I do not condemn KSU’s Honors Program, but I have tried to enlighten students about the seemingly-daunting requirements that instigate some of the complaints about honors. My hope is that they can understand what is expected of them as honors students. In this article, I want to highlight how these expectations enhance your college experience — if you’re prepared for the challenge.
First and foremost, the Honors Program is a choice; no one is required to be an honors student. However, if you took advanced classes in high school and are looking to be challenged as you continue your education with college, I strongly suggest that you join.
Although the Honors Program does entail various extra requirements than would be expected of a non-honors student, each one of these requirements have positively influenced my college experience in some way.
Whether it be the small, intimate classes that allowed me to build stronger relationships with my peers and professors, the applied learning experience in which I became blogger for KSU’s Writing Center, thus enhancing my portfolio and furthering my involvement at my workplace, or the honors capstone, which introduced me to an innovative project of which I will be presenting at four research conferences around the U.S. in the spring, and of which I will submit a paper to journals with confident hopes of being published — these honors requirements really do provide students with an array of opportunities they may have never sought out if not for honors.
Nevertheless, the Honors Program is not for everyone. If you are not willing to work hard, devote yourself to the requirements, and take advantage of all the exciting opportunities, then this program is not for you.
However, if you are yearning to optimize your learning experience and to grow and learn among equally diligent peers who constantly inspire you to strive for bigger and better (like my influential Honors PEGS cohort), then you should definitely consider joining honors.
Honors can be a lot of work, but without that extra work, there would be no way to distinguish honors students. At the end of the day, students who made that choice to be honors students should hold their heads high, feeling privileged to be considered some of the smartest, hard-working students at the school, since that, in the end, is what is required of us – but more importantly, that, in the end, is what defines us as honors students.