Honors Project

• Overview
• Your Topic
• Faculty Sponsor
• Proposal
• Presenting Your Project

Faculty Sponsor

Your faculty sponsor is key to the success of your project. The Honors Project is an independent study. Your faculty sponsor will help you shape and refine your topic, give you advice and guidance as you proceed, set up a schedule of times to meet with you to discuss your progress, and evaluate and grade your final work. Even when your project is interdisciplinary, it is wise to select one professor to serve as your primary sponsor. Professors from the same or different departments who are interested in your work may serve as additional advisors or consultants as you need them and as they are willing, but one professor needs to be responsible for your final evaluation and grade.

All full-time continuing faculty at the University are eligible to sponsor Honors Projects. This is not a requirement of their workload, but a voluntary privilege they will undertake with you based on your talent, preparation, persuasion and long-term academic relationship. By perusing the abstracts and project summaries on Digital Commons you can see which faculty have sponsored projects in the past in your area of interest. Occasionally, the person best suited to help you may not be a full-time faculty member. Exceptions may be made in such circumstances if someone different is the best person to help you meet your learning outcomes.

Honors Program staff

The role of the Honors Program staff is both academic and administrative. Proposals are submitted to them, and they give approval for all Honors Projects. The Honors Program staff also serve as a resource and sounding board for the creation of Honors Project topics, as a resource for finding a possible faculty sponsor, and for encouragement, advice, and trouble-shooting as the Project develops. Program staff are fully responsible for organizing and sponsoring the annual Honors Project Conference.