Program selects students with research-oriented career goals
The undergraduate Honors Program at Portland State University serves students who intend to go on to graduate or professional school. The program is designed to prepare a select number of students for research-oriented careers and occupations. The educational approach in the honors college centers around curricular and extracurricular experiences that produce substantial, competitative application portfolios.
Honors students are expected to approach their education with serious purpose and energy. At each step in the curriculum, faculty invite students to reflect on the progress they are making toward their goals.
Introductory course integrates collaborative writing skills
Coursework in the Honors Program typically adds up to roughly one-fourth of a student's baacalaureate requirements. The program begins with a team-taught introductory course, Studies in Western Culture, which involves all faculty participating in the honors college. The course focuses on the culture of science that developed since the 17th century, looking at the way science has been produced historically, and considering the political, social, ethical, and gender biases operating in the scientific community.
Accompanying the introductory course, students are organized in smaller learning teams to pursue their individual writing projects. Faculty work as writing tutors with individual students. Writing is approached as a collaborative process, and each essay is taken through several drafts, with rounds of constructive discussion, comments, and revision. Writing assignments are topical, related to the course, but are also intended as general exercises to develop skills that will be essential in the composition of the baccalaureate thesis in the senior year.
Seminar students learn from visiting scholars
Upper-division honors seminars offer a range of choices that introduce students more closely to specific topics, and increase their sophistication in dealing with complex and significant intellectual issues. The Visiting Scholars Lecture Series, operating since 1976, is closely associated with the honors seminars. The project brings distinguished foreign and domestic scholars for public lectures and a week in residence, when they meet extensively with a small group of honors students in a seminar prepared in advance to benefit from the experience. Written work and oral presentations in the seminars continue to develop a collaborative orientation with faculty.
- List of visiting scholars
Internships nurture working relationships
Many students in the honors college participate in the
junior-year internship project in Washington, D.C., where they
work for an academic term in a clinical or research venue appropriate
to their departmental majors. This experience gives students exposure to the daily life of a laboratory or research institute, and strengthens their
understanding of their chosen career paths. The internship frequently results in powerful working relationships with mentors and supervisors.
Thesis coordinates major field and honors tracks
In their senior year, honors students are typically completing advanced work in their departmental majors, and drawing together work in these majors and in the honors college core curriculum in preparation for the baccalaureate thesis. The thesis project brings students into a close working relationship with senior faculty, beginning in a thesis seminar, where students produce a prospectus for their chosen topic. The final thesis is carefully scrutinized by faculty in both the department and honors college.
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