University Honors Program Overview and Student Panel

Alright students, welcome. We're excited to have you all joining us here today. Um, alright.

Looks like we have quite a few people tuning in, but we will give it just a couple more moments as people are getting their connections established. It looks like we do have someone from New York. We have someone tuning in from Brazil, Texas, California, Colorado, so let's see Nebraska a lot of different places are representing today. I love to see it. Thank you all so much for tuning in so we will get started here in just a couple of moments.

As people are still trickling in here, let's see if there's anybody else Ohio.

Arizona welcome excited to have you all OK cool so we're going to go ahead and get started. I'll just begins by introducing myself so my name is Ray Hecht, and my pronouns are he him. His I'm an admission counselor here at Colorado State University. So basically my job is just to meet with interested students and families answer questions be a point of contact and specifically some of the different groups that I work with I have.

Territory of students that I work closely with, both in state and out of state. So my in state territory is the western slopes of Colorado and out of state. I have the Midwest area so shout out if you're coming from one of those areas. I'm your admission counselor. I'd love to meet you sometime. Feel free to send me an email or a text. All my information is on the website, so with That being said, now let's cover just a couple of different like housekeeping items, things that you all can be expecting throughout the presentation.

Today, so the first thing is what today is going to look like? We are going to be doing a presentation for about 15 minutes just taking a broad general look at the honors program and what the application process to honors looks like. I will say you all can feel free to utilize the chat function throughout the presentation so the chat should be up and running as we're going through. If there's questions that you have about anything or anything that we don't get a chance to cover, go ahead and drop those questions in the chat.

We will have some folks answering those questions and then once I wrap up with the presentation, we're going to have two current CSU students that are in the Honors Program. Annan honors program alarm that's going to join us, and so you'll get to hear that student perspective what it's actually like to go through the honors program so they will be answering your questions as well. So with That being said, the next thing is closed captioning should be on, so feel free to follow along that way if you would like and then finally, please bear with us if there's any issues.

With Technology, I think right now the whole world is trying to work online. Connection can be an issue sometimes. So if we have any issues, Please be patient. Try to get try to get reconnected as quickly as possible. Also I do want to let you know that if you're using a browser other than Google Chrome, you might experience some issues. Chrome does generally seem to run this best, so if you're able to switch over, that might be the best option for you. So with housekeeping taking care of now we're going to transition.

Into starting the presentation. So first students, I just want to say we really miss you. We miss being able to host you on campus to get to take you on tour and share all of the information in person. We're really looking forward to the day that it's safe enough to do that again, and for a presentation like this or covering anything like honors, generally that's what we'd like to do an whenever we host an event or presentation on campus, we always start with our land acknowledgement video.

So as a University, when we consider our mission, when we consider how we're going to be serving students, it's really important for us to stop and recognize that CSU is not the original stewards of the land that were on. So that's why we show the landing knowledgement video. And today I'm going to be sharing my screen and you will have a chance to view that. I do want to preface that we have had some issues with the technology there, so the audio is not been working for the video, but closed captioning will be on so you can follow along that way. Also, I will share the link.

In the chat, so I would encourage you if you have some times that you can go back and watch that whenever you have a chance, so I'll go ahead and share my screen.

All right, so thank you all for watching the video. I did just drop the link there in the chat. So like I said, feel free to revisit that and watch that with the audio working whenever you get a chance. So we do really strive as you saw in the video to serve our students and try to offer as many opportunities as possible for them. So one of the opportunities that we have to offer thing.

Things that we're going to be taking a closer look at today so.

Now my screen is frozen right now, so can you all let me know if the video is still working?

Looks like the video is still working. Hopefully the audio is working. If I'm unable to manage the slides and I might have to refresh so we might momentarily lose connection after this slide. Right now I'm going to go ahead and continue the very first thing that we are going to check with our discuss with the honors program is that first and foremost is interdisciplinary. So what's really important about that is, regardless of what major you're studying on campus, whether that's something that's going to be more stimulated. So science, technology, engineering and math.

All the way over to something that's going to be maybe a little bit more literature arts based regardless of what you're planning to study, there are lots of different opportunities within the honors program, and the skills are going to be transferable no matter what you decide to pursue after college.

So some of the different skills that we're really going to prioritize are going to be critical thinking skills. There's going to be a lot of emphasis on creativity and problem solving on professionalism and then also on effective communication skills. So practically what that looks like for you all inside the classroom is going to be collaboration with other students collaboration with faculty members might include doing a presentation or a speech to really practice on those public speaking skills.

So we want to make sure that regardless of what major you're focusing on or what program you're studying at CSU, that you're going to be able to take those skills and use those after you complete your undergrad.

So there's a lot of different features that we used to equip students with these skills, so now we're going to look at the different features that we have available.

Alright, I think I'm back. Can you let me know in the chat if that's the case?

OK, cool, looks like I'm back. I'm working sorry about that and thank you for your patience. So now we're going to continue on with just highlighting some of the different features of the honors program. So the very first feature is going to be the discussion based seminars. So the seminar classes were going to talk a lot more about these here in a little bit, but they are going to be really just like the building blocks of the Honors Program. They're going to be smaller size classes, generally capped around 20 students, and they're going to give you an opportunity to really dive into a variety of different topics.

We'll take a closer look at those in a moment, so after the discussion based seminars below that, you'll see that we have the honor sections of classes. So for your major, there's a lot of different classes that are going to be required and there is an honors component for that requirement, and so those honor sections generally just like the seminars they're going to be capped at around 20 students, so generally there going to be a little bit smaller and less. You're taking the biology course which.

Is usually at higher demand, so that might be capped it a little closer to 40. There is a second option though if there's not that honors section of the class, you might be in a non honors lecture section and then you would have a call back or a recitation throughout the week where you are able to fulfill that honors requirement. Then below that another feature of the program is priority registration with the exception of your very first semester. So for your first semester you will schedule those classes at orientation as an incoming student.

For all the other semesters you do get priority registration. Then we have the residential learning communities. So as a student, you do have an opportunity to be apart of the honors residential learning community. Now is not a requirement. You don't have to be in the community, but it is an option available to you. And there are two different building options. The first one is academic village. The second one is going to be Edwards Hall. So with academic village and Edwards all the reason why there's two different options so that there's two different price points.

And two different room and restroom layouts. So the first one for academic village. That's going to be the sweet style layout. So for that way out, you're going to have two people in one bathroom are excuse me in one room then you're going to have a connecting bathroom over to an identical room with two people. There's four people are going to share the bathroom and then over on the other side for Edwards Hall, that's going to be more of the community style where folks on one for going to be sharing one bathroom. So couple different options there. And like I said, it's not a requirement.

If you are in the Honors Program, you can be a part of a different residence Hall or even the different residential learning community. Then we do have the honor scholarship. So if you are part of the program, you do get a $1000 annual scholarship for up to four years. Then you do have increased opportunities for leadership and research on campus, and so those can involve the honor student Association, which really prioritizes service learning and community service out in the Fort Collins community.

We have honors of pure mentors. We also have honors ambassadors and then over on the restart research side you can be part of the honors undergraduate research scholars, which really gives you more opportunities to have access to research and build connections with faculty members. Then finally, for all of your hard work you do also get recognition on your diploma and your transcript.

So next, we're going to talk about the two flexible curriculum available within the honors program. So the first one that we have available is track one, which is the entering student pass. So for most of you all, as incoming students out of high school, this is going to be the path that you're going to be in, so the priority that we're really going to emphasize within track one is going to be those honor seminars, so these are not additional classes that you're going to be taking on top of your major requirements, but instead.

Those honors seminar classes are going to be a substitution for some of the All Cork, all University, core curriculum, and so we'll see a further breakdown of that on the next slide. But the track two is a little bit different. These are for are transferring or continuing students. So for transfer students. If you started at a different institution then you come to CSU and you're interested in honors, this would be the path for you. Or if you start at CSU, you're not initially and honors, but it's an interest you have later on.

All right, hi everyone, my name is Ellie form and I am and it also an admissions counselor here in the office of admissions. It looks like unfortunately Ray is having some Internet connection issues at home, so I'm going to jump in and keep us going on this presentation just so we can keep getting that information. If you want to go ahead and let me know that you can see and hear me, OK, I'll keep going.

Having a little bit about track. Two uhm, I know that Ray was talking about how this is another option about how if you're coming into CSU as a transfer student or you didn't start during your first year, you could take this track. This can also be an option for a very small percentage of 1st year students who maybe went to a early college type of programs you come in with your associates at the same time you're entering as a freshman and you take more of the honors options or honor sections of courses in your major instead of the Honors Seminars. So that way you're not having to do double duty on your general education. All University curriculum type.

Of course, is, so we're going to go ahead and switch over here looking at track. The track for track one students. Are you able to see as I change slides? I just want to make sure that we're catching everybody as we switch over here a little bit.

Let me know if you can see where it says entering student path track one.

No, I have one open one. Yes, yes we can know that's interesting that some of you can, and some of you cannot.

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Track two if you wanna switch the slide over and do the entering student path track one.

Yeah, absolutely thank you for stepping in an I'm sorry everybody for losing connection but we will continue on OK so our next track. Our next slide is talking a little bit more about track one so Eli was able to detail a little bit more about track two and for most of you all since you will be entering into track one we wanted to break that down in a little bit more detail for you. So the first thing that you'll see in that top box.

Is the the five different seminar classes that students are required to take so the first year you'll notice that you will be taking two seminar classes and then after that you just take one seminar class per year then and you'll see for that substitution, the first box out on the bottom, that all University core curriculum. That's what you're substituting in for. So it's things like intermediate writing, arts and Humanities, historical perspectives, things of that nature. So below.

The seminar classes you will see that there are honors courses within your major that I mentioned earlier, so you do have to take one of those in the 200 to 300 level and then you have to take one of those in the 300 to 400 level. So there are a couple of different options. In most cases those are going to be sections that are offered within your major, but sometimes you might be taking the lecture section with non honor students and have that honors callback or recitation throughout the week or if it's a really small major. One option that you might have to take it.

Excuse me that you might have to take advantage of is just scheduling your class and then coordinating with your professor develop to develop. Maybe an extra research project or an extra project to fill that honors requirement and then the last thing at the bottom of the box is going to be the senior honors thesis, which is like the capstone of the honors program, so you'll notice it before you get to the honors thesis. There is a pre thesis class that you need to take, it is just one credit that's going to prepare you for the thesis that you're going to be taking senior year.

So for the thesis, what's really great about this is if you get too, it's like a research project of your choosing, so you get to pick the topic and you get to pick the design and then you'll also get to select the faculty member that you're going to be working beside. So since you get to pick what topic it's going to be over, you can maybe tie in something that you've been involved in in your extracurricular activities. You could tie in something that's going to be more closely related to your major, or it can be an interest that you have.

Outside of the classroom just uh something that you're passionate about so you have a lot of opportunities for customization there and I think it's really going to benefit you once you conclude undergrad and you get rid of all into that next step. It's going to allow you to showcase a lot of the work that you've been working on whether that's too maybe a future employer or to Graduate School and really going to help you shine so we've talked a lot about the Honor Seminars. We're going to take a little bit of a closer look here, so as I mentioned a couple of times.

It is going to be a smaller class, so generally it's going to be capped at 15 to 20 students, so it's really nice about the smaller class size. Is that you have an opportunity to to connect with the students that you're going to be taking the classes with, and I think that that's something that is just a feature of the honors community in general. So if you're looking for that smaller environment, a smaller community to really get connected to the honors program really does prioritize that. The Honor Seminars.

They are covering a variety of different topics. We have faculty members with a diverse background with different areas of expertise, and so there's a lot of different classes in sections that are going to be offered and on the next slide, we're going to take a look at some examples of what was offered this past fall. They are generally discussion based and they're going to be interdisciplinary, so they are really going to focus on emphasizing the professional and communication skills. Also, you will note that most the seminars are taught.

In or around academic village. So if you are awake and acknowledge for the The Learning Community, you are going to be a little bit closer to those classes, so you might have a shorter walk. Could be an extra incentive to consider being a part of the community, so to take a closer look and give you an idea of some of the different classes that have been offered for those seminar classes in the past. We do have a whole variety of different areas, so we have things from growing food in a changing world to children's literature and culture.

Things all the way over to infectious disease and world music explorations so if you're somebody that is maybe you're more on the stem side so the majority of the classes that you're taking are going to be stem focus and you want to switch it up and branch out and explore different area you might want to consider something that's going to be more like the world music explorations so just something to consider make sure to look over all the different options that are going to be offered so now we're going to switch and touch a little bit on the application process and what it looks like to go through that.

So the first thing to note is you do have to apply and be admitted into CSU. Then after that anybody with a minimum GPA of 3.8 or higher and that is a weighted GPA, will be extended. An invitation to apply to the Honors Program so it is a separate application you will be sent an email with a link to the application or you can access it through ram web. So ram was Ram, Web is your student portal. Annual get access to that after you have been admitted. So the application itself.

It's three essay questions that you will answer, and so you want to set aside some time and put some thought into that application to make yourself a competitive applicant.

Then the application deadline is February 1st, so it's really important to note this deadline and also that there are a limited number of spots available, so once those spots have been filled, the application is going to close. You don't want to procrastinate if you are interested, make sure to apply early so I get it. I'm a procrastinator. I wait till the last minute to do a lot of things, but if honors is your interest, please don't do that here. Go ahead and apply the CSU early on.

And give yourself a lot of time and opportunity to complete the honors application. So who are looking for? We are going to look at a number of different academic qualifications, so we will look at your GPA. Will look at your test scores and if your school tracks it we will also look at your class rank. Then we're going to look at how rigorous or challenging your schedule was so will take into account if you've taken AP classes. If you take an IB classes, do enrollment anything like that. Also, we're going to look at your involvement outside the classroom.

So did you take any leadership positions? Have you been involved with community service? What are your extracurriculars look like, like to play sports where you involved in music or theater? Things along those lines. And then after that we're going to look through the application and we're going to see, did you present a genuine interest in the honors experience so you stop and consider? Is this something that you are really interested in, or is it something that a family member is really pushing you to get involved in? So maybe think and consider that.

But we do want to see a genuine interest. Why are you interested in being a part of the honest community? Also, what can you contribute to the program? So what are your experiences looked like? What can you bring to the table? What can you contribute and what really separates you from the other applicants that are applied? So I do want to say it is a competitive application process only about 50% of the students that apply are accepted into the program, so I do want to encourage you to put a lot of time and thought into your application so that pretty much wraps up.

The question portion of the presentation so are choosing it wraps up the presentation. Now we're going to jump into questions. So here in just a moment we will, and by our current students and we will invite Eli back, will have them introduce themselves and then will jump into your questions. So go ahead and be dropping those in the chat.

Welcome back alley.

Hi.

Hey Brandon.

Hello.

Hello.

Hey Kevin, how's it going?

Good.

Awesome, OK, so we will just start by having Eli introduced herself and then will go down the line. And if you all just want to talk a little bit about your involvement, maybe specifically within honors and then we will jump into some questions.

Awesome so hugging everyone as I mentioned earlier, my name is Ali foreman. I'm she, her pronouns and I'm one of the admissions counselors here in the office. I'm also a graduate of CSU and the honors program, so I'm bringing a little bit of that alumni experience to the panel. Today I graduated in 2017 while I was on campus. I studied Spanish in Chinese. I was very involved as an Ari on campus or resident assistant, working in the halls. I was also a peer mentor in the honors program for three years and I was pretty involved in a mentoring program on our campus called campus connections.

As well, so those are kind of my experiences here at CS go.

Awesome.

What's up, everybody, my name is Brennan. I use he him his pronouns. I apologize for the camera quality on my end, but we're going to push through it. I am a I guess in like half of half a page of a paper I'm going to be in alumni. I have a senior here at CSU in the Honors Program. I studied business administration with a constant double concentration in marketing and Organization Innovation Management. I also have a member of the Denver Broncos standings.

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Great thanks.

All right, hi, I'm Kevin McCabe. I just finished my freshman year here at CSU. Just finished those finals. I use she her, hers pronouns. I am currently majoring in natural resource tourism and double minoring in business administration and entrepreneurship and innovation. I got into the honors program doing track one super fun.

And actually just finished my paper for my seminar up and a few other things I do on campus. I am also an admissions ambassador and I'm in the hospitality club, the tourism Association, the.

American Sign Language Club and the list goes on so.

Awesome, well thank you for introducing yourselves. We can go ahead and jump into questions. So the first question I have is how would you describe preparing for your honor's thesis? So Brennan? Because you are right in the middle of it right now, what does that process look like for you in that preparation?

Paration this is gonna look a little bit different, just depending on what your thesis is going to be. What's really nice about these this project? There are like there are several different types of pieces you can do it. Most of them fall in category of a scholarly research paper, and that could be like so my thesis is about cheating in professional baseball. Never worked for a baseball team, it's just an interest, so it can be a project of passion like that. But I also have friends with her by doing undergraduate research that is extremely common in our automatically examples.

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Call Ellie do you have anything to add to that? Since you have also gone through the process?

I would I go everything Brennan said with the pre thesis course in your advisor. I think the one thing I would add is as someone who wasn't in a stem field. Research seemed really foreign to me and I was really intimidated by it. But when it came time to actually do the pre thesis in a thesis itself, I realized that the Honors Program, the seminars, the expectations in those classes over the four years at CSU really prepared me. Well for that. So I was ready to step into that with the research in the writing and the presenting side of the thesis really well. So it's not just something that you do in one semester, it's really something you're building towards overall for years and you.

A lot of support when you go through that process.

Awesome. OK uhm so this question can be directed at cabin. It is. Are there any events at the beginning of the year to allow the incoming honor students to get to know each other?

It's not necessarily honors focused, I'd say, because there are things like ram. Welcome at the beginning of the year for all students, but there are things like they do, um, kind of.

You do have your a recitation in the very first semester that you are in honors along with your seminar. So your first kind of semester seminars for credits because one credit of that is the recitation and kind of threw that recitation. You do things for, like meeting other people on the honors program and meeting professors in the Honors Program. That's actually really helpful, and you kind of do all of these events and kind of activities and small projects for grade in your overall on our seminar. So, for instance, we had to go to a fireside talk.

Which is, uh, a talk. Let's stop by a professor. It's about an hour of your time, and it's just about any sort of topic that interests that professor. So we had an anthropology professor one time talk about like ruins that they found in Iceland, and that was one of the fireside testifiers I talked that I went to and it's super interesting. You don't have to take notes or anything or write anything on it, you just have to have that experience and you get to meet a lot of people through those along with just kind of in that recitation your randomly assigned.

With other freshman in the honors program and through their the end of that whole recitation, we exchanged social medias and everything. And we're definitely really nice. Like we're good friends now, and actually two of the people in my recitation were in my seminar this past semester, so it's kind of fun to have familiar faces around the honors program. So definitely, I'd say just the biggest kind of events that you have that you can do events through is that recitation you have first semester.

Awesome, I think you're highlighting it a little bit there, Kevin. Just in terms of like connection, I think that is a big part of it, but Brandon, Can you describe just how would you describe the environment within the honors program?

So the reason I really love the Honors Program when I first got here was our owners living community. I think that's a good microcosm of what makes the honest program really special, so freshmen are required to live on campus for that first year. Unless there is an extenuating circumstance and you can find anything else on our housing website you're curious about that, but a lot of honors students brushing your choose to live in an honors community. That's what I did I lived in an honors 3 E, so if anybody in there.

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Yeah, I feel like that's why I consistently hear from all of our honor students. OK, Ellie, can you talk a little bit about this question? So the question is, would you consider honors courses to be more challenging than regular courses, and if so, in what ways?

Yeah, I would definitely say that the expectations are higher in the honors courses, especially the Honors Seminars in the sense that you're you're only there with 15 to 20 other students, and so if they're going to have a discussion about the reading, it's pretty clear if you haven't done the reading pretty quickly into the Class, I think it also depends on your learning style. I don't test well, and I only had one test in my 4 years of Honor seminars, so for me the environment of having some reading to do, coming in, discussing it, writing papers, giving presentations with something I really thrived in.

But it definitely is something that requires time and dedication. It's definitely a class where you need to be present every day, both literally and then also mentally for those conversations as well. So I think that can depend on your learning style and then also you know what the topic is. I do think it makes it easier that all the classes are really interesting, and so I was really exciting. Excited to do the readings for all of my courses because they were topics that I really didn't know a lot about. But I was really interested in learning more about.

Yeah, absolutely. I have had quite a few questions about the SATACT. How that's going to factor into the process for interested honor students. At this point we haven't received an update. I know there is some uncertainty there as tests are being pushed back or rescheduled. You may have missed a test so I would just encourage you to stay tuned For more information.

As honors, it's making that decision. I would maybe reach out to them or just be on the lookout for information and communications that will be sent out to you. So sorry we don't have a more definitive answer at this time I know it is something that is on a lot of minds of students.

Uh, OK, but another question that we have an cabin. I know you talked a little bit about that recitation and we had a student ask, can you clarify what their reputation is?

Yeah, so it's um, the same size as your Seven are, so it's still 15 to 18 kids and it's all freshmen and you have two student mentors. Was Eli mentioned earlier? She did that the student mentors are essentially like your two teachers for that. And they have assignments to both. They have an assignment throughout the first semester, trend of both. Get to know the honors program and also at the same time get to know campus as a whole. So for instance, we had.

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Assignment where we went to the library and had to do a short one page paper using information we had gathered from the database is that the library provides, so we learn how to use those. We also learned how to we had the Red Whistle Brigade, for instance, come in and teach us about campus and kind of what they do.

And we had all of these. We had various kind of organizations on campus. Come and talk to us at different times. We only meet once a week. It's 50 minute class once a week connected to your seminar that you will meet two to three times a week with but essentially, the recitation is really just kind of a way to get to know the Honors Program. An campus kind of at the same time through that student perspective.

Yeah, who are also in the office program.

OK, so one of our next questions. I think we've already touched on a little bit of it, which is how the honor sections compared to some of the other classes. But what would you say are the two most rewarding aspects for you in the honors program so we can have each of you share what those aspects have been for you. Brandon, if you want to start us off and then we'll have Eli Gohan, then cabin can rap that one up.

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The two most rewarding aspects, the first of those, I think, is definitely there's a sense of personal friend accomplishment in in that green robe, and I know that sounds very like like like I have an attitude about it, but it is. Uhm, it is a really awesome program that provides a lot of great perspective. A lot of great tools in running how to speak publicly, learning how to research, learning how to put another paper in.

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I'm sorry to say the biggest thing for me was the connections that I mean very similar to help Brennan mentioned that an I would say that is both with the students but also with the faculty. So I had a faculty member Jen Kraftcheck during my first year at CSU as my seminar professor and she got me plugged into campus connections, which was a mentoring program I was involved in for the next three years at CSU. That was a really important part of my college experience, and then she was also my thesis advisor and she wrote multiple letters of recommendation.

For me for Graduate School, so that was a really great relationship that I was able to grow with over my four years. Because you have the small class sizes and you really get to know faculty members well and then also is Brandon said just the people that you mean I was coming from out of state. I didn't know anybody at CSU when I came and so having that smaller community right off the bat was really valuable and is able to get to know students. I'm really quickly. It makes it feel like home. And then I continue to get to know students throughout my time. Actually, my current supervisor in admissions I met through the Honors Program, we were both students at CSU.

So those relationships, both in a peer to peer level and faculty staff, really carry you through your time. Anna really valuable here at CSU, both personally and professionally.

Yeah, definitely. I think, just like the information that I've gotten from the classes I've taken so far honestly have been so interesting 'cause they're not even related to my major at all. Like for instance, is past semester I took sex, drugs and rock and roll the ancient world.

I'm a natural resource stores of major. I've never I would never take that class if I weren't in honors, a man. It was so interesting and it kind of gave me that.

Kind of new confidence also in writing research papers because our final was writing a 10 Page Research Paper. We didn't have any tests that entire semester, but we had to write a 10 page research paper based off of a topic of our choosing. So it's kind of like a little mini thesis. Almost 'cause we chose everything that we did.

And everything like that and so is definitely gave me that confidence academically, but also the honest program is definitely like everyone's been saying socially. It's been so fun because there are so many more familiar faces that I can see on campus that are exclusively in the honors program, and we can kind of all relate to each other academically in that way too, even if we're not necessarily in the same major.

Awesome, thank you all for sharing that another question that we have here is that if school goes online for the fall, how will the honors program helps students meet each other since they may not have the living experiences or the in person opportunities to connect. So I know that that's a question that's weighing heavy on just a lot of people right now is what is the fall semester going to look like if we're unable to meet in person? So First off, CSU is planning to have classes.

On campus for the fall, so hopefully that's a bridge that we won't have to cross. But if we do I know the areas all around campus are looking at different platforms, whether that's something through social media or something online that is still able to bring students together and help them connect. So that's definitely something that we're trying to game plan for. If its worst case scenario, but fingers crossed everything will be business as usual when the fall rolls around. So another question that we have is how is it trying to balance? May be a job or other activities with the honors courses and expectations.

So I know you all were listing the involvement that you have. It seems like in particular are honor students are really involved, so can you all speak to what is that like trying to juggle all of those different things so we can kind of keep the same order burning? If you want to start us off and then we can go to Elian Cabin.

It is super feasible to have an employment while you're in the office program. That's something that's very common, really. Your degree in involvement in the extracurriculars within owners are going to be determined that. So, for example, I had two jobs while I was an honor student. I was an ambassador and also interned with football team at the same time. Well, an honor student. It was definitely like I was fairly busy, but I still had time to do things.

So I please calling.

How much?

What's your name?

Nothing nothing.

Yes.

Some, so I think one of the really key pieces of this will also answer another question that I'm seeing is that the honors program doesn't require any additional classes that you would take outside of the Honors Program. The Honors Seminars replace almost all of your core curriculum classes. Your arts and Humanities credits, some of your social Sciences credits for getting all the categories betray went over them so well. Your classes maybe a little bit more rigorous being those honors courses you're not having to take any extra classes. You definitely do still have that time to be involved on campus. Whether it's a job.

Or a club. Another student organization. The other piece for me was, well, I did get a little bit involved in some clubs on campus. I didn't. I am sport with my whole freshman year. I really didn't dive in super quickly because it was important for me to get adjusted to what that academic environment was going to look like. An also figure out what I really wanted to get involved in. So I really waited until my second year at CSU to figure that out. And kind of figuring out how I was going to do my time management. And then as I moved through my time at CSU, I could really pick out what was.

Important for me to be involved in and how much I could manage during my time. And like Brendan, I worked two jobs. I was a Narayan. I also worked at the front desk of one of our residents holes. Along with that I was involved in the mentoring program. I've mentioned a few times and those are really the three big things that I focused on while I was at CSU along with being apart of the honors program in being a peer mentor. So once you find those pieces that are really important to you and you know what your study habits look like, it's definitely feasible to get involved on campus.

Yeah, for sure as that freshman trying out everything's running kind of said, um, I definitely first semester was trying out a lot of things and realized I definitely didn't have time. Not even just because the Honors Program, but just in general with all of my classes that I didn't have enough time to do everything. But I am really glad that I chose should be apart of the honors program, because as a freshman who is employed as an admission ambassador and in the Honors Program.

It is a lot, but honestly after that first semester you really get a handle on everything and kind of more of you get a better idea of just kind of how just college works. And so then you kind of get more into the swing of things and I haven't found it to be extremely difficult. I even mentioned RA. I'm going to be an early next year too, so I'll be employed in RA and doing and doing honors program all next year.

So while I know it'll be a lot I see being in the honors program while doing all these other things, very rewarding, and in my opinion, just because of the academic and social things we were all talking about. But it really is really rewarding. Being in the honors program and it is manageable. It definitely sounds like a lot before you come to CSU, but once you really take that on those classes and meet all the people, it isn't as much work as you think it will be. And it really just feels like just another class.

Yep, also Congrats on being an RA, that's awesome.

And also early thank you for clarifying. Hopefully it hasn't been too confusing for you all, but with that track one, there aren't those additional requirements. It does substitute for the All University core curriculum. So for our next question that we have here, it's are there any study abroad opportunities specific to honor students? Are there ways to incorporate study abroad opportunities into the honors track? Ellie, I know you got to study abroad a couple of times. So do you want to talk a little bit about your experiences?

Yeah, definitely. So there are specific study abroad courses within the Honors Program. They are typically short term programs, which means there anywhere from one to six weeks and usually take take wow take place over summer break. So I think there's one that's still running to Oxford. Maybe in England and run in. And having you can correct me if I'm wrong. I know there's one while I was at CSU that they went to Zambia so those are really unique opportunities because you can go with faculty members through CSC when you go with all other CSU honor students.

Because I was studying 2 languages, I didn't go on those programs. I want it to go on programs that really focused on me. Learning languages better in spending time in countries that were connected to my languages. So I did a six week summer program in Bilbao, Spain, and then the next summer I did a six week program in Shanghai, China. So both of those fit in really well to my academic plans. I chose to do that over having summer jobs or summer internship so it can really depend on what you want to do in terms of going for a full semester or going for a summer session.

It also fit in really well with the fact that I valued my experiences as a Narayan as a peer mentor and so I didn't want to miss out on those options. They allow you to take semesters of leave, but that was just an experience that was really valuable to me. The Honors Program other than your first year, you only take one seminar a year, so if you are going to study abroad in the fall, you could take your seminar in the spring and he won't be set back at all so they can fit really well into the honors curriculum. Here in CS go.

Awesome Brendon and Kevin. Do you all have anything to add to that?

Yeah, sure. So yeah, I believe they do have Oxford in Zambia. I also do, you know of a program that is a seminar in Korea that one of our ambassadors went on the study abroad office here at CSU origin abroad. Excuse me is really exemplary. They have a ton of different programs that are available and the really adamant of working with students to help you fit these things. These trips into your curriculum regardless of what you're studying or whether you're an honors or not. And the big part, at least in my study.

I just

journey.

Because I want it.

If you want to.

My computer.

Yeah, OK so two be mindful of time. We are going to head towards our closing thoughts so the last thing that I will ask each of you all to share is to give one piece of advice to our students. So especially Britain as you are wrapping up your undergraduate experience, Ellie, you have completed it altogether and Kevin year one is in the books, woot.

So yeah, if you all could just share one piece of advice to our students who are considering going into honors and just going through the college search process, what's something that you would tell them so we can start with Eli and then just go down the line?

I'm so thinking about this. I think the biggest piece of advice is to make sure you find your fit in terms of your University and then also the programs that you get involved in when you get there. And honors program is a really great way to get involved on campus. For me it was a great community. It was great in terms of academics. I loved the thesis and there are a lot of other ways both In addition to an outside of the honors program that you can be academically in. Richton involved at CSU. So take some time, ask critical questions and find your best fit in terms of your campus community.

And your involvement. Senior programs. Once you get to your right fit.

Everybody right now is keep yourself grace uh we're in trying times right now I certainly didn't imagine the Thursday of my my senior year at CSU eating spent my apartment so this is something that we all going through at different stages in our lives understand not only just because of this situation but just in college you're not going to get an A on our best you do in which case like.

That was not the case for me. Understand you're going to make mistakes. You're going to try things that aren't work, and that's all OK.

Public world.

Stop.

So they won't give you.

All right, quick plug, because all this already talk, just reminded me of something. I mare of academic village honors math so if you want to do honours, might end up with me is noreau anyway. Definitely, um.

Honestly, like the biggest advice I could give you is if you think you should apply for owners. Apply for owners, even if you're just like not even fully set on the program. If you're not really sure, go for it, because that's definitely how I was at the beginning. I just kind of thought why, why not I'll apply for this, and I've not regretted that decision one bit. I've been so bad that I applied for honors because I just made so many more friends I could ever imagine through that and just gain so many skills academically through it. So definitely just even if just having inkling of interest, just go for it.

Awesome, thank you all so much for joining us and sharing your experience. Is your thoughts and what that was like for you and for our students. Thank you so much for tuning in. Hopefully you found this to be really helpful. A good introduction into honors and help to answer some of the questions that you have. So for any questions that we weren't able to answer or if you think of questions in the coming days, please reach out to the Honors Program. They would love to answer any of those questions for you.

But I think there May.

So thank you for bearing with us through the technology. I really appreciate it and for our students, it's really good to see you, Brandon. I'm glad I got to see you before you officially graduate. So good to see you all. Make sure to take care, stay well and healthy during this time and hopefully we will get to host you on campus in the future.

Will see y'all later. Yeah, see ya.