
Sarah Buckley
Honors student uses X-credit to blog about food waste.
The Honors Program is meant to enrich your college experience rather than piling on extra work. To that end, we have designed a curriculum that allows you exemptions from certain core classes in exchange for completing levels of Honors coursework.
You also have flexibility in fulfilling upper lever Honors requirements—Honors electives, study abroad, writing a departmental honors paper or honors thesis—all of these qualify for Honors credit.
Honors classes are enhanced by field trips, guest speakers and a variety of hands-on activities and special projects. In keeping with the collaborative nature of the program, students meet as a group to decide on the topics of their senior seminars and suggest faculty they would like to teach them.
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.
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.
Recent field trips for the Honors fall seminar have included:
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:
Recent field trips for the spring seminar have included:
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.
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:
Class field trips for HON 201 have included:
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:
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:
Class field trips for upper-level electives have included:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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
Honors student uses X-credit to blog about food waste.
Honors 102 students sample fruits from other continents as they learn about sustainable diets!
In the Sustainable Diet course, students explored foods from a variety of cultural traditions and parts of the world.
In the Sustainable Diet course, students explored foods from a variety of cultural traditions and parts of the world.
In the Sustainable Diet course, students explored foods from a variety of cultural traditions and parts of the world.
Honors class, The Sustainable Diet, evaluating the Orchard Restaurant downtown Frederick as a Farm to Fork restaurant with Gina Gohl from the Hood College Food Security Network.
Information will vary based on program level. Select a path to find the information you're looking for!