Honors Program Curriculum

Students take two seminar classes, FYS 101H in the fall semester and HON 102 in the spring. In addition, most students start their language requirement in the first semester, depending on placement. Check with your advisor and the Honors directors for recommendations.

FYS101H

The fall Honors First-Year Seminar (August-December) is co-taught by professors from different disciplines. Students will acquire skills in critical thinking, writing, and speaking as well as general skills for success in college and in their future.

FALL 2023 topic: Cities

Click the titles below to learn more about each subtopic. Honors students may choose the subtopic that interests them most, and throughout the semester, you'll have a chance to learn about all three. Your "home" professor will also be your academic adviser until you declare your major. 

• Gender & The City with Dr. Lisa Marcus, French and Gender Studies
• History & The City with Dr. Mallory Huard, History
• Arts & The City with Dr. Noel Verzosa, Music

Recent field trips for the Honors fall seminar have included:

• The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
• Performances at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
• Zipline and obstacle course outing at Tree Trekkers in Frederick 
• Walking tour of the Tidal Basin monuments, Washington D.C.
• Escape room adventures at ClueIQ in Frederick
• The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C.

HON102

In the spring semester (January-May), students may choose one of four different sections of HON102. Each class focuses on a topic that takes an interdisciplinary approach to the sciences and technology in relation to society. 

Some recent topics:

• Not Sustainable: Environmental Burnout and Resilience
• How the Universe Began
• Plagues and Peoples
• Sustainable Diets

Recent field trips for the spring seminar have included: 

• U.S. Botanic Garden, Washington, D.C.
• National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, Md.
• Lunch at a local farm-to-table restaurant, The Orchard, in downtown Frederick
• The National Zoo, Washington, D.C.
• Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, Md.
• Collaborative work with local farms for sustainable diets class

Students take two seminar classes, Hon 201 in the fall semester and Hon 202 in the spring. In addition, most students finish their language requirement (through the 202 level) in the second semester of their second year, depending on placement. Check with your advisor and the Honors directors for recommendations.

HON201

Students can choose from a menu of classes that focus on global issues and differing cultural perspectives for HON 201, the fall seminar.  They will be encouraged to imagine the world from many points of view and challenged to examine how they think about and interact with the global community. 

Sample classes:

• Global Climate Change
• LGBTQ+ Global Perspectives
• Global Inequity
• Politics and Ethics

Class field trips for HON 201 have included:

• Symposium on January 6th, Washington D.C. 
• Frederick County landfill
• Crime Museum, Washington D.C.

HON202

Students will work closely with a faculty advisor of their choice for the spring semester practicum. Each student chooses a social or intellectual problem to address, writes a research paper and works at an off-campus site, gaining experience and connections that may also lead to paid employment or help determine a future career. The broad, overarching theme of this class is social justice, but the sites students at which students have chosen to volunteer are many and varied.

Recent practicum sites have included: 

• Heartly House 
• Frederick Health Hospital
• Housing Authority of Frederick
• Delaplaine Visual Arts Center
• Frederick Rescue Mission
• I Believe in Me
• Civil War Medicine Museum
• Halfway African American Cemetery
• Monocacy National Battlefield 

Sample research papers:

• “Power Shifting and Getting in Gear: The Youth Movement Toward a Sustainable Future” Site: Energy Action Coalition
• “19th Century Health Care” Site: National Museum of Civil War Medicine 
• “Environmental Justice Through the Eyes of the Deep Ecologist” Site: Catoctin Zoo 
• “Slavery and Social Injustice”
• “Acid Victims: A Spotlight on Social Injustices Faced by Women in South Asian Countries” Site: Frederick Memorial Hospital

Students choose upper-level honors electives from a wide array of options, many of which are based on student requests. Students may also elect to study abroad; sites chosen by Honors students include France, Spain, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Israel, Korea and New Zealand. Study abroad counts as one honors elective. Students who successfully complete a departmental honors paper also receive credit for one honors elective.

Sample Honors electives:

• Impact of Social Media on Society
• Censorship in America
• Revisioning Motherhood in Modern Western Culture
• The Chesapeake Bay
• Food and Culture
• American Landscapes: Environmental Literature in the US
• Exploring Utopia

Class field trips for upper-level electives have included:  

• Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.
• Maryland State Police Computer Forensics Lab, Columbia, Md.
• Special Beginnings Birthing Center, Arnold, Md.
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The senior seminar is a high point of the honors program, when students reflect on their experience in the Honors Program. Students choose a topic of broad interest and select a faculty member to teach the course. Sample seminar classes:

• Beauty and Culture
• Impact of Social Media on Society
• Philosophy of Love and Sex
• Why Us? The Success and Failure of Humanity

The Honors Program welcomes qualified transfer students. More information about the requirements for transfer students can be found in the Hood College Catalog. Requirements differ depending on the level of involvement a student had with Honors at their prior institution. Transfer students work closely with the Honors co-directors to identify which requirements of the Honors Program apply to them.

Transfer students may satisfy the Honors global language requirement in one of the following ways:

• Demonstrate proficiency in a global language through the 202-level (by coursework or placement exam)
• Successfully complete any two global language courses
• Complete one global language course and one approved culture course:

• Complete one global language course and one of the following:

  ANTH 302 Cultural Anthropology

  ECON 304 International Political Economy

  ECON 317 Economics of Development 

  GER 301 Berlin in the 20th Century

  GLBS 301 Human Migrations: Refugees and IDPs

  GLBS 345 Global Persp/Women, Power & Politics

  HIST 347 The Indigenous World

  HIST 356/357 Global Empires I/II

  HON/PHIL 316 Perspectives in Global Health

  MEST 300 Cultures of the Middle East

  NUR 300 Global Learning Exp/Healthcare & Nursing

The Honors Program welcomes qualified early college students who have completed an AA, or equivalent, during their high school years. Students with 30 or more credits from International Baccalaureate (IB) programs may also qualify, with director approval.

Early college students must take the First Year Seminar in their first semester at Hood. Their progression through the Honors Program is as follows:

• FYS 101H First Year Seminar Honors
• HON 202 in spring semester first year
• 2 300-level Honors electives (or substitute study abroad or departmental honors)
• 1 Hon 470 

They are considered transfer students for the purpose of Honors Program language requirements, which means they may satisfy the global language requirement in one of the following ways:

• Demonstrate proficiency in a global language through the 202-level (by coursework or placement exam)
• Successfully complete any two global language courses
• Complete one global language course and one approved culture course:

• Complete one global language course and one of the following:

  ANTH 302 Cultural Anthropology

  ECON 304 International Political Economy

  ECON 317 Economics of Development 

  GER 301 Berlin in the 20th Century

  GLBS 301 Human Migrations: Refugees and IDPs

  GLBS 345 Global Persp/Women, Power & Politics

  HIST 347 The Indigenous World

  HIST 356/357 Global Empires I/II

  HON/PHIL 316 Perspectives in Global Health

  MEST 300 Cultures of the Middle East

  NUR 300 Global Learning Exp/Healthcare & Nursing