Academic Catalog 2024-25

Honors Program

The Dominican Honors Program is one of the institution’s many paths to excellence. It incorporates the university’s Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) to offer a distinctive plan of study for a multi-disciplinary cohort of students who are dedicated to achieving exceptional academic and personal standards. Curricular and co-curricular offerings are learner-directed experiences through which students acquire skills and knowledge that lead to engaged citizenship. The close-knit Honors learning community is rooted in the Dominican pillars of study, reflection, community, and service while upholding the values of this institution as shaped by its history and its Californian identity.

Admission
Incoming first-year students are granted entry based on high school grade point average (GPA); an academic writing sample, and responses to Honors-specific questions. Transfer students are admitted to the program either on the basis of articulation agreements with honors programs at their former institutions or cumulative GPA. Current students interested in the program are invited to apply for entry into the Honors program based on academic performance at Dominican.

Benefits
There are many benefits to participation in the Honors Program:

  • Students assume leadership roles as representatives on the Honors Board or Student Honors Board to directly shape Honors programming.
  • Students may register during the first day of priority registration along with senior-year students
  • Students may register for a total of 6 units of overload without an additional fee while enrolled at Dominican. This means that a student may register for over 18 units (up to a maximum of 22 units) in one semester. To be eligible for this benefit, the student should have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher. First-year students are not eligible for the tuition waiver.
  • Juniors and seniors may take graduate courses (with instructor permission).

Requirements
Honors students are required to maintain a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA in order to remain in the program. If a student’s cumulative GPA falls below 3.5, the student will be given a reasonable period of time to raise their GPA. During this probationary period a student has access to the Honors Program benefits and courses, with the exception of overload units.
Every student must fulfill these Honors requirements to graduate from the Honors Program:

  • Maintain a 3.5 cumulative GPA
  • Complete 20 units of Honors coursework
  • Complete a Dominican service-learning course
  • Complete a co-curricular global or community-engaged learning experience
  • Complete a digital portfolio

Honors unit requirements are appropriately prorated to 16 units for transfer students or students who join the program after their first semester at Dominican. A student may take up to 8 units of Honors coursework off campus, upon approval of the Honors Director. Honors work may not be taken on a Pass/No Pass basis.

The Honors co-curriculum requirements focus on global learning and leadership opportunities such as faculty-led Honors trips and place-based projects that aim to foster intercultural knowledge, cultural humility, social responsibility, and global interconnectivity.

Honors Courses
Honors courses at Dominican are taught as small experiential learning seminars that provide a learner-directed and community-engaged alternative to the university-wide core-curriculum requirements. With an emphasis on service-learning and community engagement, the Honors curriculum situates the student as an active and thoughtful learner who is developing a sense of agency.

Honors courses that meet CORE requirements:

CORE- EC 1

HONO 1111Writing and Rhetoric: Effective Communication I

4.00 units

 

CORE- EC 2

HONO 2222Advanced Writing and Research: Effective Communication II

4.00 units

 

CORE- Purpose and Meaning

HONO 3140Structures of Faith

4.00 units

HONO 3155Liberation Theology

4.00 units

Must have SL Designation to fulfill CORE Requirement

 

HONO 3192World Religions

4.00 units

HONO 3900American Transcendentalism

4.00 units


CORE- Artistic and Creative Expression

HONO 3013Listen and Compose: The Diverse World of Music

4.00 units

HONO 3119Art Fundamentals: Concept to Creation

4.00 units

HONO 3301Community Engaged Art

4.00 units

Must have SL Designation to fulfill CORE Requirement

 

HONO 3412Creative Writing

4.00 units

HONO 3414Theater for Social Change

4.00 units

Must have SL Designation to fulfill CORE Requirement


CORE- Civic Knowledge and Engagement

HONO 3030SL: Big History Lens on the Evolution of Human Cultures

4.00 units

HONO 3102Cultural Anthropology

4.00 units

Must have SL Designation to fulfill CORE Requirement

 

HONO 3202Just Learning: Books Not Bars

4.00 units

Must have SL Designation to fulfill CORE Requirement

 

HONO 3203Empires and Colonization

4.00 units

HONO 3711U.S. Environmental History

4.00 units


CORE- Examined Life

HONO 3105Ethics of Housing and Homelessness

4.00 units

HONO 3109Healthcare Ethics and Equity

4.00 units

Must have SL Designation to fulfill CORE Requirement

 

HONO 3204Virtuosity: Cultivating Moral/Ethical Character

4.00 units

HONO 3206Social Justice and Ethical Action

4.00 units

Must have SL Designation to fulfill CORE Requirement

 

HONO 3500Self, Community, and Service

3.00 units

HONO 3505SL: Ethics from the Margins

4.00 units

Must have SL Designation to fulfill CORE Requirement


Honors Elective courses

Elective

HONO 4994Teaching Assistantship: Honors

3.00 units