A student wearing a graduation cap and gown stands on a high alpine ridge at sunrise.

Honors Program

The Honors Advantage

The Honors Program at Western offers high-achieving students unique academic and personal benefits, including small, discussion-based classes, opportunities for independent research, and priority course registration. Students can also access dedicated Honors housing and facilities, participate in service learning and study abroad, and earn special recognition at graduation.

This program provides the best of a liberal arts education by providing students with the opportunity to become autonomous learners within a highly supportive and collaborative academic community. Students are encouraged and challenged to free themselves from not only external constraints on the acquisition of knowledge and understanding, but also from internal limitations that can prevent critical thinking, reflective analysis, and responsible choice. The Honors Program welcomes a diversity of perspectives and fosters the intentional practice of civil discourse, enabling students to develop the capacity for informed analysis and responsible evaluation and a willingness to submit discoveries and conclusions to an academic community of their peers and mentors to be mutually investigated and critiqued.

Five Core Values

The Honors Program at Western is founded on five core values that shape the goals and structure of the program. Honors students implement these values in their lives inside and outside of the classroom to enhance their sense of intellectual curiosity and promote their development as students and professionals.

Risk Taking & Autonomy
Social Intelligence
Interdisciplinarity
Citizenship & Community
The Good
A student stands on a high alpine ridge at sunrise.

Risk Taking & Autonomy

While our program demands high academic achievement, it does not mean our students play it safe academically. Honors at Western encourages students to take the initiative to own their educational experience. Honors courses present you with opportunities to think for yourself, free from internal or external constraints on intellectual inquiry. We encourage students to take the initiative in their own education and support them in developing the resiliency needed when stepping out of their academic comfort zone.

3 girls stand around a drone on a table during Industry Night

Social Intelligence

It is not enough to be the “smartest one in the room” if you lack the intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence to communicate your ideas and listen to the ideas of others. Our program and its educational opportunities encourage students to develop the capacity to negotiate and navigate complex social and intellectual environments, so that Honors students are not just the “smartest ones in the room,” but the most effective communicators and collaborators in the room.

Honors students pose with peace signs against a mural.

Interdisciplinarity

Honors courses are designed to promote cross-disciplinary exploration and discovery. You will find students and faculty of a multitude of majors and interests in Honors classes, providing an extremely fertile and complex environment for discussion and analysis.

A girl pushes a wheelbarrow full of mulch while volunteering as part of Western's women's soccer team during fall clean up of a Mountain Roots' garden.

Citizenship & Community

We seek to create elite learners without elitism and a cohort of students who learn to develop the deep connection between higher education and citizenship within a supportive academic community. Our community members are highly motivated students, faculty, and staff who share an intellectual curiosity about the world around them.

Two students wearing red jackets walk the East River Trail at sunrise during wildflower season.

The Good

While scholars may debate the “Form of the Good” the Honors Program at Western sees it as deeply connected to the purpose and values of a Liberal Arts and Science education. We seek to create opportunities for our students to develop into virtuous, knowledgeable and articulate citizens for whom the pursuit of knowledge is integral to human development.

Hands-On Opportunities

  • A student watercolor paints a sunset in Prauge.

    Place as Text

    The annual Place as Text course provides Honors students with the opportunity to study abroad to a different location each year and gain a deeper understanding of the world and their place within it.
    Read More

Program Requirements

Honors

Invitations to the Honors Program are extended to high school students who have achieved a 3.5 cumulative grade point average or who have successfully completed International Baccalaureate programs. First- or second-year Western students with a minimum 3.3 grade point average may also apply. Upper-division students are considered on an individual basis.

Continuation in the program is based on maintaining an overall grade point average of 3.0. Graduation from the program requires a grade point average of 3.3 and completion of program requirements.

Program Requirements Degree Plan

Scholarships

Scholarships by Department

The Western Colorado Foundation offers scholarships specifically for this program. Explore eligibility requirements and funding opportunities.

Explore Scholarships

General Western Scholarships

Western Colorado University offers merit—and need-based scholarships, recognizing achievement, financial need, and special talents.

Explore Scholarships

Honors Department

Director

Administrative Assistant

Contact Information

970.943.7021
ztreisman@western.edu

Contact Location

Western Colorado University
Taylor Hall 110
1 Western Way
Gunnison, CO 81231