Beautiful picture of Walters Hall on UC Blue Ash College Campus.
What is it?
The Honors Program is brand new at UCBA. It just started the Fall of 2017 with the first class of Honors students. The UCBA Honors Program is for students that want to challenge themselves.
Honors students get so many amazing opportunities. Honors students get academic rigor in honors designed classes with other honors students. They also get the opportunity to be the first to register for classes each semester. Students get leadership experience like becoming an Honors Program Ambassador. Each student gets a $500 scholarship per semester.
Experiences!
Honors students get to partake in experiences. Experiences range from Honors seminars to study abroad. Some of the experiences are listed below:
Honors seminars:
The most common experience that Honors students do are the honors seminars. Honors seminars are classes that honors students can take. The classes are set up to only include honors students and account for an experience. An example is the Honors Intermediate Composition class, where students dive deep into discourse community and get to write journalistic articles for The Activist. A UCBA second year honors student said, “I am not an English major, but I fell in love in English through the Honors Intermediate Comp class.”
Research:
Students get the chance to work with UCBA faculty and staff to gain research experience in different fields. Multiple biology students got to do a biology research study the summer of 2018 with crayfish.
Leadership:
Being a UCBA Student Ambassador or Major Mentor counts for an experience. Another unique opportunity is to participate in the Leadershape retreat. This is a retreat for University Honors Program students on the Clifton campus, but Blue Ash honors students are encouraged to attend! It is a six day leadership conference, where honors students can make new friendships and learn beneficial leadership skills. “I did Leadershape a couple of months back, and I use the leadership experiences I learned and am still in contact with the friends I made,” said a UCBA 2nd year Honors student of the experience.
Study Abroad:
The study abroad opportunities count as experiences. The study abroad trips through UCBA are affordable and honors students can even compete for honors based scholarships.
Create Your Own:
Honors students can design their own experience by making sure that it can count as an experience by describing the plan to an honors advisor.
Reflection
In the Intro to Honors course, which is a course all students in the Honors Program are require to take, students make a learning portfolio. In this learning portfolio, honors students customize it the way they want and are able to reflect through the honors program.
How do I apply?
To apply to be a part of the UCBA Honors Program, a 25 ACT score and 3.2 GPA is needed for freshmen interested. Current freshmen can also apply for the upcoming fall semester if they have a 3.2 GPA. Applications are due May 1s.
For more information, see the UCBA Honors Program page.
For questions contact the Acting Honors Director
Brenda Refaei
