Using an honors program to engage undergraduate students in research.

UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAMS ATTRACT ACADEMICALLY STRONG, MOTIVATED STUDENTS WHO SEEK THE CHALLENGES OF A RIGOROUS PROGRAM OF STUDY AND ARE STRIVING TO MAXIMIZE THEIR POTENTIAL. The benefits of honors involvement are great. Along with the recognition students receive, honors work offers a sense of community; specialized advising for scholarships, fellowships, and internships; priority course registration; extracurricular events and activities; potential international experiences; private library study carrels; and creative enrichment activities and research. Class sizes are smaller and students work one-on-one with faculty in their majors, all at no extra cost. Undergraduate honors programs are one of three research enrichment models explored by Vessey and DeMarco (2008), who specifically reviewed the literature and websites of nursing honors programs and found that all "are developed to foster creativity and intellectual curiosity in high-achieving students" (p. 359). The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where we are employed, is home of the Lloyd International Honors College (LIHC). For incoming freshmen, a high school grade point average (GPA) of 3.8 is required for admission to the LIHC; for current students, a GPA of 3.3 is required. Acceptance enables students to register for honors courses that emphasize advanced and independent course work toward a deeper understanding of course material. Achieving this goal means more research, more writing, and more hands-on practical work than standard course work. Disciplinary honors work (in the student's discipline or major), completed during the junior and senior years, requires a minimum of nine credit hours of course work in the major, as well as a three-credit-hour senior honors project. In the junior year, honors students often complete a course enrichment activity, including presentation of the activity to faculty and class mates. As seniors, they engage in independent study or an undergraduate research assistantship. Each school or college in the university has a faculty liaison to the LIHC, who is the school's contact for all student inquiries about combining honors work with the chosen major. The faculty liaison also assists and advises students at all levels, from those seeking information about honors to seniors almost ready to graduate. Honors liaisons are familiar with the specific requirements of the program; they are also aware of fellow faculty members' interests and know which faculty are willing and able to work with undergraduate students. Finding an Area of Interest Approximately half of all prenursing students who apply in the spring to the clinical nursing program are selected to start the program in the fall. After they learn of their acceptance during spring break, students are invited to an "honors informational invitational," where current honors students share their work (presentation practice), and details of the honors college are presented. Some students know their area(s) of interest, but most need assistance in narrowing down a specific area. Brainstorming sessions, facilitated by a faculty member, are extremely helpful for exploring topics or areas of interest that can be developed into a junior-year enrichment activity or senior honors project. Initially, students are encouraged to skim through their text chapter titles or index to see if they find a topic of interest. The decision about the topic is their own; they must own it and love it. The more passionate a student is about the topic, the less the creative enrichment project feels like work and the more it seems like a study break. We have found that guiding students in a personal exploration of what excites and motivates them generates energy for both faculty and students. The Honors Contract Junior-level enrichment activity course work is completed through an honors contract. Students contract with faculty to incorporate an enrichment activity into two of their four five-semester-hour courses to gain honors credit. …