Senior Options
Students who plan to graduate with an honors disctinction from the UHP must complete a 6 credit-hour Senior Option during their senior year. The Honors Program offers four Senior Options described in summary below with links to full descriptions, procedures and requirements.
Senior Colloquium and Service Learning
This course represents the UHP's commitment to education for civic responsibility. It gives students the opportunity to integrate academics with service in an experiential way. This one-semester plan combines seminar-style classroom work with a hands-on community service research project. Students enroll in both the Colloquium and the Service Learning for a total of 6 credit hours in one semester. Students design a service learning project that integrates with the topic of the Colloquium. They invest a minimum of 40-hours in service learning activities during the semester. Service-learning includes volunteer work with a designated agency, integrating service into a student academic studies, outreach programs that engage students and the community in common, hands-on-action, policy research, or community problem solving. Students may become involved through the UNM Center for Service Learning. Students also write several papers, including a final Integrated Service Project summary, which becomes a permanent part of the Honors Library.
Senior Student Teaching
The Senior Teaching option is inteded for selected graduating seniors who are contemplating becoming professional teachers and who wish to gain experience working with an Honors instructor in an interdisciplinary setting. This two-semester plan offers students the opportunity to plan and co-teach an Honors seminar. During the first semester, students collaborate with a Master Teacher to plan the course. In the second semester students will co-teach the course implementing the lesson plans and materials gathered during the preparatory semester. Students wishing to be senior teachers must be bona fide Honors students, have senior classification, and have completed a minimum of 18 UHP credit hours by the time of the teaching semester. This option involves a detailed application process and requires attendance at several workshops.
Senior Interdisciplinary Honors Program Thesis
In this option students conduct independent research in preparation for writing a thesis. Throughout the research semester, students will meet regularly with their UHP Thesis Advisor. They will discuss thesis options and then complete and sign a Thesis Proposal form, which will be given to the Thesis Coordinator. Once this proposal has been formalized, students will spend the remainder of the semester completing research into these topics. Completion of a major interdisciplinary research paper (approximately 30 pages excluding bibliography). Students will meet regularly with their UHP Thesis Advisor and attend regular thesis meetings.
Senior Dicsiplinary (Departmental) Thesis
Seniors who have been admitted to a departmental honors program, usually beginning in the junior year, may use 6 hours of credit toward their 24 hours requirement in the UHP. Most departments require that seniors complete a thesis, but some departments may offer other options, such as an extensive design project. Students interested in this option must submit an application form for this option to the Honors Director by the end of their sophomore year or first semester of their junior year. A completed, signed copy of the thesis or project must be submitted to the UHP office no later than two weeks before graduation.
