Honors College looks ahead to continued growth and success

Growth

This year we brought in the biggest and brightest class in the history of Honors at UAH, and we're on track to bring in even more bright students next year," he says. In fact, the 2016-2017 class is expected to top 300 students, ensuring that the community environment so essential to Honor students' success will continue going forward. "This year's freshmen are signing up in record numbers to mentor next year's class, because they all want to recreate that powerful sense of community they felt when they arrived here last fall."

Key to that sense of community are initiatives like the Honors Service Corps (HSC), the student-led community-service arm of the Honors College founded by Honors students Kaley Doster, Shaylee Green, Benjamin Shea, and Alex Christley. Last fall, the HSC hosted a coffee fundraiser that raised enough money to provide clothes, shoes, necessities, and Christmas gifts for three children in need. And this spring, Corps members not only helped paint 30 rooms for the Red Cross of Huntsville, but they also tutored AP students from local high schools.

Consolidation

This year we brought in the biggest and brightest class in the history of Honors at UAH, and we’re on track to bring in even more bright students next year.

"We have reinforced our gains in the classroom, with this year's greatly expanded Honors curriculum is next year's baseline," says Dr. Wilkerson. "Honors calculus; Honors sections in history, political science, and biology; and our Honors courses in the engineering core are all standard fare now. And starting this fall, we will also be offering special one-credit interdisciplinary seminars, an alternative to the traditional three-hour elective that can often be a challenge for both students and professors to fit into their schedules."

The first offering? Robot Ethics, taught by Dr. Nicholaos Jones, associate professor of philosophy. "The class nearly filled within one hour of registration opening," says Dr. Wilkerson. "Equally exciting, it will be the first course held in the new Honors Seminar Room in Frank Franz Hall." The course will explore ethical norms for the behavior of social robots, including top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out approaches. It will also address what these norms might be, how they might be made amenable to computer coding, and how they might be able to resolve disagreements about their content.

Success

"Over 35% of our incoming freshmen earned a 4.0 in their first semester at UAH," says Dr. Wilkerson. "This is an astonishing accomplishment, given that these students' schedules included calculus, chemistry, Honors composition, and other demanding courses." Overall GPA among Honors students has risen as well, with students taking the initiative to complement their classroom learning by attending prestigious research conferences and becoming leaders in student and Greek life on campus. "Everywhere," he says, "there is buzz about UAH Honors!"