The Honors curriculum at Houghton underwent changes this semester. Weekly seminars, and a new, reemphasized, London curriculum are among the latest expansions, along with a proposal for a curriculum aimed at transfer students.
The Honors department’s decision to add weekly seminars materialized from honors students wishing that their first-year experiences did not have to end. Traditionally, first years go through an intense curriculum that doesn’t fit their schedule into their sophomore year. The curriculum’s emphasis has always been on “radically developmental experiences,” said Professor Benjamin Lipscomb, director of honors.
In order to keep the structure of the Honors present through the rest of their college experience, Lipscomb designed weekly seminars so that Honors students could get together and discuss challenging topics. “Students from different tracks and years mix together, studying topics of special interest to the faculty teaching them,” Lipscomb said.
The new London curriculum is also an exciting extension of the honors offerings. While it isn’t the same curriculum it used to be, Honors in London still embodies what study abroad semesters are all about: developmental experiences. “Students gain greatly from settling down in a foreign context for a longer period, from learning to navigate it independently to encountering the resources of world-class galleries and museums,” said Lipscomb.
The semester abroad in London might not have returned if it wasn’t for its powerful appeal to prospective students. No other college does anything like this. “It’s a highly distinctive offering that helps lodge Houghton’s name in the minds of prospective students,” stated Lipscomb. Honors in London gets prospective students to take a closer look at Houghton and the integrated, interdisciplinary curricula that the college has to offer and they could be a part of.
The proposal for Honors curricula intended for transfer students is waiting to be approved for next fall. The first-year curricula could not be used because they are built around the college’s core requirements, which many transfers complete at previous institutions before coming to Houghton. Also, a transfer student is more likely to be in a different place “developmentally and socially,” than a first-year student, said Lipscomb. Thus the need for different course offerings.
The transfer curriculum would entail one six-hour course to be taken in the fall; a little less rigorous compared to first-year students whose curriculum lasts the full academic year. The curriculum combines biblical studies and theology, since those are requirements most transfers have not satisfied yet. Lipscomb said the “Reduced size and the fall semester placement are both acknowledgments of the needs of transfers, as is the pairing of disciplines.”
Ryan Spear, Associate Director of Admissions, thinks that the recent and potential changes to the Honors offerings will benefit current and prospective students. Spear concluded, “Houghton has a great reputation for offering unique learning opportunities and the expansion of our Honors offerings is a great way to reflect this culture.”