Thirty-two WSC seniors will finish the honor program this spring after presenting their research papers to David Bohnert.
Lisa Nelson, the honors advisor, gave insight on how to be able to join the honor society. “Current students attending WSC only need a 3.3 or higher GPA to join the program.” Nelson said.
After joining the honor society students need to take 6 or 12 honor class credits freshman and sophomore year and then the second step is to complete a two semester long research project junior and senior year.
Lisa Nelson, the honor society’s advisor, can help balance the honor credits throughout the first semester and then after completing all the required credits, students then have to complete a two-semester long research project. “Students are able to choose a teacher that they know to meet with once a month to help with the research paper,” Nelson said
The required credits students need to take are gen ed classes that also count as the honor society classes one needs to take. “After students take those credits, junior and senior year they have to take 395 and 499,” Bohnert said. “The 395 is the class number for the first semester and in this class, students learn how to do the research and literally review for the project. The 499 class is the second semester class, and in this class, students do the writing of the paper and presenting.”
These papers can be about anything.Most people go with topics that are close to their major so they can have a teacher they know become their advisor. “These papers are created over two semesters, and when students are done with writing the paper, it can be about 20 pages long. The performances aren’t over the whole paper, the students usually summaries the things they learned while writing the paper,” Bohnert said.
Students have to present in front of David Bohnert and their advisor during the last two days in May before finals occur. “The crowds that watch the students can be their choosing, they can have just Bohnert and their advisor listen to them or they can invite all their friends and families to come and watch their performance,” Nelson said. Even though David Bohnert is the Dean of the school of Arts and Humanities, he is also the head of the honors program, so he watches the performances to see what the Honor Students learned over course of these classes while the advisor you choose grades your paper.
There are many benefits of joining the honors program. “Students have to work hard and overcome academic challenges, and it prepares them with some critical thinking skills to be civic-minded to participate in society.” Bohnert said. Some other skills students gain is learning communication. “Certain students are able to participate in the National Collegiate Honors Council, “ Bohnert said. “It is a national organization of honors programs from a lot of universities. That organization has a conference every year we sometimes send students to. But they also hold a summer program called Partners in the Park, and almost every summer, we have one student that goes on this excursion.”
After Bohnert watches the performances and sees how much the students have grown from this program, students also have their performances graded by their advisor. When the students pass the class, they are rewarded with an honor cord to wear during graduation.