Program Requirements

Honors Core III is the foundational course of the Honors experience for all incoming two-year Honors program students. Dr. Kwame Owusu Daaku teaches Core III. Honors Core III examines the concept of systems thinking through an interdisciplinary lens. 

Honors students in the two-year program must complete one (1) Honors seminar before they graduate. Honors seminars are interdisciplinary courses created and taught by professors from a variety of departments exclusively for the Honors program. Honors Seminars are limited to 15 students each. Seminars are offered each fall and spring, and topics vary.

Past popular seminar topics include Politics of Food, From Wastelands to Wetlands, Metalaw: Ecology & Justice in the Planetary Era, Zombies & Survival, Cancer: Scientific Research and Social Impacts, Conjunctive Psychology, Science of Brewing, and Tolkien: Text & Film.

Honors students must complete the Honors Service Learning and E-portfolio course prior to graduation. The 1 s.h. course covers theories of service learning, community engagement guidelines, the Honors service requirement, E-portfolio best practices, and E-portfolio usage. The student learning outcomes for the course include surveying our current Honors service projects, articulating methods, values, and outcomes for selected service projects, communicating with stakeholders for selected projects, developing an individual service learning plan, articulating key components of a successful e-portfolio, and learning the basic commands and attributes of the Honors e-portfolio system.

Honors Thesis Research Methods is a 1 s.h. course that is offered each spring semester. This course helps students understand the thesis-writing process and covers the basic research methodologies required to begin a thesis project.

The class is conducted as a collaborative, hands-on workshop and covers important areas such as choosing a topic, approaching an advisor, scholarly research methods, time management, and thesis presentation requirements. 

Honors students can take up to 3 s.h. of thesis credits while completing their Honors thesis under the guidance of a thesis advisor. The Honors thesis is intended to be a capstone project for students and can assume a variety of forms depending on a student's major. For students in majors requiring capstone projects as part of their degree program, enhancements to such existing requirements can be negotiated so that Honors students are not completing double theses or capstone projects, but are instead further developing the culminating work in their major.

As the final requirement of the Honors programs, Honors students are required to formally present their thesis research or creative activity. Students are encouraged to apply to present at any of the three Honors conferences that the program annually attends (the Florida Collegiate Honors Council, Southern Regional Honors Council, and the National Collegiate Honors Council), or at the Student Scholars Symposium held each spring at UWF.

Before graduating, Honors students are required to complete focused community service. Students are able to complete independent community service or participate in projects through university and/or group service projects. 

Any applicable hours can be tracked through the university community service form in Argopulse. All contributions should be reflected through the student's e-portfolio. 

All students in the Kugelman Honors Program must maintain a 3.0 G.P.A. at UWF.

Failure to meet this requirement will result in being placed on probation in the Honors Program. If an Honors student fails to achieve a 3.0 G.P.A. for two consecutive semesters, the student will become academically ineligible to be a member of the Honors Program. Students who do not complete an Honors course for two consecutive semesters (not including summer semesters) will be terminated for non-participation.

Students who have become academically ineligible can apply for reinstatement to the Kugelman Honors Program once their G.P.A. exceeds 3.0 by submitting a petition for reinstatement to the Honors Director.