The Honors Program at the University of Cincinnati is pretty simple: gain your honors experiences, reflect on them, and, to help get you started, take Gateway to University Honors your first semester of your first year. From the outside, it looks like a pretty basic course. It's a 1 credit hour, 1 day a week, 1 semester course. But in the class, you will learn so much more. It teaches incoming students in the honors program the basics of the program, including how to find and achieve honors experiences, and more general skills that will help them throughout their college years and later in life, such as how to identify and enhance their strengths and how to reflect on events in their lives.
Already I have learned many important lessons in the class. It has taught me how to view the requirements of the honors program not just as things in a to-do list that I have to force myself to accomplish just so I don’t get kicked out, but as steps that I can use in my academic career and personal life to better myself and my education. It has given me the opportunity to pursue and research honors experiences that will challenge me to go out of my comfort zone while also giving me the ability to learn skills that will help me throughout the rest of my life. Moving forward, I want to use the lessons that I attained in this course in both my everyday life and in pursing my academic goals. I will use my newfound ability of reflection to help me analyze and learn from my new experiences in college, whether it’s in the classroom or in the community. I will also use the information I gained about the honors program to make my next 4 years in it the best that it can be, from finding honors experiences that enhance and challenge my learning, to making connections with other students in the program.
Already I have learned many important lessons in the class. It has taught me how to view the requirements of the honors program not just as things in a to-do list that I have to force myself to accomplish just so I don’t get kicked out, but as steps that I can use in my academic career and personal life to better myself and my education. It has given me the opportunity to pursue and research honors experiences that will challenge me to go out of my comfort zone while also giving me the ability to learn skills that will help me throughout the rest of my life. Moving forward, I want to use the lessons that I attained in this course in both my everyday life and in pursing my academic goals. I will use my newfound ability of reflection to help me analyze and learn from my new experiences in college, whether it’s in the classroom or in the community. I will also use the information I gained about the honors program to make my next 4 years in it the best that it can be, from finding honors experiences that enhance and challenge my learning, to making connections with other students in the program.