The Honors Program

Introduction

The Honors Program is one of the characteristics that mark Northwestern Michigan as a quality institution. Through the Honors Program the college is able to provide an enriched educational experience for gifted and talented students. Our college can be proud that it was one of the first community colleges in Michigan to have an Honors Program. The heart of that program is the faculty who invest their time and talent in providing special educational opportunities for our very best students. Without the hard work of the faculty, the Honors Program would not be able to achieve its goal of serving students and enriching their intellectual and personal lives..

Because of the central role the faculty play in the Honors Program, the Honors Office has prepared this pamphlet to help faculty members understand what the Honors Program is, what its goals and requirements are, and how faculty may help students be successful in the Honors Program. The Honors Program serves the students by offering Honors Courses and Honors Contracts, Honors Scholarships and intellectual enrichment through the annual Focus on Faculty speaker series. Brief observations about of each of these programs follows.

Honors Courses and Contracts: The Honors Program offers both Honors courses and enrichment of non-Honors classes by individual Honors Contracts. Most students participate in the Honors Program through Honors Contracts. Each semester the Honors Committee reviews each Honors Contract to make certain that it is filled out correctly and that the contract meets the standards of the program. The obligation for review and analysis of contracts is taken very seriously by the Honors Committee. To facilitate processing of honors contracts, a description of commonly made errors in honors contracts, a copy of the review sheet that the committee uses in evaluating contracts, and a sample Honors Contract is provided.

Honors Scholarships: In addition to offering Honors Classes and Honors Contracts, the Honors Program offers Honors Scholarships to outstanding full and part-time second year students. Information about NMC Honors Scholarships are provided in this pamphlet.

Cultural Enrichment: The Honors Program also offers an annual speaker series called Focus On Faculty which it offers each Spring Semester to faculty, students and the community in cooperation with the Center for Instructional Excellence and the Alpha Rho Pi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Each year the topic of the series is based on the Honors topic which Phi Theta Kappa Honors and National Council of Honors Councils share in common.

The current members of the Honors Committee are:

• Kari Kahler, Honors Director
• Linda Andersen
• Sherry Howard
• Mark Howell
• Mike Jacobson
• Jean Rokos
• Dave Terrell

Each of us thanks you for your help in making the Honors Program a success. Faculty who have participated in the Honors Program have experienced the special gratification that comes from working with very bright students on challenging and mutually interesting intellectual topics. We encourage you to become actively involved in the Honors Program this year.