The Honors College was founded as the Honors Scholars Program. In our 50 years at UNCW, Honors has built a tradition of mentoring undergraduates in research, providing students with diversity of thought and community, and emphasizing life-long curiosity.
The first student graduated from UNCW "with honors" by completing a rigorous two-semester independent project under the supervision of a faculty mentor.
Since that time, over 2,000 students have completed the requirements to graduate from UNCW with the honors in the major distinction.
In 1994, the honors experience was extended to all four years. The Faculty Senate approved this recommendation made by the Academic Standards Committee.
This decision kept the capstone academic project as the senior honors project. other opportunities for entering students to take honors sections of basic studies courses were added as well as honors experiential and interdisciplinary seminars.
Since 1994 over 2,300 students have enrolled in the four-year Honors curriculum.
A centralized program with a faculty director, Dr. Diane Levy (sociology), was established to implement all aspects of the four-year honors experience.
Dr. Kate Bruce (psychology) took over as director in 1999, and Dr. Shawn Bingham (sociology) arrived as director in 2018.
In July 2011, the Honors Scholars Program was formally elevated to Honors Scholars College in recognition of:
The Honors College attracts and retains academically talented students. The College offers a powerful learning experience by encouraging curiosity, critical thinking, and independent work skills. Together, these skills contribute to creating a community of honors scholars on campus.
The College is committed to offering opportunities to students as they pursue their academic passions in college. The vision of the program is to encourage and support life-long learning, including a global perspective.
Students in the Honors College complete portions of their UNCW coursework at the honors level. This includes the following:
In total, the Honors curriculum is only 5-8 credit hours of work that will not count towards other required areas of study.
June 5, 2020
As a community, the Honors College grieves Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, David McAtee, Tony McDade, and the countless others who have been killed by police brutality and senseless violence in recent and far-gone days. We stand in solidarity with those who grieve and peacefully protest the injustices that have plagued the U.S. in many forms for centuries.
The purpose of the Honors College is and has always been to develop citizen-scholars: to help students explore the world, think critically, and seek what is choice-worthy. We believe that each of our students and community members brings a unique perspective to learning. We cannot ignore the fact that many of those perspectives have been shaped and shaded by systemic oppression and racism, the legacy of which is still present in our local environment of Wilmington. In a university setting, we often think of education as a great equalizer, but we know that is not always the case, and that we must listen to the voices of our marginalized community members.
Our commitment to diversity in the Honors College allows us to act carefully and intentionally regarding admissions and programming. As a result, our freshmen incoming class is the most diverse the UNCW Honors College has ever seen, and our curricular offerings reflect an increasing diversity in our faculty members and course content. We will continue to learn and to educate our students to use their voices and advocate for justice and to help and serve others. To be sure, this includes working to better support our marginalized students and developing synergistic community partnerships.
If there is programming, community-engaged work, and/or events that you would like to see with regard to these actions, we invite our students, faculty, and alumni to let us know. We are a community in need of each of you – your ideas, talents, and ambitions. We are looking forward to being together with you again soon.
“The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.” —James Baldwin, “A Talk to Teachers”