Dear Incoming Honors Students,

Welcome to the University of Iowa and to the Honors Program community! 

This Orientation Guide is intended as both a welcome and a starting point for your honors experience. Inside, you’ll find articles about almost every aspect of our program, from first-year seminars to Honors Primetime to alumni stories. Check out “Two Perspectives on Unrivaled Opportunities” to hear how students experience Iowa’s Honors Program. Spoiler: Most students end up recognizing that honors is a community that helps you find your people. Or, as I have said at countless admissions events, we’ll be the first, or one of the first, homes that you’ll have on campus.

If you attended one of those admissions events, you might have also heard that honors is not meant to be harder or to involve more work. Honors is here for enrichment, which is deeply intertwined with the community that honors helps to create. In this Orientation Guide, there are many examples of how community enriches your college experience. For a starting place, see “More Engaging and Less Lonely: The Big Effects of a Small Seminar,” “Building Community through Honors Primetime,” and “Beyond the Lecture Hall,” which each highlight how honors courses and experiences are central to students in the program.

Another way honors enriches your time at Iowa is with exploration and reflection. It’s easy to take a transactional view of college and “tick off the boxes,” doing only what you need to get a grade or a degree. You do need to do certain things to get a grade or earn a degree, but your time at Iowa should be more. The Honors Program helps with that more by encouraging exploration—learning new things and trying new activities, as can happen with experiential learning—and with transformation—where you learn to reflect on and question yourself so that you’re open to personal growth, which you’ll see in many honors courses.

The Honors Program staff and I look forward to seeing you on campus in August. When you’re moved in, make sure to visit our spaces on the third and fourth floors of the Blank Honors Center (BHC). Our staff offices are located on the fourth floor, so please stop by to say hello! Our space also includes convenient study areas that are quiet, comfortable, and close to the heart of campus.

I hope that your move to campus goes smoothly. Please feel free to email me (shaun-vecera@uiowa.edu) with questions you might have about the program. But also email if you’d like to hear about my research, undergraduate research more broadly, my experience as a first-generation college student, or my favorite tree on campus. 

You can also direct any questions you have to honors-program@uiowa.edu, or visit our website (honors.uiowa.edu) for more information.

Sincerely,

Shaun Vecera

shaun-vecera@uiowa.edu

   Director, University of Iowa Honors Program

   Professor, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences