The Honors Program: Shrinking Violets Need Not Apply

By Nina M. Riccio / Publications Writer

Wanted: eager students of any major, willing to explore their education in a whole new, "think outside the box" kind of way.

Requirements: a willingness to do reams of reading and write plenty of papers. Must be inclined to speak up in class.

Benefits: rigorous intellectual stimulation, the company of serious students, and the occasional Broadway show.

During the summer of 2002, when Jessica Cataldo was getting ready to enter Fairfield, she got a letter inviting her to apply for admission into the University's Honors Program. "I had never heard of it and filled out the application at the last second," the senior psychology major now admits. "It wasn't until I came to the orientation lunch on campus and asked a few questions that I got really excited."

What excited her, she says, was the idea of team-taught classes, bringing together professors from two different disciplines - and therefore two different perspectives - to teach a single course. "My freshman class, 'Ideas That Shaped the West,' was taught by an English and a physics professor," Cataldo says. "We talked about things like the possibility of time travel and the relationship between time and space. It was challenging and thought provoking, and it really embodied the Jesuit practice of digging deep into a topic and approaching it from different angles."

As expected, the Honors Program is selective. "We have only 50 seats available each year," says Dr. John Thiel, program director and professor of religious studies in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). "We look for dedicated, mature, responsible students who take their studies seriously. The program gives them an intellectual community they find very satisfying."

Students are invited to apply to the program either as incoming freshmen or at the end of a very successful first year. "We look for a person who enjoys reading and critical thinking, who goes out of the way to find out about things, and who seeks out different educational experiences," notes Dr. Susan Rakowitz, assistant professor of psychology (CAS) and the program's associate director. Once accepted, students substitute for some of the University's core courses their seven required Honors courses, which deal with core concepts in expanded ways.

Without question, students capable of succeeding in the Honors Program are turned down each year because of space limitations. While there would be benefits to enlarging it (such as a broader selection of courses), Fairfield's Honors Program is structured differently than similar programs at other schools. "Most colleges have certain sections of a course set aside for honors students. Our Honors Program is based on an entirely distinct curriculum," says Dr. Thiel, noting the ever-changing roster of faculty who creatively link their respective disciplines when team teaching. For this reason, the program must be kept small.

The seven-course Honors sequence includes a team-taught class and a seminar in each of the first three years, plus a senior Honors project within the student's major. (Fulbright candidates can "re-order" their classes, doing their Honors project junior year so it can become the basis of their Fulbright application.) Honors students take classes together and get to know one another well, developing a cohesiveness that's apparent in the way they work together.

Students are told upfront that classes will involve substantial reading, lots of papers, and - perhaps most important - the expectation that they will be prepared to participate in classroom discussions. "Showing up is not enough," says biology major Anne Morris '06. "When they say participation, they mean participation! It's a major part of our grade.

"The 'Minds and Bodies' class I took freshman year was team taught by Dr. Joan Fleitas of the School of Nursing and Dr. Paul Lakeland of religious studies (CAS)," continues Morris. "Our discussions covered the impact of medicine on the body, the placebo effect, mental health, and the spiritual. It was far broader than anything I would ever have taken in a science class, and that's the point. The intention is to get us to think outside our comfort zone and to make us critical thinkers."

Finding two professors who work together well and whose disciplines complement each other is an art. "Team teaching is far more time consuming than teaching a class yourself," says Dr. Thiel. "The program is an engaging exercise for faculty, too. When team teaching, you learn to work with another's style, you collaborate on grades and reading, and you must stretch outside of your own discipline. If a team works it's because its members form a friendship and have an intellectual meeting of the mind."

Engaging, yes, but that doesn't mean the members of a team always agree. "The students love it when John and I get into an argument about something in front of them," says Dr. Rakowitz, who has taught several courses with Dr. Thiel. One of their ongoing "fights" concerns the issue of free will. He says that individuals have the power to make huge changes in their lives; she says we make choices within a limited range of possibilities. "It's important for students to hear intellectual discourse and to know that scholars aren't always in agreement on issues," she says. "The team-taught classes really help them understand the connection between different disciplines."

The same course, in the hands of different professors, takes on an entirely different tenor. Take "Ideas that Shaped the West." In one section, taught by Dr. Bill Abbott (history, CAS) and Dr. Kathryn Nantz (economics, CAS), three students lead the class using a Venn diagram to organize thoughts on the characteristics of an empire, then direct the class to break down into groups to determine which eastern nation - China? Japan? India? - is best poised to spearhead the next empire.

In the same course - as taught by Dr. David Schmidt (ethics, Dolan School of Business) and Dr. Laura Nash (music, CAS) - the discussion centers on the special privileges given to athletes in academic settings. Students in this class also keep an online journal in which they react to the readings and to the discussions in class. "David and I read those and send back comments, questions, and anything else that occurs to us. It promotes a more private dialogue than occurs in the classroom," explains Dr. Nash.

Lest anyone think these students fit neatly into an "all work and no play" stereotype, Dr. Thiel is quick to point out the Program's creed: education takes place both inside and outside the classroom. For this reason, Honors students regularly attend colloquiums with invited professors, Broadway plays, New Haven theatre, museum tours, and the opera. For the students, the cost is nominal, but the experience is priceless. "I grew up in Connecticut, but had only been to New York once and never to Broadway," says Morris. "Even the dinners we have out are an educational experience!" Recently, University President Jeffrey von Arx, S.J., invited a group of Honors students to supper at his house, an event preceded by a discussion he led on R.C. Collingwood's influential theory of history.

Just before the winter break, Drs. Thiel and Rakowitz hosted the second annual Pictionary Party for students needing to de-stress. And that illustrates one of the best parts of being an Honors student: the easy camaraderie that develops between those in the program and the professors. "Professors Thiel and Rakowitz are with us in everything we do, so we've really developed a relationship over the last four years," says Morris. "After all, college is not just about going to class."

Cataldo puts her feelings another way: "Part of the reason I feel so cared for here at Fairfield is because of the Honors Program."