HONORS PROGRAM
STUDENT HANDBOOK
UNDERGRADUATE HONORS PROGRAM
SAINT XAVIER UNIVERSITY
3700 W. 103rd STREET
CHICAGO, IL 60655
2011 EDITION
CONTENTS
Page
3
INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAM
4
COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM AND HOW THEY REINFORCE
ITS GOALS
5
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HONORS PROGRAM AND THE
LARGER UNIVERSITY
7
WHAT IS EXPECTED OF HONORS STUDENTS
7
TIPS AND ASSISTANCE FOR NAVIGATING EACH STAGE OF THE
PROGRAM
10
REWARDS, BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF HONORS
12
CONCLUSION
14
APPENDIX
A-1 FORMAT FOR JUNIOR YEAR FIELDWORK PROPOSAL
15
A-2 FIELDWORK SUPERVISOR’S EVALUATION FORM
16
A-3 SENIOR HONORS PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM
18
A-4 SENIOR PROJECT MID YEAR PROGRESS REPORT FORM
19
A-5 MISSION STATEMENT
20
2
INTRODUCTION
TO EACH NEW HONORS STUDENT:
Congratulations on your admission into the Undergraduate Honors Program at Saint
Xavier! Your membership in this program is one of the fruits of your commitment to
learning that you have demonstrated by your academic accomplishments throughout high
school. We look forward to working with you as you continue to grow and develop in
college, both intellectually and spiritually, and as you continue to discover and exercise
your unique talents and gifts.
This Handbook is designed to familiarize you with the Honors Program, and especially to
help you understand its purpose and its goals. Why do we have an Honors Program at
Saint Xavier? What are we aiming for? How do the various components of the program
connect to one another and how do they reinforce its goals and purpose? And, most
importantly, what does the program offer you? Why should you choose to participate in
it and graduate with Honors from Saint Xavier?
The Handbook also is designed to convey our expectations of you as a new member of
the Honors Program, and as a person who likely will have a significant impact on its
effectiveness and success. All of us who teach in Honors know that the program doesn’t
really make strong students; rather, stimulating students make a strong program.
Throughout the various sections of this Handbook we will describe the stages of the
program, its rewards, benefits and challenges. At the risk of sounding preachy, we’ll offer
some tips for getting the most out of your Honors experience, and suggest ways in which
you can help to shape the program for the better, both for yourself and for all of the
students who will follow you in Honors at Saint Xavier.
One way you can have an impact on the program is to give us some reactions to this
Handbook. It is a work in progress that will continue to be revised as we grasp ever more
clearly the purposes and goals of the Honors Program. As you complete semester after
semester, you will be in a perfect position to suggest how this Handbook can be better.
What else should be included? What pieces of advice would you offer new students?
What revisions would you suggest? Share your insights with the Honors Program
Director, or with any of your teachers and advisors in the Program, and we will use them
when revising to produce the next edition of this Handbook.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mary Beth Tegan, Honors Program Director
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PURPOSE OF THE UNDERGRADUATE HONORS PROGRAM AT SAINT
XAVIER: ITS HISTORY, MISSION AND GOALS
In the early 1990’s, Saint Xavier changed its identity from a college to a university, and
this change meant that the school would grow and become more diverse in its student
population. It meant, for example, that we would be attracting students from a wider
geographic area. As the university did, in fact, continue to grow and become a more
diverse and stimulating community, administrators realized that we needed to do more to
challenge the many academically gifted students who now were applying and coming to
Saint Xavier. As a Sisters of Mercy college, with a special mission to aid those most in
need, the school has always made, and continues to make, strenuous efforts to reinforce
and nurture the abilities of motivated students with weaker academic backgrounds. But
now we realized the need to supply a more supportive learning environment for our most
academically gifted students as well.
University administrators also realized the need to nurture more students who might
become leaders in the fields of learning and practice which we were helping them to
pursue. Because of its Catholic identity, Saint Xavier is a university committed to
integrating ethical and spiritual values into a rigorous program of intellectual study. It
also emphasizes the importance of channeling abstract learning into avenues that benefit
humanity—the world beyond the academy. Students nurtured in such a community
should be aspiring to leadership roles, for the betterment of our society.
Attempting to address these goals, the framers of the Saint Xavier University Honors
Program designed it with three main objectives in mind. These three objectives are
reflected in the curriculum that we have designed for the program and are its “heart and
soul.” Your success in and personal satisfaction with the program will largely depend
upon the extent to which you come to share these goals and make them your own.
1. In order to nurture future leaders in our professional and academic communities, the
program should cultivate skills and habits of mind that enable students to become
independent thinkers and learners. Courses in the program should be designed to
do more than prepare students for a career; they should move students from passive
absorbers of knowledge to curious and active seekers of knowledge. They should be
expected to apply classroom learning to new situations that enable them to explore,
test and challenge what they are being taught. The program should cultivate the skills
of life long learners who want to continue evolving intellectually and spiritually long
after college.
2. To guarantee that Honors graduates are capable of making positive contributions to
their chosen fields, they must know how to synthesize the body of knowledge in that
field and to formulate the questions that will break new ground. In short, they should
gain facility with the methods of research and discovery in the disciplines to which
they gravitate.
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3. In order to increase the probability that our Honors graduates will make a positive
contribution not only to their field of study but to our communities as well, we need
to bridge the distance between learning and doing, and between theory and
practice. We need to provide students with the opportunities for hands on experiences
that apply their learning to “real world” situations, as they are learning.
Everyone who worked on designing the program, and all faculty who teach in it, support
these three objectives, and they are clearly stated in the Honors Program mission
statement to which all Honors administrators and teachers at Saint Xavier are committed.
(See Appendix A-5 for the complete text of the Honors Program mission statement.) We
assume that students who choose to participate in the program also find these to be
worthy goals and that they are willing and eager to aim for them. We assume you are
seeking more than credentials for a job, and even more than a high GPA. You are in the
program because you wish to be challenged in ways that exercise and sharpen your
intellectual and creative gifts; you want to apply what you learn to address real world
problems; and you want to be an independent and active learner and thinker for the rest of
your life.
COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM, AND HOW THEY REINFORCE ITS
THREE MAIN GOALS
Two years of course work connected to a unifying theme:
Every component of the program you are asked to complete is designed to reinforce these
three goals. During your first two years in the program, you and the other Honors
students in your class will take five courses, as a group, in various areas of the Arts and
Sciences. All students at Saint Xavier complete a range of courses in the Arts and
Sciences in order to satisfy the General Education requirements, but for Honors students
these courses all connect to a unifying theme and will address different questions and
problems relating to that general theme. The reason for looking at the same general issue
from a range of perspectives is to help you think critically, independently and “outside
of the box” of any single or limited perspective. All significant human issues spring
from and affect more than one realm or arena of life, and the broader and deeper your
grasp of issues and problems, the more likely you will be able to address them creatively
and fruitfully.
Each of the Honors umbrella themes, such as The Idea of America, or The Good Life, or
The Global Community is selected on the basis of its scope and its ability to expose
students not only to the great classics of intellectual inquiry and theory, but also to
real world problems and challenges that confront us all. Finally, in each of your
Honors courses you will be asked to do research—that is, to explore what has been
written, spoken or learned about a subject, to synthesize what you absorb from a range of
sources and to formulate and support your own position or view on the matter.
5
Junior Year Fieldwork
This component of the program relates most directly to the third goal mentioned above—
bridging the gap between theory and practice and between learning and doing. You
will be asked to engage in “hands on” experiences in professional areas that interest you.
Perhaps you will choose an internship at a local firm or agency or clinic; maybe you will
engage in laboratory research under the direction of a faculty mentor; or maybe you will
pursue your field of study in another country for a semester or two, in order to gain a
really fresh and new perspective on issues that absorb you. Although pursuing
independent projects, you will continue to meet with your Honors classmates as a group,
in order to compare experiences and to examine the dynamics of work in various settings.
This component of the program is designed not only to help you apply your learning to
real world contexts, but also to become more conscious of the norms and assumptions
that fuel the professions and to develop a healthy, critical perspective on professionalism
in general. The goal is to insure that throughout your career you will pursue work that is
meaningful and, as a potential leader in your chosen profession, that you will promote
conditions of work that are wholesome and just.
Senior Year Project
Your senior year project is designed to reinforce the second main goal of the program—
cultivating skills and modes of thinking that will enable you to contribute to and
advance learning and creativity in your fields of interest. Your senior project will
require that you absorb the work or creative products of others, and contribute your own
insights to an ongoing inquiry among professionals in your field. You will be expected
to present the products of your research or creative endeavor to audiences at Saint
Xavier’s Annual Honors Conference, and also will be encouraged to submit your projects
to regional and national forums featuring undergraduate work
Honors Portfolio
Throughout the course of your four year program, you will be asked to develop an
Honors Program portfolio. Your portfolio will be a repository for selections of written
work you have completed during the program, and for reflections and insights regarding
your own progress and development. The object of the portfolio is to help you gain
ownership of your own academic career, as you select the artifacts that document your
intellectual growth and your increasing awareness of your unique gifts and abilities. We
are convinced that your Honors Portfolio will prove a valuable resource as you complete
your study at Saint Xavier and apply to graduate and professional schools. The Honors
Program Director will explain very early in the program more about the purposes of the
portfolio, and your teachers and advisors will help you decide which texts to include
throughout your four years in the Honors Program.
Although we appear to be emphasizing the value of independent thinking, we do not
mean to imply that pursuing Honors at Saint Xavier will be a lonely experience. Despite
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the popular myth of the isolated genius working alone in the laboratory or the library to
uncover the mysteries of life or to write the Great Book, the history of human
achievement proves that many of the most important products of thought and creative
endeavor are the result of collaborative efforts. Throughout your Fieldwork and Senior
projects, you will continue to meet regularly with your class of peers to share
experiences, and to support one another by reading and responding critically to each
other’s work in progress. You’ll offer suggestions as well as encouragement to one
another as you undertake the challenging, sometimes frustrating, but always rewarding
labors of substantial research or creative endeavor.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HONORS PROGRAM AND THE LARGER
UNIVERSITY
The Honors program at Saint Xavier is not some academic island detached from the rest
the university’s life. On the contrary, the program was designed to be at the center of
Saint Xavier’s intellectual and cultural life, and to contribute to its academic mission.
Founders of the program were convinced that Honors students should not only profit
from an enriched academic experience, but that the program also should serve the
university well.
Most of your course work at Saint Xavier will be outside of the Honors Program, and we
assume that you will exercise your same curiosity and enthusiasm for learning in all of
your courses. As good ambassadors for the program, you will help elevate the level of
intellectual and creative excitement across Saint Xavier’s curriculum. Faculty who spend
time and effort developing innovative courses for the Honors Program will teach them
again for other students, so, ultimately, the whole university will benefit. Many Honors
students become campus leaders, supporting clubs, service projects and other activities
campus wide. The Honors program regularly offers to co-sponsor intellectually or
creatively edifying events organized by other groups on campus, and we invite the entire
campus community to all major events that we sponsor, such as our annual Honors Guest
Lecture.
OUR EXPECTATIONS OF YOU
Excited about learning: As you probably have gleaned from reading up to this point,
administrators and teachers in the Honors program assume that Honors students are
curious, interested in learning, and eager to encounter new challenges. They view their
education as more than a means of acquiring credentials for a job; they want to discover
and nurture talents and gifts that will sustain them for a lifetime of intellectual
satisfaction and creative endeavor.
We assume that such students will be actively engaged in their course work, contributing
their ideas, however tentative, to class discussions, and occasionally asking the question
that carries the conversation to a deeper or more interesting dimension.
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Make good use of time: Although most students engage in part time work during
college, we assume that Honors students will think carefully and deliberately about how
they spend their time and energy. They will keep faith with their academic priorities, and
make good use of the valuable time they have allotted themselves for study. Students
sometimes are too hard on themselves when they expect to perform at the top of the class,
even while filling up most of their days with obligations and activities that squeeze out
the time it takes for sustained reading and fruitful thinking.
Most Honors students find that careful planning and scheduling of their time IS the most
important skill required for success in college. At the beginning of each semester you
should examine all of your course syllabi and note when all assignments are due. Record
each due date on your weekly calendar or computer date book, or whatever medium you
use for your weekly schedule. For longer assignments, record approximate dates when
you should get started, and mark dates as tentative deadlines for completing key steps or
stages. At the beginning of each week you can see what lies ahead, how much study time
will be required, and carve out the hours that you’ll need. Blocking out regular study
times each week makes it easier to cultivate the habit of working other activities around
this central priority.
Periodically assess your commitment to and satisfaction in the program; is it right
for you? Your college years likely will be a period of active growth, change and
development, particularly in terms of your academic and professional objectives and your
personal goals and priorities. These changes could affect your commitment to the Honors
program and your desire to complete it. Although we hope all incoming students will
thrive in the program and will graduate with Honors, it’s important for you to know that
even if you choose to leave the program, you still will be awarded full credit for all
Honors work you have completed; there will be no penalty for leaving.
Honors Program policy dictates that any student who earns lower than a 2.5 GPA in a
given semester must earn at least a 3.0 the following semester in order to remain in the
program. But the key question we want to focus on is “Are you thriving in the program;
is it good for you and are you good for it?” At the end of each semester, administrators
and teachers will review your progress and have conversations with you about your
experience in Honors. These conversations are designed to encourage students who have
been challenged and stimulated by the program and to steer students who are not thriving
in Honors to pursue other options more rewarding for them and more appropriate for their
academic and personal goals.
Enjoy the company of your peers: We do want Honors students to do more than study!
As your time permits, we assume you will participate in Honors activities, and we hope
you take the occasion to get to know your peers in the program and to enjoy the pleasures
of their company. Because you go through the entire program as one of a peer group of
students, you will come to learn each other’s ways of thinking and will be struck by
differences among your personalities, interests, values and talents. Our hope is that the
sustained community within the larger university that the Honors Program builds will be
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a nurturing and stimulating environment that promotes understanding of and respect for
diversity, even while it enables you to discover how much you all have in common.
We also hope at least some of you will enjoy mentoring new students who enter the
program when you are sophomores, juniors and seniors. Many Honors students enjoy
attending summer orientation sessions for incoming Honors students, and Honors
Information Socials, where high school students invited into the program come to campus
to learn more about Honors at Saint Xavier. Current students in the program are always
welcome, not just to attend these events, but also to address the group and to share your
perspective on the Program. High school students ask many questions about the program,
and appreciate hearing the responses of students who are actually in it. Usually after
several semesters in the program, Honors students are in a better position than Honors
administrators and teachers to tell incoming students what they most want to know.
Serve as good ambassadors for the program in the community: Honors program
administrators and teachers expect that Honors students will represent the program
positively in their interactions with the university community. We hope you will radiate
your excitement for learning, and your enthusiasm for intellectual challenge, without the
tincture of smugness or conceit. As we mentioned above, the program is not some elite
academic island detached from the rest of university life. Honors students should
cultivate warm and stimulating friendships with their peers university wide, and should
seek university wide forums for exercising their talents, gifts and leadership skills.
Seek out and cultivate productive relationships with faculty and staff mentors: As
will be evident in the following section, “Tips for Navigating each Stage of the
Program,” you will be provided with a range of faculty and staff mentors who will be
eager to get to know you. They will want to help you at each step of the way as you
move through the Honors Program. You should take the time to seek out these mentors,
get to know them. Go to them regularly to share your questions and problems, as well as
to let them know about your projects and accomplishments. Also, we want you to let
your mentors, advisors and teachers in Honors know about any aspects of the program
that you think should be changed, or any features you’d like to see added. Honors
students tell us that cultivating satisfying relationships with program mentors eases their
way through the program. It enriches their self confidence, provides positive
reinforcement for all of their projects even outside of Honors, and provides a medium by
which they can have a stronger impact and influence upon the shape and the success of
the program.
TIPS AND ASSISTANCE FOR NAVIGATING EACH STAGE OF THE
PROGRAM
First and Second year course work: As we indicate above, faculty and staff mentors
will guide you throughout your four years in Honors and will help to prepare you to
succeed in each new set of challenges. During the first two years when you are
completing your Honors course work in the Arts and Sciences, staff from our university’s
9
advising office will work closely with each one of you to integrate your required course
work in Honors with the General Education requirements, and the requirements of your
major. Your other mentors during these two years will be the Honors Program director
and the teachers of all the Honors courses that you will be taking.
The Honors program director frequently shows up at Honors classes to keep you
informed of program events and upcoming deadlines and to field any problems you might
be having. The Honors Program Director and the teachers of your Honors courses will
always be willing to meet with you to talk about your progress in the program, issues and
topics covered in your course work, and whatever else is on your mind.
Junior Year Fieldwork Project: Prior to beginning your second year in the program,
you will receive a letter from the Honors Program Director, informing you of your many
options for junior year field work, and describing what needs to be in the proposal you
will submit by Feb. 1 of your sophomore year describing your choice of field work
activity. You should begin exploring possibilities. In order to help you, our Counseling
and Career Services experts at Saint Xavier will meet with you to investigate interesting
internship possibilities, and our International Studies director will discuss with you
options for studying abroad.
You will receive a detailed Handbook for Honors Junior Year Fieldwork which will
suggest a wide range of fieldwork placements, list the activities that students have
pursued in recent years, and supply sample fieldwork proposals written by previous
Honors students. The Honors Fieldwork Coordinator and the Honors Program director
will be happy to meet with you individually to help you select an activity and develop
your proposal. After you submit your initial proposal the Honors Program director will
meet or correspond with each of you individually via E-mail to let you know that your
proposal has been approved, or to help you develop in into a proposal that will be
approved. Usually, all students have settled on their fieldwork placements by May of
their sophomore years, and some begin their fieldwork activities that very summer.
During the course of your fieldwork activities, your mentor will be the fieldwork
supervisor with or for whom you are working. This person may be an administrator at
the firm or agency where you are interning, it may be a faculty member who is directing
you in laboratory research or a staff member at Saint Xavier who is overseeing an
independent project you are pursuing. At the end of your fieldwork experience your
supervisor will be asked to complete an evaluation of your performance of your
fieldwork activities. (see Appendix A-2 for a copy of the evaluation form that your
supervisor will complete.) In your junior year Fieldwork Seminar (Honor 350/51) you
will be sharing fieldwork experiences with your peers in the Honors Program, so you
may be asked to keep a journal in which you record the experiences that affected you the
most, insights you gained for your activities, and your reflections upon them. In order to
have an accurate and useful record of your experience, you will want to make entries into
your journal regularly.
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Senior Year Research or Creative Project: Early in your junior year Fieldwork
Seminar, your Fieldwork Seminar Coordinator (who teaches Honor 350/51) will begin
talking about your senior year project. She will distribute a detailed Handbook for the
Honors Senior Project, which will explain expectations for the project, and the process
you will go through to come up with an idea for your project, and then to work on it
complete it, and present it to an audience of peers, faculty, family and friends. The
Senior Project Handbook also will contain sample student proposals for senior projects,
like the one you will complete by the end of your junior year. (See Appendix A-3 for a
copy of the form you will use as a guide in drafting your proposal for your senior
project.)
During your Fieldwork Seminar, faculty from different majors at Saint Xavier will speak
to you about how to design a senior project, how to come up with an idea that you can
execute effectively within one year. You will be encouraged to identify a faculty mentor
in your major field to supervise your project, to help you develop your idea and to help
you discover your specific purpose and the focus. With the help of their faculty mentors
and the Honors Fieldwork Seminar teacher, Honors students will have drafted their
Senior Project Proposals and will share them with one another during the last few
meetings of the Fieldwork Seminar during the Spring of their junior year.
During your senior year you will be working independently on your Honors Senior
Project and meeting at regular intervals with your project mentor. Still your Honors
class will continue to meet periodically in the Senior Project Seminar (Honor 352/53) to
share your progress, your frustrations, the obstacles you are confronting and how you are
dealing with them. The faculty Seminar leader and your peers will respond to your ideas,
and frequently will be able to give you some useful advice or criticism to improve your
project. Even if they are not experts in your subject area, your peers often can point out
where ideas don’t connect, or where you need more examples or support to clarify a point
you are making. At the end of the fall semester, you will share a report of your progress
with your peers in the Seminar, and will submit a copy of this report to the faculty Senior
Project Seminar leader. (See Appendix A-4 for a description of the Progress Report you
will be submitting.)
Finally, in the spring of your senior year, you will be revising your senior project. As the
climax of your entire Honors experience at Saint Xavier, you will be required to prepare
an engaging presentation of the key features of your project. Your presentation will be
delivered before a university wide audience at our annual Honors Conference. Your
project mentor and your Senior Project Seminar leader will help you prepare your
conference presentation.
As you can see, throughout your four years in the program, you will be working closely
with a small group of mentors and advisors who will help to keep you on track. It will be
important for you to interact with them regularly—when you are troubled, anxious,
excited or when you need answers to questions. The Honors Program Director, your
fieldwork supervisor, the Fieldwork Seminar and Senior Project seminar leaders and the
faculty mentor of your senior project will all be overseeing your work and supporting you
each step of the way.
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REWARDS, BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF HONORS
A small and intimate program within the larger university: When they address high
school students interested in Honors, or when they help to orient students just entering
the program, advanced Honors students are eager to point out the benefits that they have
realized by being in the program. Almost always the first benefit they mention is the
sense of “family” they have enjoyed in the program—how being in Honors is like finding
a small, intimate and supportive community within the larger university. They enjoy the
informal time they spend with their peers in the program, their study sessions in the
Honors Program lounge, and the structured activities they engage in as a group. Many
have forged friendships through Honors that will last the rest of their lives.
Accelerated General Education Program: Honors students also appreciate the fact that
the program enables them more time to engage in course work of their own choosing, and
makes it easier for many of them to complete a minor or even a double major. Because
your honors course work during your first two years enables you to satisfy General
Education Requirements in fewer credit hours, you will be able to start focusing on
course work for your major sooner. Depending on the requirements of your major, many
of you will be able to pursue related course work outside your major that will expand
your learning and improve your credentials for graduate school or for professional
opportunities you pursue after college.
The accelerated General Education Program does enable students to progress through
general education requirements more quickly, and some Honors students enter Saint
Xavier with AP course credit. Occasionally, an Honors student calculates that, by taking
additional courses during the summer, it conceivably would be possible to complete the
General Education requirements and their majors a semester or more early. But, getting
you in and out of college in less than four years is NOT what the Honors program is
designed to accomplish. It is a four year program, which includes a junior year fieldwork
project and a senior year capstone research or creative project. The program is designed
to deepen and enrich the undergraduate experience, not to merely expedite it. For that
reason, students who are committed to completing their undergraduate program in less
than four years should not accept our invitation into the Honors Program at Saint Xavier.
Student Development Grants: Honors Students are eligible to apply for Student
Development Grants designed to promote their learning activities. Students may
request up to $300.00 per year to help cover or expenses connected to learning projects
in which they are engaged. For the following three activities, students may request up to
$500.00: expenses entailed for study abroad, for presenting research at a conference, or
for pursuing an out of town internship.
To apply for a Student Development Grant, you will need to complete the current
academic year’s Student Development Grant Request form, available in the Honors
Program Director’s Office. The form asks you to describe and itemize costs of the
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anticipated expenditure and to explain clearly and in detail its connection to your learning
goals. (Grants cannot be used towards tuition, to purchase textbooks required in your
classes, or for printer cartridges.) If the request is approved for all or a portion of the
amount requested, you will be asked to submit the original receipt documenting the
expenditure. In the past students have used their development grants to help pay for
study abroad; supplementary books in their areas of interest; periodical subscriptions;
travel to libraries or conferences; tuition for off campus learning opportunities (excluding
coursework required for their SXU degree), technology, laboratory, music and art
supplies required for specific learning activities; and for other educational or cultural
experiences outside of Saint Xavier. Students can request funds towards only ONE
technology item (e.g., laptop, e-reader, camera, etc.) during their years in the program.
Grant requests must be submitted and approved before the student submits receipts
documenting the purchase: requests submitted WITH receipts will not be considered.
Generally you will be informed about whether your request has been approved in less
than two weeks. Students may be given the opportunity to revise their requests in order to
gain approval. Finally, consistent with University Accounting Office policy, purchases
must be made DURING the academic budget year in which the request is submitted.
Requests for any particular year’s allotment must be submitted no later than March 1 of
the spring semester, although for freshmen, sophomores and juniors, receipts
documenting the approved requests do not need to be submitted until May 1. (For
graduating seniors the deadline for submitting receipts still is March 1.)
“Customized” Registration: Because Honors students need to work their Honors
course selections into the rest of their schedules, the advising office processes their
course registrations each semester earlier than those of other students, whose scheduling
is not as complex. Because they register early, Honors Students can be confident that
there will be space for them in every course section for which they register. This is often
not the case for students who register later in each semester’s registration week. Often
course sections are filled and they must redesign their schedules and register for
alternative course sections.
Your Own Honors Program Meeting Room: We have provided students in the
program with their own room, containing computers, work space, and comfortable sofas
and chairs. The room has become a favorite meeting place for Honors students. Also
housed in this room are samples of fieldwork and senior projects, as well as important
forms and documents relating to the program.
Cultural and Social Activities: The Honors Program annually hosts a guest lecture for
the entire university community. We invite distinguished speakers qualified by their
experiences and/or scholarship to address and illuminate important issues related to the
unifying theme of that year’s Honors Seminars. Past speakers have included former
President Clinton’s Chief of Staff, John Podesta; television political editor, Michael
Flannery; National Public Radio program host, Gretchen Helfrich; Michael Wilmington,
lead film critic for the Chicago Tribune; and Cass Sunstein, Professor and renowned
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expert on Constitutional law. Depending on their interests, Honors students organize
social and cultural activities that promote fellowship and fun within the program, whether
it be attending an opera, painting the program room, or enjoying a party at a faculty
member’s home.
Honors Program Student Advisory Council: Honors students also have the
opportunity to serve on the Honors Program Student Advisory Council (HPSAC), which
organizes student-generated activities and seeks program feedback. The Council consists
of a group of seven students elected by their peers to organize social, service, and cocurricular activities, suggest changes or additions to the program’s policies and
curriculum, and assist in recruiting new students into the program. Using feedback from
their peers, HPSAC members work with Honors Program staff to facilitate program
activities and changes that better serve the Honors Program student community.
CONCLUSION
We hope that this Handbook proves useful to you as you move through the Honors
program during the next four years. We recommend that you keep it on your desk or
bookshelf for easy access, especially to consult when you approach each new stage of the
program. As we have noted this Handbook will be supplemented by Handbooks
providing more specific guidance for your junior year field work and your senior project.
You will receive them well ahead of the time when you’ll need to start planning
concretely for those activities. In the meantime, we hope you’ll respond to our appeal for
your suggestions about this Handbook. If you have any suggestions about how to
improve it or to make it more useful, please share them with the Honors Program
Director or your Program Seminar teacher. We eagerly anticipate working closely with
you in the years ahead!
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APPENDIX A-1
Format for Honors Junior Year Field Work Proposal
By February 1 please submit to Mary Beth Tegan (N227) a 2-3 page proposal that
includes all of the following information:
1. Proposed fieldwork placement site
2. On site supervisor’s name, phone number and e-mail address
3. A detailed description of the projects, duties, responsibilities and other activities in
which you will be engaged during your field work.
4. A description of the field work product you anticipate submitting to the Honors
Fieldwork Coordinator at the end of your on site work (e.g. a portfolio of your work,
a paper drawn from your journal entries on your fieldwork activities and insights,
a paper examining an issue that provoked your thinking during your fieldwork
experience, etc.
5. An explanation of how the proposed field work experience will contribute to your
intellectual, academic or professional growth—how it will reinforce your learning
goals and objectives as an undergraduate in your major at Saint Xavier.
6. Number of hours you anticipate working each week during the semester(s) of the
fieldwork placement, and the number of credit hours for which you intend to register
for on site fieldwork each semester of your junior year. Remember that all Honors
students must register for one credit hour of Honor 350 both in the fall and spring of
their Junior year just for the field work course. We are asking you to indicate how
many additional credit hours of Honor 350 you will register for to complete the on
site fieldwork project you are proposing here. Keep in mind that one credit hour of
fieldwork should correspond to around 5 hours of work per week at the fieldwork site
(or engaged in work generated from your field work placement.) You may register
for 2 to 4 credit hours of on site fieldwork during your junior year, but you must
register for at least one of these credit hours during the fall semester (in addition to
the one credit hour of Honor 350 you will be taking for the field work class
meetings.)
7. Your email address
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APPENDIX A-2
Honors Program Fieldwork Supervisor Evaluation
Student:
Fieldwork Site:
Address:
Supervisor Completing this Form:
Phone:
Email:
Please feel free to discuss this evaluation with the student. Please return it to:
Dr. Mary Beth Tegan
Honors Program
Saint Xavier University
3700 West 103rd Street
Chicago, IL 60655
If you wish you may e-mail the above data, the numeric score for the 3 quantitative
questions below and your response to the question on the next page to:
Tegan@sxu.edu
I. Please rate the student on the following features as evidenced during the fieldwork
placement:
Above
Below
Average
Average
Average
1. Prompt and reliable
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
(capacity to fulfill commitment
to the organization)
2. Resourcefulness and capacity
to assume responsibility
(able to work effectively and/or
creatively in undertaking projects
and solving problems)
1
2 3
4
5
6
7
8
9
3. Responsiveness (ability to
profit from supervision)
1
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
16
3
II. Please write several paragraphs below, or on a separate attached sheet, describing the
student’s main activities/responsibilities/assignments and the quality of her/his
performance during the fieldwork placement. What strengths did you observe, and what
areas of improvement do you recommend?
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APPENDIX A-3: Senior Honors Project Proposal Form
Date: _______________
1. Name:
_______________________________________________
2. Local Address:
_________________________________________
Phone:
________________________________________________
E-mail:
________________________________________________
3. Major(s): _______________________________________________
4. Project Proposal
a. Title
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
b. Description
(Please attach your 1-3 page proposal and submit with this cover form; indicate in
your proposal if this project is an expansion of work completed for a senior
seminar or senior project in your major)
5. Faculty Mentor Approval
I agree to direct the Honors project described above.
___________________________________________________________________
Signature
Title
Department
Date
6. Second Mentor Approval (if required by the Project)
_________________________________________________________________
Signature
Title
Department
Date
7. Honors Program Director Approval
_______________________________________________
Signature
Date
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APPENDIX A-4: SENIOR PROJECT MID-YEAR
PROGRESS REPORT
Name of Student: ___________________________
Project Title: ___________________________________________________
Student’s Signature: ________________________________________
Faculty Mentor’s Signature: I have read this report and agree that it is an accurate
description of the progress made so far on this project:
_____________________________________________
Mentor’s Signature
Date
(Mid-year progress reports will be presented orally in your Honor 350 class and should
also be turned into the Honors Senior Project Coordinator who teaches the course. Your
mentor should be present for your report and should sign above before your report is
turned in.)
Attach to this form a 2-3 page report that briefly summarizes the stages of your research
or creative project that you have completed or are in the process of completing. Refer to
key findings or “discoveries,” explain any ways in which the project has evolved or
changed since your initial proposal, and mention the problems you have encountered and
how you have solved them. Explain what you plan to do next and your timeline, goals
and deadlines for next semester.
Also attach an annotated bibliography that lists six to ten sources that you have found
most relevant and useful. Write a note for each summarizing it briefly and explaining
how it is related to what you are doing. (This requirement may be adapted for students
doing creative or laboratory projects. See your Honors Senior Project Coordinator if your
project is not consistent with the creation of an annotated bibliography at this point.)
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APPENDIX A-5
Saint Xavier University Undergraduate Honors Program
Mission Statement
The Honors program at Saint Xavier University provides an enriched academic
experience to talented and highly motivated students. It develops skills and nurtures
habits of mind that encourage and enable students independently to pursue knowledge in
their chosen fields and ultimately to advance learning. The program offers students
stimulating Honors Seminars designed around themes of compelling interest, and
provides opportunities for applied internships and group and individual research under
the direction of highly qualified faculty. The program is committed to providing social
and cultural activities that enrich the academic experience and that create a community of
learners among Honors students and faculty. The program advances Saint Xavier
University’s mission to cultivate an appreciation of human diversity, and to channel
abstract knowledge into avenues of service for the human family.
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