The Journey
A newsletter for chapter advisors, chapter officers, and regional officers.
June 2000 Issue
Unique Honors Project at Iowa College Offers Scholarships and More!
Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has taken an innovative approach to implementing the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Study Topic. The college has developed an honors program in which students may choose to do honors projects on old and new Honors Topics, allowing for greater freedom to explore topics that relate directly to their lives and career choices. Past student projects have included research studies, literature reviews, group study sessions, and writing works of fiction.
Other areas of innovation in the Kirkwood program pertain to the benefits and opportunities available to the students who participate. For example, the Kirkwood Foundation will pay for up to four hours of honors credit at Kirkwood, and students who successfully complete their honors project are able to take a free, upper-level course at Coe College, a nearby prestigious, four-year liberal arts college.
Kirkwood also sponsors an Honors Project Competition, judged by Phi Theta Kappa members, at the end of each semester in which students can receive cash awards. In addition, Kirkwood sponsors students who wish to present their projects at regional conferences, including two students who presented their projects at the annual Midwestern Psychological Association Conference in May 2000. Finally, Kirkwood honors students have the opportunity to showcase their academic talents by presenting their work at the end of each semester before other honors students, faculty members, and Kirkwood affiliates.
In the two years that Kirkwood has been implementing its unique Honors Project, a total of 54 students and 16 faculty members have participated. In addition to its partnership with Coe College, two other nearby four-year colleges, Cornell College and Mount Mercy College, are now preparing linkage programs with the Kirkwood Honors Project.
It is no surprise that the college's Honors Project has increased recruitment and membership in Phi Theta Kappa. Quite a few honors students who were not members of Phi Theta Kappa when they came into the honors program have accepted membership after learning about the Society's commitment to scholarship and service and its sponsorship of Kirkwood Community College's Honors Project.