Honors Program
The Honors Program at Stetson University is the center from where limitless intellectual exploration happens. With a curriculum specifically designed to create your own major and access to professors, entrepreneurs and innovators whose cutting-edge research will stimulate your imagination, Honors is committed to empower your potential to make a difference in the world.
Related Programs:
Why Honors Program at Stetson University?
Honors is an experience where the most curious, creative and ambitious minds at Stetson meet.
- Do you want to specialize in a field that does not exist? Honors will help you create it with a Self-Defined Major path.
- Do you want to spend the summer exploring the effects of climate change in Alaska? Our Discovery Stipend will fund it.
- Do you seek an internship at the U.N. or a grant to publish a paper? The Leadership Coaching sessions will craft plan to make that happen.
- Do you want a unique residential experience? Check out the Honors Program Residential Experience.
As an Honors student, you take Honors-dedicated courses that develop your critical thinking skills at the highest level. Small class sizes and experiential learning pedagogies offer you countless hands-on opportunities to make a meaningful difference in the community. Throughout your college years, you have access to countless Honors special events with professors, entrepreneurs and innovators that help you build a powerful network and relationships for life.
"If we could summarize Stetson Honors Program in one sentence, it would say that Honors has one goal: to remove all barriers to your imagination and ambitions. Truly, the sky is the limit. It compares to the resources of an Ivy League school."
Dr. Yohann C. Ripert, Director of the Honors Program
"The Honors Program has taught me that it is okay to agree and disagree with people's thoughts, even if they're from some of the most respected philosophers of all time…the Honors Program has taught me to think about the media I consume, particularly about the source of information, fallacies, methods of reasoning, and implications of reasoning."
Alyssa Pavek, senior in the Honors Program
Career Outcomes
The Honors Program doesn't determine your career outcome – YOU do. The Honors Program offers tools and opportunities that directly enhance your school experience and future employability.
SELF-DEFINED MAJOR
One of the unique opportunities offered by Honors Program is to create your own major. Stetson has more than eighty majors and minors to satiate your intellectual curiosity, but can you imagine what you could do by combining two or three of them? That’s what the Self-Defined Major is: a unique combination of disciplines specially tailored to your intellectual trajectory and professional goals.
DISCOVERY STIPEND
Learning happens inside and beyond the classroom. That is why Stetson University provides Honors students with a dedicated stipend to fund any project that will advance your academic goals, empowering you to think bigger and beyond campus. In most recent years, students have used the stipend to organize a spiritual journey to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Northwestern Spain, to purchase scientific equipment to conduct research on skin cancer, and travel to archives in Dublin to investigate the birth of Anglo-Saxon philosophy.
LEADERSHIP COACHING
The Honors Program attracts the best and brightest of students from around the country. To support you to become a leader in your field, Honors offers tailored and enhanced advising to guide you on the track to success. It opens access to the professional world through internships, grant workshops, career development seminars, and a robust network of faculty, alumni, and executives to prepare you for the next steps in your career.
RESIDENTIAL EXPERIENCE
Honors students have a home in one of the most historical buildings at the heart of campus, right across from the CUB and the duPont Ball library: Conrad Hall. With a fully renovated common area, laundry room, a furnished community kitchen, and lounges on each floor, students have multiple options to fill their intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity. What’s more, Conrad Hall has a resident assistant on every floor to help students by providing deep and meaningful relationships with members of the entire Honors and Bonner cohorts –two the most vibrant programs on campus.
- Yohann Ripert, PhD, Director of the Honors Program, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies
- Randall Croom, PhD, Assistant Director of the Honors Program and Associate Professor of Management
- Kevin Winchell, Director of Community Engagement
- John Tichenor, PhD, Chair of Management
- Christopher Jimenez, PhD, Assistant Professor of English
- Hannah Markley, PhD, Professor of English
- Sam Houston, PhD, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
- Elizabeth Boggs, PhD
- Taylor Hibel, Assistant Director of the Bonner Program and Community Partnerships
To apply for the Honors Program, you must first apply to Stetson University via our Early Decision (by November 1) or Early Action (by November 15) decision plan. Once your undergraduate application has been submitted, you will be able to access the Honors Program Application through your Hatter Portal. The Honors Program Application and all supplemental materials are due by December 1.
The Honors Program has two signature courses:
- First Year Seminar (FSEM) that investigate enduring questions. Currently, our question is, "What does a just world look like?"
- Junior Seminar (JSEM) that questions, "What does it mean to live and lead a life that matters?"
In between, Honors students take a series of 0-credit and 2-credit courses designed to develop a sweet spot between academic learning and professional preparation:
- a Praxis course that gives them an opportunity to develop a community-engaged project
- a Workshop course that trains them to write a proposal for an external grant
- a Tutorial course where students create their own course
- a Internship course that supports their first professional experience
- a Best Book Club course where we read together four books chosen by the students.
Visit Stetson
See for yourself why Stetson continues to be a top spot for learning and exploring.
VisitFinancial Aid
Learn more about the tools you can tap into to make your college experience affordable.
Explore