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Our Mission

The mission of the University Honors Program at Valdosta State University is to provide for the stimulation of academically motivated students so that they achieve their full academic potential, while at the same time providing recognition for such students' endeavors. The Honors Program encourages meaningful connections between disciplines, innovative and unusual approaches to subject matter, and a reliance upon experiential learning that is fully integrated into the course content. The Honors Program also provides extra-curricular opportunities for students to broaden themselves through lectures, service opportunities, and other forms of activity that relate to their education. Finally, the mission of the Honors Program is to attract the best students to Valdosta State, and to assist in retaining those students through all four years of their undergraduate experience. In this way Honors Program students will make a visible and positive impact on the entire university community, thereby enriching the diversity of the Valdosta State University community as a whole.

Objectives

Students in the University Honors Program should demonstrate competency in the following objectives by the time they finish the Honors Program:

  1. Effective written communication skills (including ability to use research).
  2. Effective oral communication skills.
  3. Effective quantitative skills.
  4. The ability to analyze and synthesize a broad range of material.
  5. The ability to make meaningful connections between various disciplines.
  6. The ability to formulate a problem, develop a plan of action, and prove or disprove an hypothesis (or to create and produce an original work or do research).
  7. The ability to take greater responsibility for own learning (demonstrate curiosity, motivation, risk-taking characteristics, and the ability to bring to bear logic and knowledge of the issue being discussed).

Vision

The University Honors Program offers special courses and activities designed to help qualified students realize their full intellectual potential and to provide them with the best possible preparation for their major degree programs. It does so through a wide range of special classes, interdisciplinary seminars, and extra-curricular programs supported by departments and faculty across campus. Please view the expanded Honors Program Vision Statement.