How Honors Works

The Math and Theory Behind the Honors Program 

by Bailey Vergara

In those formative first months at honors, many students have more questions than answers. Why do I need twelve hours of experiential learning credits? How soon do I need to start enrolling in honors courses? Why does the Honors Program work like this?

The University of Iowa Honors Program is designed to provide a cohort of like-minded, driven peers for students to connect with and grow alongside. Although community’s not a guarantee, the design of the honors program is, in a way, meant to trick its students into finding their people. 

It’s simple math, as Honors Enrollment Specialist Mark Archibald described.

“If you see somebody in your [honors] Rhetoric class that you then later see in another class, that’s not even a coincidence. That’s statistically probable, and even seeing a person that you recognize is a form of community,” Archibald said. 

Whether the student recognizes it or not, feeling connected to a group has been shown to have a “perfect correlation” with how smoothly they transition into college, Archibald said, and a reason why honors coursework requirements are emphasized to students early on.

Honors coursework also offers students the opportunity to practice metacognitive skills to help them in future classes and experiences. 

Classes like Honors Second-Year Seminar introduce students to the three phases of metacognition—planning, monitoring, and evaluating—which involves reflecting on an experience before, during, and after it happens.

Pre-experience questionnaires and post-experience reflections are required to obtain honors experiential learning credit from activities such as study abroad, research, or leadership. They serve as the planning and evaluating stages of metacognition, respectively. 

Honors Program Director Dr. Shaun Vecera places a special importance on this periodic reflection when guiding students through the honors program.

“It helps you be a little more intentional about what you’re doing and why you do it,” Vecera said, “which is one reason that we ask students to fill out that pre-experience survey.”

While these reflections may seem like simple benchmarks to assess whether or not an experience was completed, Dr. Vecera asserted that they also serve as a way for students to connect experiences with their professional and personal goals.

Fourth-year honors student Ellie Wojcikowski said that periodic reflection has helped her reevaluate her career goals as a neuroscience major. 

In addition to working in several neuroscience labs, Wojcikowski is a peer mentor and resident assistant. During her time in honors, she reflected on how much she valued those human connections, which led her to make an unexpected change. 

“The idea of getting away from that [human connection] and just being in a lab made me a little sad, and it made me rethink the path I wanted to pursue,” Wojcikowski said. “So I’ll be starting my master’s in social work at the university this upcoming fall.”

Honors requirements are typically frontloaded in the first two semesters to give more space for third- and fourth-year students like Wojcikowski to embark on individually driven experiential learning opportunities. According to Mark Archibald, it’s perfectly normal for students to take on fewer honors-specific classes and experiences in their last few years.

“By the time you’re a junior, we’re imagining that you’re doing the things that make sense for your discipline, for your goals, for your major, that we no longer have any say over or part in,” Archibald affirmed. “But we want you to be doing that thing based on how you learn to be a student at Iowa, from your Honors experience.”

Both Dr. Vecera and Archibald agree that the University of Iowa Honors Program serves as a springboard for motivated students to put their future lives into motion, a place to practice before the real deal.

“We don’t put courses together just to put courses together,” Vecera said. “The whole point […] is to really engage students in some of that doing.”