Honors Transfer Programs: Overview

1
Honors Transfer Programs Overview

• ASCCC Counseling and Library Science Faculty
  Institute
• Saturday, February 21, 2009
• Bernie Day, Foothill College
• Donna Mekis, Cabrillo College
• ASCCC Transfer and Articulation Committee

2
Why CCC Honors Programs Are Important Now

• Growing honors student populations at CCCs
  (CSU10,000, UC 3400 freshmen deferred for fall
  2009)
• Increase in students with high H.S. GPAs AP
  test scores attending CCC
• Increase in parents sending students to CCC and,
• Important to improve/maintain diversity in honors
  programs in order to increase the pool of
  underrepresented students to UC and CSU.

3
Honors Program History

• National Collegiate Honors Council (Basic
  Characteristics of an Honors Program)
• Different honors program models
• Honors course sections
• Contracted honors classes
• Interdisciplinary honors learning communities
• Honors colloquia
• Honors research opportunities or other
  special
• activities

4
Honors Success After Transfer

• Research on UCLA Transfer students (Kozeracki and
  Fitzgerald, 2002)
• 1. Honors program students are more likely to be
  young (21 or younger), white, and female
• 2. Honors students have a higher community
  college GPA and a higher GPA at time of UCLA
  graduation (statistically significant
  difference) and,
• 3. No significant difference exists between honor
  and non-honors students in terms of likelihood of
  earning a degree.

5
Community College Honors Program Benefits

• Increased chance of admission to highly selective
  universities and scholarships
• Better preparation for university-level work
• Closer working relationship with faculty
• Access to UCLA Transfer Alliance Program (TAP)
  and??ther honors transfer partners and,
• Access to community college research symposiums
  (U.C. Irvine and Stanford).

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UCLA Research How Do Honors Programs Support
Community College Transfer Students?

• 1. Challenge and motivate high-achieving
  students
• 2. Foster interactions among similarly-minded
  students
• 3. Provide challenging academic preparation
• 4. Offer supplemental transfer-focused
  counseling
• 5. Academic
• A. Additional assistance with transfer process
• B. Enhanced/rigorous classes and discussions
• 6. Social
• A. Professors may be more enthusiastic about
  classes
• B. Engaged in a community of highly motivated
  students
• 7. Personal Growth
• A. Increased confidence evident
• B. Increased focused on academic goals

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Honors for everyone?

• Perhaps not for students who.
• are ineligible for the program
• are unsure of the benefits
• learn about the program too late for it to be a
  benefit to their educational progress
• fear the risks are a threat to their GPA
• are unwilling to participate in class
  discussions and,
• have no need for available honors courses

8
Developing a New Honors Program

• Cabrillo College Honors Transfer Program
• Impetus for development of the program
• Curriculum development
• Process
• Marketing recruitment
• Campus/community response
• Future plans

9
Long-time Honors Program Experience

• Foothill College Honors Institute
• History
• Student recruitment, enrollment, retention
  efforts
• Curriculum development and articulation approval
• Faculty recruitment, training, staffing
• Benefits and challenges
• Goals

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Summary

• Benefits to students, faculty and community
• Challenges
• Instructional faculty and administrative support
• Resources