The Honors Program

Faculty

Director:
Dr. Steven Gable, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Advisor:
Dr. Christopher Bishop, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Description

The Honors Program at Trinity encourages students to take the fullest advantage of small, seminar-style classes and the rich cultural and political benefits of our location in the nation’s capital. It provides academically motivated students with the intellectual stimulation that comes not only from courses designated specifically for them by the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences but also from intensive debate and discussion with their peers.

In addition to reinforcing the goals of the general education curriculum by offering sections for those students in the Honors Program, the program emphasizes the following:

(1) Superior Academic Achievement: To challenge strongly motivated students to achieve at their highest potentials, both in their major fields and in the broader context of their liberal arts education. Students in the Honors Program should maintain an overall GPA of 3.0 in order to remain in the program.

(2) Self Knowledge: To challenge students to develop greater insights into values, attitudes, and assumptions they hold about themselves and others and to explore the connection between these values and their academic and professional choices. The General Education Capstone Seminars that are available to students in the Honors Program provide ample opportunities for this exploration.

(3) Intellectual Risk-Taking: To encourage students to explore new areas of intellectual development, to participate in new methods of learning, to examine the connections between various disciplines and approaches, and to apply learning in new situations.

First-year students are invited to participate in the Honors Program on the basis of their high school GPA, standardized test scores, and the college admissions essay. Sophomores and transfer students may be recommended by a professor or should apply to the Director of the Honors Program for consideration. A series of interdisciplinary seminars that may be used as electives in any discipline encourage the student to deepen her analytic skills.