The Ohio Valley University Honors Program was created to attract, inspire, and retain exceptional students who seek intense intellectual challenge and who are prepared to invest the high degree of effort required to thrive in the honors community. The program encourages students to develop high academic standards, exercise independent thought, and gain insight into the scholarship and leadership responsibilities associated with the intellectual gifts that God has given them.

In harmony with the university’s mission, participants develop and refine these attributes:

• Breadth, as achieved through interdisciplinary course work.
• Depth, as achieved through significant accomplishments in a focused area of study.
• Global awareness, as achieved through reflection on the interconnectedness of the world.
• Collaborative capacity, as achieved through intellectual and social exploration within a community of learners.
• Commitment to service, as achieved through active involvement in addressing the interests of others.

Admission Standards

To qualify for the Honors Program, an incoming freshman should score 26 or above on the ACT (or receive a comparable score on the SAT) and have a minimum 3.0 cumulative grade point average (GPA) from high school. Other students who show potential for outstanding academic success might also be considered. Interested students should complete an Honors application.

Honors Curriculum

Honors students will complete 29 semester hours of required honors credit. Seventeen semester hours are in core courses taken during a student’s freshman and sophomore years. There are four core courses, all of which are required:

• Honors Symposium;
• Leadership Development;
• Interdisciplinary Study of the Humanities; and
• Contemporary Issues in the Sciences.

During their junior and senior years, students in the honors program will also take four courses in their major for honors credit. For these courses, students will take a regular course in their major, but will complete it for honors credit by doing an honors contract.

In a course with an honors contract, the instructor will give Honors students more challenging work to earn the Honors designation. The instructor’s emphasis is on the quality of the completed assignments rather than on the quantity of the work assigned; in other words, Honors students will be completing different assignments, not additional assignments.

Honors Co-Curricular Activities

The program is committed to the university’s ideal of transforming lives, a process that means more than merely learning skills or preparing for a specific career. Transformation involves finding connections between the classroom and life and embracing those connections in every facet of one’s assistance. Honors students will be given the opportunity to participate in a variety of co-curricular activities that encourage and facilitate discussion; these activities will include such things as traveling to historical and cultural sites and attending lectures, devotionals, and performing arts events.

All students admitted to the Honors Program will be assigned a mentor who will advise the student about courses and help guide the student in developing and refining the attributes associated with Honors students.

Contact

Dr. Steven R. Hardy
Professor of Humanities
Chair of the School of Arts and Sciences
Director of the Honors Program
Office: 304-865-6153
steven.hardy@ovu.edu