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BYUH Honors Program Enriches 'Higher' Education

The BYU-Hawaii Honors Program, under the direction of Dr. Randall Allred, offered hundreds of students a wealth of educational opportunity and adventure during the Fall 2007 and Winter 2008 semesters.

The University Honors Program is designed "to enrich talented, motivated students through its small and highly interactive classes." However, an important feature of the program also resonates in its welcoming, inviting approach: Any interested student may enroll in an Honors course and participate in Honors activities, service projects, and its weekly colloquium.

The program stresses "higher," not "harder" education, pulling students from diverse backgrounds together to offer new perspective and insight in its various classes and activities.

Although not required to participate in any Honors events, courses or colloquiums for students who wish to graduate from BYU-Hawaii with Honors distinction afford a flexible, personalized layout, including: Four semesters of the Honors Colloquium, seven Honors courses, service projects, a personal senior project, and a 3.5 GPA fulfill the requirements to graduate with Honors, allowing students to navigate freely within these requirements to focus on courses and projects that meet their needs and satisfy their academic interests.

Within the Honors program, students have the opportunity to lead as they participate on the Honors Council, participate in community service projects, and share their own ideas in passionate, engaging discussions. Each semester, students are encouraged to read "the Book of the Semester," followed by an academic discussion related the work's key issues and ideas.

In Fall 2007, for example, students read Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, discussing the central ideas that push the reader to follow his dreams. Students in Winter 2008 discussed the 1957 political movie Advise and Consent and participated in a discussion led by Dr. Troy Smith, focusing on the ideas and issues surrounding the political premises of deal making, party politics, and congressional diplomacy in Washington, DC.

Over the past year, students had the opportunity to travel to Pearl Harbor and participate in a service project aboard the USS Missouri, helping to preserve and maintain an important piece of Hawaii and US history.

Weekly colloquiums invited students to learn more about an array of new philosophies and ideas, including wellness, Shakespeare, graduate studies, and art, to name a few. Courses taught by knowledgeable BYUH professors offered students unique and deep insight into subjects ranging from sciences to humanities and history, from interdisciplinary studies to religion.

Honors students also do more than explore themselves academically. For example, a number of socials, movie-nights, including Twelve Angry Men and Stranger Than Fiction, and an Honors Night each semester allowed enabled them to get together and establish new friendships. Weekly emails kept students up-to-date on the events, service projects, and colloquiums.

During Spring and Summer 2008 terms students can choose from several Honors-distinguished courses, but the colloquiums will remain dormant until the Fall 2008 semester. At that time, students can enroll in Honors Colloquium as a weekly course either on track for graduating with Honors or, more flexibly, on a week-by-week basis, no obligations attached.

A wide range of Honors courses are also set to begin again in Fall 2008, with the colloquiums meeting Wednesdays from 3:00-4:00pm in McKay 101. Students are invited to sign up now as they finalize their Fall course schedules and prepare for an exciting academic and spiritual journey into untold realms of educational opportunity.