by Abby Meaker (research track), legal studies major   
  • “Musical Development and Second Language Acquisition: A Case Study,” by Justin Karnisky (research track), mathematics major

More Naz student examples »

Student Learning Outcomes

Students graduating with the honors minor will:

  • Demonstrate exceptional intellectual curiosity about a complex interdisciplinary topic.
  • Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex information, both orally and through writing.
  • Contribute to making meaningful positive change in the local and/or global community.
GPA Requirement and Probation Policy

An overall GPA of 3.5 or higher is required to maintain good standing in the Honors Program. GPA guidelines to determine program continuation:

  • Overall GPA less than 3.0
    • Student will be removed from the Honors Program.
  • Overall GPA above 3.0 but less than 3.5 (≥3.0 and <3.5)
    • Student will be put on Honors Program probation.
    • If after one semester on probation, the semester GPA is ≥3.5 but overall GPA is <3.5, students will be permitted one more semester of Honors Program probation.
    • If after one semester of probation, the semester GPA is below 3.5, then the student will be removed from the Honors Program.
  • Semester GPA is below 3.5
    • Student will receive a warning, regardless of overall GPA.
  • Enrollment in HON*484 and HON*485
    • Requires overall GPA ≥3.5.