Wilkes Honors Program

Wilkes University Honors Program students

Wilkes University Honors Program students

Our Mission

The mission of the Wilkes University Honors Program is to recruit and retain exceptionally talented and highly motivated students by providing an enhanced interdisciplinary educational experience, which will drive intellectual, professional, and personal achievement. Additionally, the Wilkes University Honors Program raises academic expectations and greatly improves the institution's culture and that of the surrounding community.

Are you...

  • Self-directed and self-motivated?
  • Ambitious in welcoming challenges?
  • Curious and eager to learn about the world around you?
  • Open to encountering the unfamiliar, with all of its risks and rewards?

Then you will find the Wilkes University Honors community a welcome home. As a Wilkes Honors Program student, you will benefit from educational opportunities that enhance your intellectual, personal and professional development; your participation in the Wilkes campus community; and your preparation for post-graduation success.

Honors components enable students to pursue breadth, depth, complexity and/or interdisciplinary within their undergraduate education.

The Honors Program Cultivates Opportunities for...

  • independent work, including research or creative performance;
  • experiential learning, including study abroad or internships; and
  • engagement with the unfamiliar, including people, places or ideas new to the student.

Specific Opportunities

  • Honors coursework that rewards ambition for more expansive academic challenges.
  • $1000 housing grant for all four years
  • Grant funding to support study abroad, research, internship, conference and similar co-curricular experiences outside of class.
  • Educational stipends the first year to support new educational needs
  • Honors housing for first-year residential honors students to build connections among those of different backgrounds and interests.
  • Preferential course selection to support honors students’ ambitions when registering for classes.
  • No additional cost for course overload related to honors work to ease students’ pursuit of their academic ambitions.
  • Social events such as field trips, dinners and access to notable speakers to connect students with each other and with new experiences and potential mentors beyond campus.
  • Special notation on transcript and recognition at Commencement.

Skills Developed

Through these opportunities, students develop the following skills:

  • Critical thinking (ability to make evidence-based arguments and judgments).
  • Meta-awareness (thinking not only about what is happening, but also about how and why it is happening, in order to act purposefully).
  • Comfort with ambiguity, uncertainty and the unfamiliar.
  • Problem solving.
  • Project management.
  • Clear and persuasive writing.
  • Clear and persuasive oral presentation.

Benefits of Skills

  • Intellectual, personal and professional development.
  • Contributions to the campus community.
  • Post-graduate success, whether through employment or continued education.

Our program partners with faculty, departments and schools and colleges across campus that foster independent research and innovative ideas, study abroad and internship support and other initiatives to build friendships, provide mentoring and link tomorrow’s leaders with those of today.

We embrace the Wilkes University values

  • Mentorship
  • Scholarship
  • Diversity
  • Innovation
  • Community

And Also Emphasizes Our Own Values

  • Leadership
  • Integrity
  • Self-awareness
  • Academic distinction

We seek individuals committed to these values in their educational, personal and professional pursuits. Explore our website to gain additional insight into our program and our community. For further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Listen to Our Podcast!

Still not sure if the Honors Program is for you? Learn more about the program from our Honors student-led Podcast, The Untold Stories of Wilkes University with host Lindsey Scorey '23 and HPSC members Mel Fouts '23 and Kaelin Hughes '24!

Listen on Spotify! external website

Contact

  • Honors Office:
    SLC 262
  • Honors Lounge:
    SLC 258
  • Honors Classroom:
    SLC 260