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 that present almost every aspect of our program, from Honors Primetime to scholarships to Honors Program events. A common theme across many of the articles is the connection—the community—that honors students form with each other in their first year. Honors helps you find your people when you land on campus and face new adventures. As I’ve 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 also might have 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. 

You might be skeptical of an honors program director telling you that honors isn’t meant to be harder or to require more work. So, take it from Sophia Gregorio and Kaitlyn Brustkern, who have an article in this guide on the requirements for the Honors Program. Sophia and Kaitlyn write that “honors credits complement and enhance an already developing college plan,” a line that nicely captures our approach to honors. Inside you’ll also hear from Mia Edison and Daniel Fuentes on how to find your path in honors. Their article highlights the benefits of honors coursework and how honors courses help build community.

The honors community emerges outside coursework, too. In this guide you’ll also see some nice examples of how the honors community contributes to your college experience. For a starting place, see “Put Your Worries to Bed” by Jacob Wynkoop, who showcases the honors floor in Catlett and events hosted by the Honors Program. You’ll hear more about those events in your Intro to Honors, HONR:1000, course. You can also read about a few in Pepper William’s article on “Trying New Things.”

Remember, though, that there are many other experiences that you can have through honors. Some will be academic, like your honors Rhetoric section or a first-year seminar; some will involve outside activities, such as undergraduate research; and some will be fun and recreational, like visiting the Iowa City Farmer’s Market with a group of other honors students. You can read about some of those experiences in Blanche Nery’s “Fall Semester Bucket List,” and Jenna Crowley’s and Nolan Barrett’s “Certificates and Sports Clubs.”

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