Application Form

The application form can be downloaded at the bottom of the page. Please note the instructions below and on the form.

• Step 1: Read the Instructions or view the video
• Step 2: Read the Honors Project Guidelines
• Step 3: Download the Form

Instructions for Filling-out the Form. Download at the bottom of page.

Get started Early!
It takes several weeks to coordinate with your instructor to fill out the form.

• Student Information: We need your full name, not any nicknames. Your student identification number is your 8-digit Banner ID assigned by the college (it starts with a 9). We will email all correspondence, so monitor your email accounts for important Honors information. PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY!
• Faculty Advisor's Information: This is the professor of the class you are doing the Honors Project in.
• All proposed Honors Projects are in an existing course section (a course you are currently taking). Include the 4-letter subject code, course #, section #, course title, and course reference number (CRN). All information can be found in Pipeline. For example, Introduction to Geology is GEOL-1010-150, CRN 11260.
• Tentative title for Project: This is what ever you and your professor want to (initially) name your project. The name may change as you complete the project, and that’s fine.
• Meeting Schedule and Dates: This is up to you and your advisor. Example meeting schedules are: weekly, monthly with most correspondence through email, after class as needed, etc. Typically, the beginning date is when you turn in the application form, and the end date is the last day of classes. The Honors Project needs to be completed before grades are due at the end of semester.
• Number of Honors Projects and Graduation Information: This helps us determine who is eligible to be an Honors Program Graduate.
• Honors Forum: We recommend participating in the Honors Forum, and creating the poster may be included as part of the requirements for the final product. However, by checking this box, you are not committing yourself to participate.
• Objectives and Activities: What will you do that will provide greater depth and breadth of the subject matter? What questions are you trying to answer, or what topics are you discussing? How will you go about doing this? Make sure your objectives are clear and you and your faculty advisor agree, since this is an agreement between you and your faculty advisor.
• Final Product: What end product will show that students have greater depth and breadth of subject matter? What will you turn in (e.g. written paper, art portfolio, poster presentation, oral presentation...)? Make sure you clearly and fully describe what you will create at the end (e.g. length, important requirements, included sections, minimum number of references, etc.). Also, be sure the length is appropriate, since this is a significant academic undertaking and should take at least 20 hours of work.
• Independent Thinking and Research Goal: Honors Projects must meet the goal of independent thinking and research, such as through critical thinking, information literacy, and/or inquiry and analysis. If you and your professor cannot explain what specifically you are doing in your project to meet this goal, then the project will need to be changed so it does meet this goal. Please see rubric below.
• Interdisciplinary Goal: Although not required, it is desirable for Honors Projects to provide students with an interdisciplinary academic experience, such as by integrating viewpoints from multiple disciplines. Please see rubric below.
• Assessment: How will your professor grade the project? What criteria will be used? (e.g. quality of work, timeliness, attending meetings as scheduled, creativity, clear communication, independence, etc.)
• Signatures: We need the original signature of you, the faculty member, and the department chairperson. You cannot turn in the form without the signatures, so plan ahead. We cannot accept photocopies or faxes.
• Submitting it: Please turn in your completed Honors application (use the checklist included in the application download to ensure you didn’t make one of the common mistakes) to one of the Honors Coordinators, contact information below. We recommend making a copy of the form for you and your advisor before you turn it in.
  
  

(Please contact the Honors Coordinators with any additional questions)

Honors Project Guidelines

The goals of Honors Projects done through the Honors Program at CCRI are to:

• foster independent thinking and research
• provide an interdisciplinary academic experience
• improve communication skills
• promote self reflection of learning

Each Honors project…

• addresses at least three of the goals for Honors Projects
• must be a significant academic undertaking (on the part of both the student and participating faculty member)
• must comprise over 20 hours of work
• is a supplementary project within a course that goes beyond the course requirements, relating the project to the curricula covered in the course
• often requires creative thinking and hands-on activities with clear practical application
• offers honors students an opportunity to interact more deeply and more personally with the subject matter of a given course
• should be worked on throughout the semester
• allows students to acquire new knowledge and skills
• enables students and faculty to work together as "colleagues in learning" - a cooperative spirit that reawakens the fundamental purpose of the academy
• assists students to become an integral part of a stimulating academic interchange

The specific requirements for each project are open so the projects can be creative displays of academic rigor. Examples of project formats include but are not restricted to research papers, PowerPoint presentations, poster presentations, displays of art or performance art, teaching lesson plans, computer programs, lab experiments and write-ups, evaluation of survey results, creative writing, teaching a week of class, etc.

Project Application Evaluation Rubric

The following rubric will be used to evaluate your application to do an Honors Project. The first three criteria must be met in order for the project to be approved.

Project Abstract

An abstract of your project is due to the Honors Directors on the last day of classes.

An abstract is a summary of your project, not just what you did, but also what you learned or created. It should be written after you complete your project, using past tense. Listed below are parts of a good abstract, and each can vary between 1 and 4 sentences, depending on the focus of your project, although the discussion usually makes up the most significant portion of the abstract. Abstracts are difficult to write, because you need to summarize your entire project in a short space. Therefore, they take a lot of thought to figure out what are the most important things that you did and learned. Your abstract should be 150-250 words.

1. Background and overview -- what is the context of what you did? was there a problem, missing information, unknown knowledge, and why is that significant?
2. Procedure -- what did you do? what methods did you follow?
3. Results -- what did you find out or what did you produce?
4. Discussion -- what do your results mean? what is significant about your results? how does it apply to other situations or a larger picture? what is the take-away message?

For more information, read the sample abstracts.

Project Self-Reflection

A one-page self reflection of your project is due to the Honors Directors on the last day of classes. A self reflection should be a thought-provoking process which provides an assessment of what you learned about yourself while completing the project and your thoughts of your experience. We would like to understand the impact of the Honors project on your academic growth. The self reflection should be no more than one page but should include the following:

• A 1-2 sentence description of the project
• An explanation of the activities undertaken
• An assessment of what you learned from the project
• A reflection of your experience

Some additional questions for your reflection are below. Please consider some of these:

• What did you learn about yourself?
• Did you encounter any problems or challenges?
• If so, what did you do to overcome them?
• How was this project important to you?
• How did it impact your lifelong or educational goals?
• What would you do differently?
• In what ways did you improve?
• What job skills did you master?
• How does this project connect with what you've learned in other courses?

You may feel obligated to answer all of these questions. This is not necessary. We would like to learn about the successes and difficulties of each project. The reflection should be a thought provoking process.

Download the Application Form

Below is the link to download the Honors Application Form as an Adobe PDF file. Unfortunately, electronic forms cannot be accepted because original signatures of the student, instructor, and chairperson are needed, so you will need to print out the form. Please note that the instructions and Honors project guidelines will also download with the application. If you do not want to print them, only print pages 1 and 2.

Your Honors Project Application form must be fully completed BEFORE you submit it to the Honors Coordinators by the deadline. Please use the checklist below to ensure you have not made one of the common mistakes or omissions on the form.

• Your student ID number (Banner ID) is included.
• All course information (including the five-digit CRN) is included.
• The project and final product are described in enough detail to fully explain what you are doing.
• The department chairperson has signed the form (along with you and your faculty advisor).
• How the project will meet the Honors Program goals is clearly and specifically stated.

Application form in Adobe PDF* (25 KB)