Are you insatiably curious? Do you love learning? Are you ready to engage in discussion, debate, and research? The Monroe University Honors Program was designed to serve our most promising, high-performing students through advanced course work and experiential learning activities.
A Message from the Honors Program Coordinator
Professor Kathryn MacDonald
Strive for the best you can be, and we’ll help you get there. Our Honors Program gives you an opportunity to take a deep dive into your chosen field by joining a community of scholars that includes distinguished faculty and fellow talented students.
Honors offers an energetic and lively academic experience that fosters the development of leaders and global citizens. As an Honors Student, you’ll broaden your understanding of the world through interdisciplinary studies, with a strong research component. You will be academically challenged, of course, but Honors will also give you great insight into who you are as an individual.
If you’ve got the desire to enhance your college experience, join the Honors Program and satisfy your intellectual curiosity. Your Monroe University Honors Diploma celebrates true accomplishment and, with it, pride for taking that extra step toward personal enrichment.
Honors students present their work at Honors Conference Week every semester, and may have their proposals accepted at the National Collegiate Honors and Northeast Regional Honors Councils' conferences. That means access to coveted networking opportunities.
Honors students can opt to run for the Honors Student Advisory Board or may choose to contribute to the Honors newsletter. You’ll be encouraged to spearhead an activity or initiate an improvement – and propose a new process in order to get it done.
Participate in the Community
Being an engaged member of this community is essential to the Honors experience. Honors students go on field trips related to a course, volunteer in the community for annual Community Service, or participate in a ventures with students from other honors programs.
I found a community that was full of people like me and was able to put down my roots and really grow.
Kevon Z.A. Weekes, Esq.
Assistant Corporation Counsel, NYC Law Department
Monroe University, BS Criminal Justice, 2012, summa cum laude
New York Law School, JD, 2020, cum laude
Program Requirements
Associate Degree Students
Take three honors courses, one of which is HN-150 The Honors Experience
Complete one honors experiential activity
Document your honors experience in an online portfolio
Maintain a 3.3 cumulative GPA
Bachelor’s Degree Students
Take six honors courses, two of which are HN-150 The Honors Experience and
HN-450 Honors Program Research Seminar
Complete three honors experiential activities
Document your honors experience in an online portfolio
Students explore the multifaceted world of modern art in this survey course that examines the transitions and innovations of arts from realism to what is known as today’s modern art. With a foundation in art history, students come to understand how fine art as a field has developed. The course also will undertake understanding and appreciating the creative process. Yet another lens of the course looks at art from a scholarly and critical perspective. As part of this interdisciplinary course, students are asked to engage in the process of creativity and develop several pieces of finished artwork.
2019: Prof. Bruce Wigutow awarded the NRHC Honors Professional of the Year Award
2017: Prof. MacDonald, Honors Coordinator, awarded the Sam Schuman Award for Excellence by NCHC
2017: The honors newsletter, The Experience, won third place in the national honors newsletter contest
2016: One of our students (Nathalie Waldschmidt, Class of 2018) named NCHC’s Honors Student of the Year
Northeast Regional Honors Conference (NRHC)
Each year, a group of Honors students travels to the annual NRHC to participate in a variety of events, symposia and presentations. This year’s conference was, by necessity, virtual, but was well attended nonetheless.
Past conferences have taken place in Albany, Baltimore, Providence, Pittsburgh, Cambridge, Gettysburg, Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, and Portland ME.
New students must be referred to the program; current students may apply to the program. A GPA of 3.3. or higher is required and candidates should be prepared to speak the honors coordinator for an entrance interview.
Anyone interested in joining the Honors Program should reach out to Prof. Kathryn MacDonald directly at
Prof. Wigutow was the inaugural winner of the Northeast Regional Honors Council’s Honors Professional of the Year Award (Faculty category) in 2019. Prof. Wigutow teaches a variety of honors courses and loves working on research projects with students.
