HELEN P. DENIT HONORS PROGRAM PROPOSED REVISIONS
P
ROPOSED CHANGES ARE ITALICIZED
Mission statement :
The mission of the Helen P. Denit Honors Program is to prepare our students for the 21 st century by empowering them with the skills and habits of mind necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent world.
Program goals :
Students in the Helen P. Denit Honors Program will learn how to:

Apply knowledge to new issues and questions.

Navigate and act responsibly within and across disciplines, professions, cultures, and communities.

Judge when and how to use technology to work, collaborate, and communicate effectively.
Program description:
The Helen P. Denit Honors Program is designed for students who have demonstrated an interest, willingness, and ability to engage in higher order learning. Through our courses and co-curricular activities, we prepare our students for the 21st century by empowering them with the skills and habits of mind necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent world. We challenge our students to apply knowledge to new issues and questions, teach them to navigate and act responsibly within and across a variety of contexts, and help them to judge when and how to use technology effectively. Our distinctive courses are small and focus on learning by discussing and doing. We encourage student development outside of the classroom by financially supporting students to, among other things, travel to conferences, participate in study abroad, and engage in internships. We also fund student involvement on campus and in the rich cultural life of Baltimore’s midtown and downtown districts. Finally, belonging to the Denit Honors Program provides students with access to the Denit Honors Lounge and all of its resources.
The Helen P. Denit Business Honors Program, a division of the university-wide Helen P.
Denit Honors Program, offers special opportunities for students seeking a career in business, including honors sections of required business courses, exclusive alumni networking events, exceptional internships, field trips to prospective employers, and honors mentors. Within the business honors program, the honors accounting program offers co-curricular programming and activities designed particularly for accounting students.
Admission criteria: (EFFECTIVE FALL 2011)

Students coming to UB from high school with a 3.5 grade point average or a combined score of 1100 on two of the three areas of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are encouraged to apply. Interested high school students who do not meet these criteria but have special circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Students transferring to UB from a community college or other four-year university with a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or higher are encouraged to apply. Interested transfer students who do not meet this criterion but have special circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
All students who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 at the University of
Baltimore are encouraged to apply.
Program completion: (EFFECTIVE FALL 2011)
All students must complete 21 credits [ as opposed to 12; this change was made to reflect that UB is now a four-year institution; see the NCHC’s characteristics of a fully developed honors program: http://www.nchchonors.org/basichonorsprogramcharacteristics.shtml
] coursework to finish the program.
Honors credits may be earned at the University of Baltimore through the following ways:
 Honors sections of existing courses
 Honors contracts within regular courses
 An honors capstone experience
 Approved graduate courses taken as an undergraduate
All students must have a capstone experience—for many this will be through an honors project.
Transfer students may have previous experiences count toward this requirement. These experiences may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Honors transfer credit: transfer of honors credits from an honors program with which the Helen P. Denit Honors Program has an understanding.

Credit for honors-level work experience: to receive consideration, the applicant must submit a reflective essay that articulates why and how the experience meets the honors learning goals. Under no circumstance will students be given more than 9 honors credits toward the 21 honors credits (and these credits do not apply toward graduation requirements).
Course level learning outcomes:
Students in honors courses at the University of Baltimore will achieve the following
learning outcomes:

Applied learning: through ways appropriate for the subject matter and discipline, students will effectively apply what they learn to new contexts, problems, or questions.

Communication: through ways appropriate for the subject matter and discipline, students will express their ideas, solutions, strategies in a relevant and persuasive manner.


Peer-review/teamwork: through ways appropriate for the subject matter and discipline, students will offer constructive feedback in a collaborative and collegial style.
Additionally, honors courses at the University of Baltimore may ask students to achieve
one or more of the following outcomes:

Service learning: through ways appropriate for the subject matter and discipline, students will synthesize course instruction with relevant service to the community.

Global positioning: through ways appropriate for the subject matter and discipline, students will learn attitudes, skills, and knowledge necessary to work across cultures.

Original language of the Helen P. Denit Honors Program (from the 2009-2011 catalog)
Helen P. Denit Honors Program (description)
The Helen P. Denit Honors Program was established by a generous gift from the Helen P. Denit Charitable
Trust in 1993. The Denit Honors Program offers opportunities to liberal arts and business students who are academically talented and highly motivated. Central to the program is student‐centered education; there is more give and take between the student and instructor through smaller, discussion‐oriented classes; greater opportunity for independent research; interesting, enhanced opportunities for creativity and meeting individual goals; challenging seminars that examine current events and debate intellectual questions; as well as honors sections from which to choose when building schedules. The program offers flexibility in how the requirements are met according to scheduling needs of the students. Belonging to the Denit Honors Program provides students with social and cultural opportunities and the use of the
Honors Lounge and its computers. Students transferring to UB with a grade point average of 3.5 or higher are invited to apply for the program. The program will consider on a case‐by‐case basis students below a
3.5 GPA who have had special circumstances. Completion of the Denit Honors Program is noted on the student’s transcript. Honors courses are part of the schedule of classes each semester and are easily identified because the letters HN are part of the section number.
GRADUATION FROM THE HELEN P. DENIT HONORS PROGRAM
A student is eligible to graduate from this program with a minimum of a 3.5 GPA and the completion of 12 semester hours of honors classes (including a capstone project).