What is the BU Honors Program?
Photo by Rampage student photographer Natalie Burgess.
The Bluefield University Honors Program strives to help academically gifted students develop superior skills in independent and creative thinking, as well as educate these students in a way that develops skills that promote the program’s main goal of making the world a better place.
The Honors Program offers exclusive opportunities for participating students and strives to help those students excel with a more challenging academic experience than that of a regular Bluefield University student.
“This is a program for academically gifted students to take specialized classes and make friends in their cohorts,” said Dr. Joshua Pittman, assistant professor of English and a member of the Honors Committee.
The goal of the program is to hone students’ analytical thinking, writing, and research skills. In addition to a scholarship, Dr. Pittman said Honors students receive several exclusive opportunities and benefits.
“They get to take interesting courses in place of regular general education courses,” he said. “In their junior and senior years, they take seminar courses that allow high-level study of particular disciplines.”
Dr. Tracey Stout, another member of the Honors Committee, added that Honors students get to take trips for “educational or cultural enrichment” and take exclusive courses only available to Honors students. Past Honors courses have included Honors Biology, Honors Christian Studies, Honors English (with concentrations in Literature of the Quest, Arthurian Literature, Religion and Literature, Literature and Healing, and Mythology), Honors History, Honors Psychology, and Honors Speech.
“My favorite course by far was Arthurian Legend (also known as Arthurian Literature), which is taught by Dr. Pittman,” said BU Honors student Macy McBride about some of her favorite Honors courses. “I found this course extremely intriguing because it was a topic that I enjoyed talking about during class discussions, and Dr. Pittman was able to instruct us in a way that made the learning environment very enjoyable.”
Students who are interested in becoming an Honors student have multiple options to apply.
“Students who apply to the University with the GPA, SAT, and class rank requirements are invited to join,” Dr. Stout said. “If they are interested, they are given an application for the Honors Program to send in.”
Students also can apply to the program online as long as they meet certain requirements, such as an ACT score of 25 or an SAT score of 1150, be eligible for the BU Presidential Scholarship, rank in the top 20 percent of their high school graduating class, and have a high school GPA of 3.5 or above. Applicants must also write four essays.
Students in the Honors Program are required to take 18-19 credit hours of Honors general education courses, three credits of Honors Junior Seminar, and one credit of Honors Senior Seminar.
“The other main responsibilities are about doing the level of work in the program,” Dr. Stout said about the responsibilities of a BU Honors student. “They have to be self-motivated and keep a certain GPA in the program.”
McBride said the added workload is challenging and does require not only self-motivation but also time management.
“With my busy schedule, I find it challenging sometimes to put aside time to keep up with the course load,” she said, “but with good time management skills, any student has the ability to succeed within the Honors Program.”
Despite the challenges, McBride said the program is worth the effort.
“It is a great opportunity to take these classes and become more and more educated on a daily basis in a high-level learning environment,” she said. “My advice to (students) would be to put your best effort into the program so that you can get the most out of it and most of all to enjoy it.”
No matter the outcome, though, the Honors Program will help students develop superior skills in independent and creative thinking all while promoting the program’s main goal of making the world a better place.