Honors Program

Do you have a passion for the unexplored? Do you like considering alternate possibilities? The RMC Honors Program is a community of like-minded learners who are deeply curious about the world and determined to better our community. Honors students are athletes, performing artists, teachers, scientists, budding healthcare professionals, engineers and more, who work collaboratively and dive deep beyond disciplinary boundaries to make new discoveries and find solutions to real-world problems.

Honors students get exclusive access to exciting, interdisciplinary courses, designed just for the Honors program. Each class is capped at 16 students to ensure a small-group seminar environment, and each count for other curriculum requirements, which means you can participate in the Honors program, even while pursuing rigorous majors and/or participating in significant co-curricular activities like athletics.

The work inside the classroom is enhanced outside of it, with a yearly research project completed with the one-on-one help of a member of the faculty. If you complete the program, you’ll graduate with Honors.

Honors Program Requirements

Honors Program up Close In and Beyond the Classroom

program activities and opportunities

Curious students have access to unique opportunities. As part of the Honors program:

Participate in the Honors FOCUS series, a year-long theme featuring guest speakers and special seminars.
Travel to conferences to present your original research using Honors Program grant funding.
Work with a dedicated Honors student library liaison and receive extended library lending privileges.
Participate in Honors Program professional development programs

A living-learning community

First-year honors students have priority access to live in Andrews Hall, which serves as the hub of the Honors community. The Honors Office is located in the lobby, and common spaces of Andrews Hall that serve as the hub of Honors activities on campus.

Second, third, and fourth year students can apply to living in the Honors Living-Learning Community in Conrad Hall. This upgraded dormitory floor is open to all Honors students and includes special programming and Honors resident assistant support.

A group of Honors Program students posing in front of a brick building.

Honors Program in Full Courses You Won’t Want to Miss

(A very small sample)

Explore the psychology behind participation in sport and exercise, and the associated psychological outcomes of this participation. Examine psychological theories and research, and their application to sport and physical activity. Learn the behaviors and cognitions of participants and the individual and environmental factors that shape psychological outcomes related to sport and exercise.

Examine parks and civic life from a communication perspective to explore how meaning is made in public life. Study parks through the prism of various cultural themes including race, class, gender, access, indigeneity, urban/suburban/rural, sustainability, recreation and tourism, nature cultures, ecology, art, and activism. Visit several Central Virginia parks to better understand how ‘sense of place’ shapes civic life in parks, and work with the Ashland Department of Parks and Recreation to create new opportunities for civic engagement within Ashland’s Park System.

Using Odysseus as a case study, analyze an array of ancient and modern sources (Homer, Plato, Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, Statius, Dante, Tennyson, Joyce, Shay) in a quest to uncover the real identity of this hero, and at prompting reflection on a concept that is often turned into a meaningless and empty label. Discover and redefine who heroes were in the past and who they are presently.

all honors courses

Applying to the Honors Program

Applications for the honors program open in October for new students.

Students who are admitted to RMC and qualify for Honors will be automatically invited to apply. Additional invitations may be extended after the scholarship interview. Qualifying students will be sent a link and instructions for applying to the program via email. Current RMC students with a 3.0 GPA or higher may also apply each January. For more information, contact honors@rmc.edu.

How to Apply to Honors