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About the Honors College

In This Site

Westminster's Honors College was founded in 1986 as a small program offering an enhanced educational experience to academically talented and highly motivated students. It is now the premiere academic experience on Westminster’s campus for high-achieving students who excel in and out of the classroom. At the center of the Honors experience is a core of specially designed classes where you’ll engage in lively discussions with your classmates and professors.

 

Mission

 

We invite students into a challenging journey of developing their voices, sharing those voices, and learning to hear the voices of others.

 

Vision

To cultivate a community of diverse voices through genuine curiosity, intentional reflection, authentic conversation, and interdisciplinary inquiry to engage the challenges of a complex world with courage, creativity, and compassion.

 

Core Values

  • Community-centered conversation
  • Support and mentorship
  • Compassion and empathy
  • Academic and personal growth
  • Curiosity and dedication
  • Connections across difference
  • Interdisciplinary inquiry
  • Student empowerment
 
Honors Students in Class
Honors Students Sitting and Talking at Sugar House Park

15

Average class size

3.8

Average GPA of entering students

90%

First-year retention rate (2021)

100%

of incoming, first-year Honors students receive a scholarship

200

Honors students (17% of the student body)

9

faculty recipients of the Gore Excellence in Teaching Award

 

Memberships and Affiliations

The Honors College is an active member of

What You'll Learn

  • Develop confidence in your abilities to understand and discuss complex ideas and texts through an interdisciplinary lens.
  • Engage in problem-solving and research design with guidance from faculty mentors.
  • Strengthen your writing and communication skills in intensive, discussion-based seminars.
  • Master the ability to work effectively in groups of diverse people.
  • Make connections between disciplines in classes team-taught by two professors from different educational backgrounds.
  • Apply new knowledge and skills in meaningful ways in your educational, professional, and personal lives.

Nunemaker Place

Nunemaker Place Building

Tucked among the trees on the bank of Emigration Creek, Nunemaker Place is the official home of the Honors College. With a variety of distinctive spaces, Nunemaker is always busy with students lounging, studying, reading, and engaging in discussions of their latest challenging Honors texts. Here, you’ll also find the offices of Honors College staff.

Throughout the year, Honors students come together to take part in the many Honors traditions held in Nunemaker Place—from the much-anticipated Monte Carlo Night when students and faculty face off for ultimate bragging rights, to the end-of-semester Dead Paper Society where students gather around the fire on Nunemaker’s back porch to burn copies of papers they’d rather not see again.

View Nunemaker Place

Read More About An Honors Education

An expert on Honors education, Honors College Dean Richard Badenhausen regularly publishes essays in journals and monographs on issues of interest to the national Honors community.

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