George Whitworth Honors
George Whitworth Honors Program Philosophy and Values
The Whitworth Honors Program is rooted in the following principles that shape the program and reflect Whitworth’s core values:
- Academic excellence: Requirements for credit granted in honors-program learning experiences will exceed the academic expectations of most Whitworth courses.
- Active and collaborative learning: Learning experiences are characterized by joint intellectual effort among students, or between students and faculty in pursuit of deeper knowledge and understanding. Learning experiences in the honors curriculum are designed to require active participation and a high degree of self-direction from students.
- Christian mission: The honors program includes experiences with a faith-learning integration component.
- Community: Registration for honors program offerings is elective and open to all Whitworth students. When space is limited, priority will be given to honors students, assuming their timely registration.
- Educational breadth: Honors graduates must complete academic-enrichment experiences across the curriculum (not just in proximity to their major).
- Preparation for vocation: Honors experiences are designed to provide a high level of preparation for post-baccalaureate educational and/or career opportunities.
The primary aim of the program is to provide academic benefits by deepening student engagement – by adding “depth, complexity and novelty.”
- Depth is the level of mastery and understanding of the material presented. Students in the honors program will study course content more extensively or in greater depth than in typical college courses. This leads toward the student's greater insight through the discovery of detail, patterns and trends.
- Complexity is the level of thought and processing involved in an activity. Dealing with complexity helps students to understand concepts at a high level and to see the interrelationship of concepts.
- Novelty refers to the unique personal experience of the student. The student may study something that is not a part of the regular curriculum but that is of personal interest. Self-directed study leads toward heightened individuality and expansion of personal belief systems.
A secondary aim of the program is to provide students a range of experiences to enhance their preparation for post-baccalaureate study and vocations.
George Whitworth Honors Program
The George Whitworth Honors Program allows high-achieving, motivated students who are admitted with honors to be eligible for a menu of challenging academic-enrichment experiences over their four years at Whitworth. Program components benefit students differently, depending upon their particular interests and learning styles. The strength of the program is that the student directs himself/herself through a diverse set of learning experiences across multiple disciplines. These experiences may include honors general education or interdisciplinary courses, honors courses within a major, advanced seminars, honors creative projects, honors research, honors study abroad and honors internships. Eligibility for priority enrollment in many honors courses is dependent upon the student's GPA. Eligibility to participate in certain types of honors experience (e.g., research, internship, performance) is by faculty approval, based on applications that demonstrate preparation related to the honors area.
Eligibility to Graduate with George Whitworth Honors
Incoming first-year students with honors at entrance automatically qualify for the honors program (with 1870 SAT and 3.75 cumulative high school GPA). Honors students must register to be officially enrolled in the program, and must maintain a 3.75 GPA to remain in the program.
Requirements for George Whitworth Honors (18) | ||
|---|---|---|
| HN 200H | Honors Seminar I: Vocation & Excellence | 1 |
| HN 300H | Seminar II: Community Project | 1 |
| One of the following: | 4 | |
| Western Civ. I: Christian (Honors) Worldview Perspective | ||
| Western Civilization Ii: (honors) the Rationalist Worldview with Films | ||
| Western Civ III Honors | ||
| The other courses in the program must be earned in at least three of the following five categories: * | 12 | |
A. Honors courses or seminars | ||
B. Honors research | ||
C. Honors internship or teaching assistantship | ||
D. Honors off-campus course or program | ||
E. Honors creative project | ||
| * | No more than nine credits can be from one department. Honors courses cannot be taken for P/NC, but can be audited, but honors course that is audited does not count toward the honors requirements. |
To be a George Whitworth Scholar, a student must complete at least 18 credits with a grade of "C" or higher within the honors program, with at least six of those credits in upper-division courses, seminars, research, etc. No more than nine honors credits can be earned within a single department. To be a George Whitworth Scholar, a student must graduate with at least a 3.75 cumulative GPA and be in the top 20 percent of his or her major(s). Students who do not meet these requirements will still be enriched by these experiences, but will not graduate with George Whitworth honors.
Following is a partial list of honors offerings
AR 296H - Women's Artists' Books. Professor/contact: Amanda Clark
AR 396H - History & Theories of Urban Photography. Professor/contact: Meredith Shimizu
BI 114H - Resurrection Science. Professor/contact: Aaron Putzke
BI 120H - Introduction to Environmental Science. Professor/contact: Grant Casady
CO 150H - Western Civilization I: Christian Worldview Perspective (Fall and Spring semesters). Professor/contact: Josh Leim
CO 250H - Western Civilization II: The Rationalist Worldview (Fall and Spring semesters). Professor/contact: Leonard Oakland
CO 350H - Western Civilization III: Applied Ethics, Public Policy and Worldviews (Fall and Spring semesters). Professor/contact: Kamesh Sankaran
CS 378H - How to Make Darn-Near Anything (Periodic). Professor/contact: Peter Tucker
EDU 201H - Honors Educational Psychology (Spring semesters). Professor/contact: James Uhlenkott
EL 110H - Writing I: Writing in the World. Professor/contact: John Pell
EL 115H - Reading in Action (Fall semesters). Professor/contact: Bert Emerson
EL 300H - Domain of the Arts. Professor/contact: Bert Emerson
EL 340H - Writing in Virtual Worlds (Periodic). Professor/contact: Jessica Clements
EL 396H - Whitworth Life: Audio Storytelling (Periodic). Professor/contact: Nicole Sheets
EL 422H – Joyce & Woolf Seminar (Periodic). Professor/contact: Casey Andrews
WL 498H– World Languages & Cultures Capstone (Fall and Spring semesters). Professor/contact: Jennifer Brown
GE 125H – Freshmen Seminar (Fall semester). Professor/contact: Bert Emerson
HN 200H - Honors Seminar I: Vocation and Excellence (Periodic). Professor/contact: Bert Emerson
HN 300H - Honors Seminar II: Community Project (Periodic). Professor/contact: Ross Watts
HN 400H - Whitworth TED (Fall and Spring semesters). Professor/contact: Bert Emerson
HN 401H - Smithsonian Seminar. Professor/contact: Will Kynes
JMC 126H - Writing for Digital Media (Jan Term). Professor/contact: Erica Salkin
KIN 219H – Sport and Film (Jan Term). Professor/contact: Kirk Westre
MA 296H - Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos. Professor/contact: Michael Rempe
PH 199H - Philosophy in the Real World. Professor/contact: Josh Orozco
PH 329H - God, Knowledge, and Language (Periodic). Professor/contact: Nate King
PY 499H - Advanced Senior Thesis (Spring semesters). Professor/contact: Alisha Epps
SN 465H - Don Quixote. Professor/contact: Angeles Aller
SO 196H - Introduction to Sociology. Professor/contact: Stacy George
SO 372H - Sociology of Religion. Professor/contact: Mark Killian
SO 375H - Planned Communities. Professor/contact: Mark Baird
SP 113H - Honors Interpersonal Communication (Jan Term, even years). Professor/contact: Ronald Pyle
TH 131H - Encountering the Covenantal God (Spring semester, even years). Professor/contact: Karin Heller
TH 202H - Understanding Pope Francis. Professor/contact: Karen Petersen Finch
TH 359H - Early Christian Sites in Greece. Professor/contact: Jonathan Moo