A Heady Environment
Honors Program fosters learning, creativity and community service

If Honors Program Director Maude Bigford isn't in her office in Helen Ferris Hall, you might find her on the campus quad watching an improvisational theatre piece by “Thimble Full of Theatre”—a troupe whose actors are all Honors students.
“One guy wears a black and white cow costume, and the other two are in purple jumpsuits,” Bigford explains. “And then there’s a girl who’s dressed like a hamburger. One day the head of fraternities on campus thought they were involved in hazing and chased them around campus.”
It’s all part of the Honors Program requirements. Joining a campus club or organization, that is—not necessarily dressing up as a Holstein.
Honors students also must maintain a grade point average of 3.25, commit to 15 hours of community service each semester, attend at least three cultural events per semester and assume a leadership position in a student organization by their senior year.
Even then, Bigford thinks the students can do more.
“The next thing I’m going to encourage is international travel and attendance at nation-wide conferences,” Bigford says. “About a dozen Honors students went to Europe last summer. They recorded their trip from start to finish. Television Production Professor Clayton Rye, who also went, edited the tapes into a movie that we will show to freshmen to urge them to travel.”

Knocking on Honors’ Door
Since its inception in 1997, enrollment in the Honors Program has almost tripled, from 133 students housed in Helen Ferris Hall to 375 students in three different residence halls—Helen Ferris, Carlisle and Henderson. Requiring Honors students to live in dedicated halls during at least their freshman and sophomore years is an important part of the program’s success.
“The Honors Program works because we support these students, who are scholars and need a scholarly environment,” Bigford says. “Even when they move off campus, they basically create Honors houses because they move with their suitemates and friends from their hall.”
This fall, Honors had to turn away students. The program also has a waiting list of 30 students, most of whom will get into the program in December due to students graduating, interning or transferring. With a retention rate of approximately 97 percent for freshmen, open spots are highly coveted. And now that Honors Program graduate Carrie Zeigler is representing the University as a student recruiter, it’s unlikely that waiting list will dwindle any time soon.
Honors students share certain characteristics—being goal-oriented and driven, among them. The average incoming grade point average in Honors is 3.9, and the program annually accepts about 17 high-school valedictorians into its ranks. Still, students bring those skills to bear on a wide spectrum of endeavors - this year, Honors students enrolled in 70 different majors.

Three early graduates of Honors embody a great range of interests. They represent the Honors Program as a whole—a group of young scholars who are, it’s fair to say, the cream of the crop. Click on their picture to hear their stories.

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