Why Join the Honors Program

The benefit of accepting the invitation...

Student members of the Honors Program enjoy many benefits from participating in the program. First and foremost, the Honors Program affords its members an opportunity to engage professionally in their chosen field while still in college. One major element of this professional engagement is a close mentoring relationship with a faculty member in that field. This professional engagement opportunity includes academic leadership opportunities, alternative or expanded engagements in major courses, opportunities to explore a topic or area of choice in a more in-depth format, professional experience that will enhance one’s resume, and additional preparation for post-graduate work. All Honors courses and project work is remunerated with academic credit and noted on the student’s official academic transcript and the student’s Honors project is recognized in the commencement program at graduation.

More specifically, student members of the Honors program enjoy the following benefits:

Integration of faith, learning, and living is important. We believe God expects us to be good stewards of the intellectual gifts He has given us.
Helps students to further develop their skills of critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.
Helps students to see that they can accomplish a level of professional engagement beyond what they might have thought they were capable.
Helps students to develop intellectual independence.
Can help enhance student learning through mentoring relationships with faculty.
Provides students with the opportunity to engage in professional scholarly work in their chosen field.
Helps students to promote better oral and written presentation skills through presentations at on-campus forums or local, state, regional, or national conferences.
Fosters a sense of accomplishment in student participants.
Helps to promote an innovation-oriented culture among students.
Helps students to build an identity as a group.
Helps provide effective career preparation so students are better qualified for their chosen vocations—better qualified for the job market.
Helps to increase acceptance/enrollment in graduate education and with getting teaching assistantships or fellowships
The ability to do quality research may help with earning a raise or a promotion in future employment.

What Honors Program graduates are doing now

In the Spring of 2021, Career Services held a workshop to help students prepare for life after SWU by inviting three alumni to speak. All three were graduates from the Honors Program. You can hear what they are doing now as well as how they used their experience at SWU to help prepare them for their future. https://youtu.be/h3MN98ObBgE

You can also see the fields that past students have researched by going to the Past Student Projects page.