JMU HONORS PROGRAM

251 Warren Service Drive
MSC 1501
Harrisonburg, VA 22807

Hillcrest House

540.568.6953
540.568.7728 
540.568.8079 (fax)

E-mail:  honors@jmu.edu

Office hours:
Mon.-Fri., 8:00am-5:00pm

 


Epilogue Fall 2008

 

 

  

  

Quick Links 

JMU Homepage                                                                                     Honors Program Homepage  

Honors Alumni Homepage                                                                 Honors Alumni News and Notes

Support the Honors Program                                                                           2007-2008 Highlights

 

 

Class of 2012 

Nearly 1000 high school seniors applied for fall 2008 admission into the Honors Program. Our entering freshman group of about 200 is an outstanding group, having strong standardized test scores, excellent grades in challenging high school curricula, and significant extracurricular activities.

 

Academic Program Review Completed 

An Academic Program Review of the Honors Program was recently completed. An internal review was completed this summer. An external review team was on campus in mid-October and included two honors alums, Mr. Kenneth Driver (1989) and Dr. Tracy Griggs Lambert (2000). We are awaiting the written report of the external team. The review will help us identify and form a strategic vision that will make the program a national model for honors and a centerpiece of the university's academic enterprise that will appeal to all majors. This will involve significant changes in the honors curriculum, how we do honors advising, and the nature of the honors community. We are very excited about this process! Expect to hear more in the Spring Epilogue.    

 

No More Subject Area Honors Students!  

JMU students enter the Honors Program at various stages in their academic careers.  In the past, entering freshmen joined the program as Honors Scholars; eligible students in their second, third, or fourth semester at JMU entered the program as Subject Area Honors students. Subject Area students, like Honors Scholars, are strong students who take honors classes and seminars and complete a senior honors project. The Honors Program staff, in consultation with the Honors Program Committee and the Dean of University Studies, has decided to identify and recognize both groups of students as Honors Scholars from this point forward.  The differences in course requirements according to entry point differences will be reflected by the designations of Track I or Track II instead

 

Honors Housing 

Beginning Fall 2009, the Honors Program will have its own residence hall. One of the two 200-bed wings of Shenandoah Hall, currently under construction on East Campus directly across from the Arboretum and next to a dining hall also under construction, will be a residence hall for freshmen and sophomore honors students. The hall will include an apartment for a faculty-in-residence, a classroom, a meeting room, study lounges, and more! Many thanks to the Office of Residence Life for their help in putting this together.

 

Provost Award for Excellence in Honors Teaching 

The first annual Provost Award for Excellence in Honors Teaching was awarded to Dr. C. David Pruett, Professor of Mathematics, http://www.math.jmu.edu/~dpruett/, Dr. Pruett was selected from an outstanding group of teachers nominated by students, faculty, and department heads across the university. The winner of the award is recognized at the Provost's annual award ceremony and receives a $1000 honorarium. Dr. Pruett and his wife Susan graciously donated that honorarium to help support the Honors Program.

   

Alumni News 

Thanks to those of you who have sent us information about your life after JMU! We are posting that information on the News and Notes section of our alumni website. If you have not yet responded or have new information for us, here is where you can go to fill us in.

 

Support the Program 

The Honors Program is actively seeking financial support from alums, parents, and other friends of the program to help fund programming, student research, and study abroad. Please consider giving your support to the program. If you would like to provide support to a specific area rather than contributing to the general program fund, please contact us and we will work out a procedure to assure that this happens.

 

Happy Holidays from the Entire Honors Staff! 

Barry Falk                    Maureen Shanahan        Mary Kay Adams          Melinda Adams
Program Director          Associate Director          Assistant Director        Prestigious Scholarships Coordinator

 

Karen Allison                 Anne-Marie Harrison
Executive Secretary       Administrative Assistant