College Overview

Saint Francis University Overview

The Saint Francis University (SFU) Honors Program is designed to challenge highly motivated
students by making them part of a community of learners, while at the same time affording them the
opportunity to devise a personal program of study.

Students are introduced to the Honors Program through a year-long learning community experience
consisting of a four-course sequence with intense critical thinking,
writing and speaking components. Successful completion of this sequence waives the university
speech requirement for the Honors student.

Included in this sequence is Honors 101, "The American College: Adaptation and Continuity."
The overarching theme of the course is "What does it mean to be an educated person?" Through
readings-anything from Thucidydes to Rousseau, Darwin to Milgram--students discuss the historical
and philosophical roots of education, as well as place it in a modern context. Honors Program
alumni volunteer stories of their own journeys to becoming educated persons. Students interview
these alumni, then incorporate what they learn into a videotaped monologue which serves as the final
project for the course. These monologues are catalogued and become resources for future Honors
students as well as a visual archive of the program's participants.

All other Honors requirements are fulfilled at the student's own pace and with the student's
personal academic interests in mind. For example, Honors students develop individual Directed
Readings Tutorials with faculty mentors. The discipline and scope of the tutorial is left up to the
student, but must be outside his or her major field of study.
Students have pursued tutorials such as "A Character Study of Dublin as Portrayed by Joyce and
James," "A History of Free Blacks in America," "Punishment and Redemption in The Inferno and Faust"
and "The Principles of Eco-Feminism."

Based upon the Franciscan ideal of concern for others above self, service learning activities
are built into all Honors seminars. Seminar topics change each semester, and through the years have
touched upon an ever-broadening range of subjects. "Women in Science," "The Films of M. Night
Shyamalan," "Social Change and the Civil Rights Movement," "The State of Satire" and "The Holocaust:
The Behavior of Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders" are among the more than 60 different seminars
that have been offered.

An original research project is the program's capstone requirement. Many students take
advantage of the option of expanding their Honors research so that they might earn departmental
honors recognition along with the Honors Program diploma.

Those participating in the Honors Program are the only students granted priority registration
at the university. The program also offers extensive faculty-student interaction, individualized
honors advising and opportunities for independent study.

The Bach Family Honors House, a 6,000+ square-foot facility on the edge of campus, opened in
2006. It includes a conference room-with state-of-the-art technology-for seminars and Honors core
courses; single rooms for nine Honors residents per year; a 24-hour study space for all Honors
students; and meeting, lecture and movie space.

Founded in 1984, the program currently enrolls 115 students, representing virtually every
discipline at the university.