The University Honors minor at CSU Pueblo provides high-achieving students with enhanced learning opportunities to stimulate their engagement and development, both within an intellectual community of scholars, and as citizens of the wider university community and the world. The Honors minor curriculum provides students with special opportunities for interaction with faculty in thought-provoking seminars and intensive guided research, as well as experiential and service-learning projects.

Program Goals

• To provide opportunities for enriched work for high-achieving students.
• To offer small classes that permit challenging study of advanced material and increased interaction with faculty who will serve as academic and pre-professional mentors.
• To provide students with an interdisciplinary approach to academic research through seminars and experiential learning, culminating in individual projects supervised by faculty.

Specific Admission Requirements

Criteria for admission to the CSU Pueblo University Honors Minor Program:

1. Incoming freshmen to Colorado State University Pueblo are encouraged to apply for the Honors Program if they graduated high school with a GPA of 3.8 or a minimum combined ACT score of 26, or a minimum combined SAT score of 1200. An index system determines final eligibility.
2. Undergraduate transfer students and current CSU Pueblo undergraduate students with a minimum grade point average of 3.5 are encouraged to apply for membership in the Honors Program. Two letters of recommendation from faculty members addressed to the Honors Program Director are also required.
3. Admission of non-honors students into honors courses is at the discretion of the faculty member teaching the course, with the approval of the Honors Director. 

General Requirements

University Honors Minor Program students must maintain a 3.5 cumulative GPA at CSU Pueblo to remain in good standing in the program. Students who do not meet the requirement will receive a single one semester probation period permitted before they are removed from the program and forfeit program awards. Students must maintain appropriate Honors standards as well, and may also be removed from the program by the Honors Director, in consultation with the Honors Steering Committee, for failing to uphold other Program commitments (e.g., failing Honors courses, failing to attend Honors seminars, and inappropriate behavior on service-learning assignments). To receive program credit, each required Honors Minor course must be passed with a B (3.0) or better.

Expected Student Learning Outcomes

Honors Program students should be able to:

• Formulate and develop arguments with sufficient support, including reasoning, evidence, persuasive appeals, and proper attribution.
• Integrate knowledge from diverse perspectives, disciplines, and skill sets, both theoretical and applied, to hone them into arguments and/or strategies.
• Apply discipline-specific as well as cross-discipline-based knowledge to design, execute, and report on a specific problem-solving strategy.
• Make substantial leadership contributions to advancing personal and group work.
• Behave ethically as demonstrated in all performance categories, including classroom, extracurricular, community-based service learning, and independent research areas.

Outcomes Assessment

Assessment for Honors seminars is based on short research papers each semester involving the use of academic resources and material covered by seminar speakers. Assessment of service learning experiences is based on journals submitted by students and on evaluations provided by site supervisors. Assessment of Honors courses and supervised research will be conducted by the faculty supervisor in the appropriate academic department. An assessment plan is on file with the University and will be updated annually.

Specific Program Requirements