Two Perspectives on Unrivaled Opportunities

Students find unique benefits, values, and points of belonging in the University of Iowa Honors Program

By Isaac Branch and Abby Jager 

Isaac:

College today is a skeptical decision for many high schoolers, opting for a trade or self-startup seeming much easier. But a college education such as the enriched curriculum of the University of Iowa Honors Program uniquely offers the course selection and experiences to build the next generation of doctors, CEOs, and other professionals.

The University of Iowa Honors Program offers a plethora of honors courses and sections designed to benefit honors students by providing them with smaller class sizes and guided reflection to improve engagement and offer more opportunities for discussion and achievement. With a supportive community, an intentional selection of classes, and a drive 

for something more, students properly experience and benefit from the honors program in unique ways otherwise difficult to achieve.

Mark Archibald, associate director of records, enrollment, and analytics for the honors program, stresses the impact of utilizing and growing from one’s experiences.

“It’s not about a pat on the back,” he said. “It’s about what you directly get to take away from the experience. Your growth, when you can articulate it, is far more powerful than any feedback I could provide.”

It’s this type of experience and introspection employers look for when hiring, and that’s often where the value of honors is — a means to the end of professional development. Anyone who can get the interview can do the job, but who these jobs want is someone who will do their role exceptionally. 

Through reflection, one can look at what they’ve done and positively critique areas where they’ve faltered as well as identify where they’ve grown. Though Iowa offers many exciting courses within honors, its real goal is to promote such depth of thought and perseverance within trials.

“The employer doesn't want to know that you have a diploma, majored in finance, were in the honors program — not really what the employer most cares about,” Archibald said. “They want to know what, as a result of these things, you bring to the position and organization.”

Honors is the way to find that.

Starting in the first semester, Honors Primetime, Introduction to Honors, and a selection of honors first-year seminars offer honors students of all majors a backbone of networking and a true feel for the honors community. Friends across four years start on day one in these courses.

Second year honors students learn to use the powerful tools of reflection and metacognition in Second Year Seminar: Meaning, Motivation and Experiential Learning, taken either fall or spring semester of their second year.

Beyond these courses, the program offers electives oriented toward career-building, including Honors Publications: From Pitch to Print, which gives writing-focused students a chance to get published, and Honors Students and Wellness, which promotes proper work-life balance starting in college. 

In addition to the many honors courses and sections offered through departments, two popular general education courses, Poetics (Taylor's Version) and Classic Cult Cinema, are available strictly to honors students. That’s not to mention the research, internships, and independent studies that Honors promotes as experiential learning, intrinsically valuable to see work pay off in the real world.

Abby:

If you asked an honors student who just walked onto campus for their first class at the University of Iowa why they joined the honors program, they’ll say, “To push myself academically.” 

If you asked a second-year honors student why they were in the honors program, they’ll say, “For the experiential learning opportunities, networking connections, scholarships, and internships.” 

By the end of their time in the honors program, however, the answer changes. They’ll say, “Because it allows me to belong to a community in which I am surrounded by like-minded staff, peers, and mentors where my intellectual curiosity is encouraged and explored and where my ideas are celebrated.” 

As one learns over time, the honors program goes beyond offering valuable opportunities to excel academically. It also offers a community where one can find identity, build connections, and gain access to the opportunities that help one thrive as they follow their individual path. 

The typical honors student is hungry to squeeze all they can out of their education. Yet many wonder what exactly that entails and how the honors program helps make that happen. This is where the honors program steps in, informing students of the programs, resources, and connections available to them that can help give the student direction in pursuing their education to its fullest. 

For many, this pursuit involves meeting with staff members to hash out ideas that might be considered unattainable to some: undertaking research to answer a question that just won’t quit nagging at them, extensive exploration of a topic from class that speaks to them, various initiatives, visions of a future place within a career, project proposals, internship goals--the list goes on and on. 

Dr. Emily Hill, associate director of the honors program, has had many such discussions with students during her time in Iowa City. She expands beyond the scoping list of all the technical benefits the program provides to discuss what she’s learned is at the heart of what the honors program does for students. 

“The honors program is a smaller community at a larger institution, a sub-community, which is hopefully a less intimidating atmosphere that allows you a better chance of getting to know your peers,” Hill said. “It’s important for students to find one, or a few, communities to find identity with and hopefully thrive in. A smaller community is all about relationships.”

The relationships built through this sub-community allow students to take advantage of what the program offers, specifically unique support for students as they progress through their schooling. 

“The program is a safe space to explore ambitions where creativity can thrive, where we can support students thinking outside of the box, to hopefully connect with our students that maybe are either interested or struggling in certain areas,” Hill said. “We’re there to try to make that connection.” 

The honors program aims to encourage students’ intellectual growth, alongside academics. Hill often encourages students to make a little time “to explore things that might bring some balance to their life, or some creativity, like using a side of their brain they don’t usually use right now.” 

“Sometimes that can be scary because maybe it’s not guaranteeing a grade or certain score,” she said. “But those things could feed the human side of someone.

“You’ll be successful no matter what.” Hill concluded. “But if we can enhance that by making sure you’re aware of all these different opportunities — that's what we really, really hope for.”