Honors Program

Socrates began the Western tradition of philosophy and science with the claim that the unexamined life is not worth living. Those students whose curiosity and drive push them to explore new horizons will benefit from the Dominican University honors program in many ways. Here are just a few:

Lively discussions with the best and the brightest fellow students
Distinctive honors seminars with challenging topics taught by outstanding faculty
The Lund-Gill Chair offering honors students the opportunity to study with internationally recognized scholars
The opportunity to participate in the Honors Cultural Chicago Council as it plans events that enrich the honors experience
Special honors sections of courses that meet general curriculum requirements
Utilization of the course intensification option in courses that meet the general curriculum requirements
Enhanced opportunity for language study
Courses that will help prepare students for graduate-level work, including an honors writing course
The opportunity to do a major project in an area of special interest and to present it publicly to the university community
And, explicit recognition of accomplishments in the form of a BA or BS degree with university honors and/or departmental honors.

Challenging Discussions
When she heard Socrates’ claim that the unexamined life is not worth living, Genevieve Charet, a junior in the honors program at Dominican University, did what good students always do. She asked a question. "Isn’t every life worth living?" Socrates was not there to answer her, but her fellow students were, and a lively discussion followed. Are you a student who seeks a challenge? Do you get a sense of accomplishment from asking questions that put the whole issue in a new light? Then Dominican University’s honors program offers you the opportunity to cultivate your strengths.

Distinctive Seminar Topics and Outstanding Faculty
"A teacher should always assume that there is at least one student in the room who surpasses the teacher in both head and heart," said a Dominican University professor. Faculty who teach in the honors program seek students who help push them to new insights as they explore these four topics over the next four years:

Thoughts and Passions
Human Being and Citizen
Human Being and Natural Being
Wisdom and Power

These topics transcend traditional disciplines and majors in order to help participants integrate their knowledge with their experiences of the world. In this endeavor, students and faculty together are guided and challenged by authors like Plato, Shakespeare and Dostoevsky, as well as contemporary writers, who also cut across traditional boundaries.

The Lund-Gill Chair
One of the outstanding opportunities open to students in the honors program at Dominican University allows them to take an honors seminar with an internationally known scholar who joins the Dominican University faculty for one semester. In 2006, Dr. Leon Lederman, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, taught a junior honors seminar. In Spring 2007, Professor David Bevington, a renowned Shakespeare scholar from the University of Chicago, taught a senior honors seminar. The 2008 Chair is Stephen Kinzer, is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. Kinzer's most recent book is Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. He is the author of numerous other books including All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, and Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua. He is currently writing a book about Rwanda and is a columnist for The Guardian. He will teach a course in the honors program in fall 2008.

The Honors Cultural Chicago Council
Getting involved can be one of the most rewarding aspects of the honors program. Each semester, students who participate in the Honors Cultural Chicago Council plan events that encourage students in the honors program to take advantage of the rich resources of the Chicago area and also to be of service to the community. The activities are as various as taking in a Shakespeare play at Navy Pier, going to a Wolves’ game ,or tutoring children at St. Pius Elementary School.

Course Intensification and Foreign Language
In addition to the four honors seminars, several departments make available special honors sections of courses, for example, honors economics. Honors students are required to complete at least two of their general curriculum requirements by taking either an honors section or by using the course intensification option in a course that meets the requirement. Students seeking to graduate with university honors are also required to take at least one year of a foreign language while at Dominican, though this requirement is waived for students who show proficiency at the second-year level of a language (placing into course 211 or equivalent). And, of course, all students in the honors program are urged to participate in Dominican’s numerous opportunities for study abroad.

University Honors and Departmental Honors
An important aspect of the honors program is recognition of your achievement. The bachelor of arts or bachelor of science with university honors in the liberal arts and sciences is awarded to all honors students who complete the four honors seminars as well as two intensified general-curriculum courses and who meet the language requirement. Students may also graduate with departmental honors if they complete an honors project during their junior and senior years. Students who complete the necessary honors courses and also do an honors project can earn both kinds of honors recognition.

The Dominican University honors program offers many more opportunities. For more information, please contact the Honors Director, Professor Ann Charney Colmo, at 708-524-6948 or, by e-mail, at charneca@dom.edu.