Honors College Praxis Labs draw students from all disciplines to collaborate on innovative project-based solutions to pressing societal challenges. Under the guidance of distinguished faculty and community leaders, you and your colleagues analyze your topic through in-depth classroom and field research such as lectures, panels, one-on-one interviews, readings, and off-campus trips. After problems have been identified and solutions developed, you will work together to put your ideas into action in the community. Topics vary each year but fall under our three focus areas of Health & Society, Energy & Environment, and Social Justice.
Honors Integrated Minors provide a structured pathway to completing the Honors Degree, built around a common theme and shared with a cohort of peers. Students from any major may earn the minor by taking a total of six courses in the humanities, social sciences, arts, and natural sciences over consecutive semesters. Students who successfully complete the Minor will have completed the majority of the requirements for the Honors Degree.
Honors students can gain valuable international experience at the U Asia Campus in Incheon South Korea. Students from the Salt Lake City campus pay the in-state rate when they attend the U Asia Campus. Housing is available with single and double rooms located right next to the U's academic building. Honors and U courses are taught by U faculty. The application deadline for the Spring semester is November 1. Apply through Learning Abroad or contact Aaron Reynolds a.reynolds@honors.utah.edu for more information.
CHARGE (Cohort-based Honors Academic and Residential Growth Experience)
The CHARGE program connects students with faculty members, fellow students, and peer mentors, engaging in conversation about critical issues facing society and about your developing ideas. This two-semester course series aims to inspire and equip first-year Honors students to engage in a foundational liberal arts and science education at the University of Utah and to prepare for lives of ethically grounded leadership and service to the world-both human and more-than-human. This program fulfills the first-year learning community requirement and also accumulates 3 credits toward your Honors degree.
Have you always wanted to write a book? HONOR 3850 is your chance! During this year-long course, Dr. Michael Gills will guide you as you complete a novel and have it considered for publication by a professional publishing house.
The Honors College at the University of Utah names an annual L. Jackson Newell Fellow in the Liberal Arts and Sciences each year. The award is named for L. Jackson Newell who served as the Dean of Liberal Education (Undergraduate Studies) at the University of Utah for sixteen years, as President of Deep Springs College for nine years, and has spent a lifetime helping students, from all walks of life, engage with a life of the mind.
In the spirit of Jack’s lifelong contributions to liberal arts and sciences education, this fellowship rotates among colleges, where a selected faculty member serves as the L. Jackson Newell Fellow, delivering a lecture to the Honors College Community. The series provides a stage for faculty at the University with exemplary records of scholarship in their area of expertise, but also the capacity to present their work in ways that demonstrate the timeliness, relevance, and dynamic contributions of the liberal arts and sciences tradition to public discourse.
Each year students nominate and vote for a professor to be recognized for the Sweet Candy Company Distinguished Honors Professorship. This award allows our students to recognize a professor who has made a significant difference in their lives. To our faculty, this award is the most meaningful representation of student gratitude. In Honors, it has become a tradition for the recipient of the Sweet Candy Company Distinguished Honors Professorship award to speak at the Honors graduation luncheon.
The Honors College has an official voice for students of which you should be aware: the Honors Student Advisory Committee (HSAC). This group works towards connecting students with faculty and staff to foster communication, influence Honors College policy, and take action items related to a host of academic and social opportunities in the Honors College. HSAC meets twice a month on Mondays from 6:30-8:00 p.m.