HONORS COLLEGE COMMUNIQUE: May 2025 

       

Hello from the Honors College! It’s been a minute, but the Honors College Communique is back.

 

In partnership with Academic Advising, we are sending a monthly Honors College Communique on the Advising listserv, in which we will send updates about:        

       

1.     Honors news, updates, and advising information

2.      Honors opportunities open to all students     

2.      A highlighted benefit of being an Honors College member     

3.      A student highlight from your advising areas     

4.      Contacts within Honors for more information     

 

   

Honors News:        

 

Congratulations to Dr. Hector Aguilar and Fernando Cordova for their University Excellence Awards!

 

Dr. Hector Aguilar, Associate Dean of the Honors College and Distinguished Teacher in the Chemistry Department, received the Faculty Mentoring Award.

 

Fernando Cordova, Student Development Specialist, Special Programs, received the Rising Star Award.

      

Honors Academics:      

   

CPOS – How does Honors work with CPOS? Great question! Students can still pursue Honors and NOT have it impact CPOS or their progress to graduation. In fact, students could complete the Honors curriculum with only 1 added credit hour! The HON seminars are not required.

 

Here’s the important information regarding the Honors curriculum:

 

There are only 4 required courses in Honors: 2 of which are core curriculum courses, 1 is a zero credit course, and one is a 1 credit course. The rest of the curriculum is experience-based, where students have the option to complete courses or outside the classroom experiences.

 

Here are the potential scenarios for Honors courses, regarding CPOS. They can be applied:

 

Detailed information regarding the Honors curriculum:

 The Honors curriculum has two parts: required courses & experiences.

 

Required courses:

·       HON 1000 – is required for all Honors students and must be taken in the first semester. This is a zero-credit hour, 8-week, online, asynchronous course. Does not impact credit hours, schedule, or tuition.

·       HON 2301 – is required for Honors and can be taken anytime. This is a one-credit hour, 8-week, online, asynchronous course. 

·       Honors CSH 1213– this is a core curriculum course, which is offered in the fall or spring semester. Each section has a different topic, and this course can be taken at any time. *Note: students can petition other cultural-based experience courses to sub for this, ex: study abroad.

·       Honors WRC 1023 – this is a core curriculum course, and is only required if the student does not have prior credit (ex: dual credit for ENGL 1302).

 

Experiences:

Students who enter Honors with less than 60 credit hours complete 6 experiences. Students who enter with more than 60 credit hours complete 3 experiences. Experiences can be any combination of courses or outside the classroom experiences.

 

 

  

Notes: 

 

Honors Counseling  

Honors Counselors are assigned to students by college/major, however, students are not limited to seeing just that Counselor. They can see any available Honors Counselor, or Peer Coach. Honors Counselors + Peer Coaches (aka, the Academic Team) are available in the Honors Experiential Learning Lab, GSR 1.204. Students can just drop in any time during operating hours and meet with any available Honors Counselor or Peer Coach! https://honors.utsa.edu/academics/experiential-learning-lab.html

 

Have questions? Contact the Honors Counselors at honors.advising@utsa.edu.  

 

 

Honors Opportunities for All Students:      

 

Honors Course Requests - Did you know that after priority registration, any student with a UTSA GPA of 3.3 or higher can enroll in available Honors courses? It’s just a simple matter of filling out this form. We have some exciting fall courses, so check out the course descriptions on our website. Please share these with any students you think will be interested. Link to the website where the form is housed: https://honors.utsa.edu/academics/forms-documents.html.

  

   

Highlighted Benefit for Honors College Members:      

   

Cost Rica - the Honors College will travel to Rancho Margot this June, where students spend one week at an off-the-grid farm learning about ecology, sustainability, and mindfulness. This trip is tied to a fall Honors course, where students put into practice the activities they engaged in, in Costa Rica with San Antonio community entities (such as local community gardens, learning about watershed processes at Confluence Park, and much more!). The program counts as an Engaged Living experience in the Honors curriculum. Learn more about the program on our website.   

 

 

Student Highlights:   

  

Student Highlight: College and Majors Profile of the Spring 2025 graduating class 

 

In our graduating class, we have 369 students representing the following colleges and majors:  

·       Alvarez College of Business: Accounting, Business Analytics, Cyber Security, Economics, Finance, Information Systems, Management, Marketing, Operations & Supply Chain Management, Real Estate Finance & Development, Statistics & Data Science 

·       College of Education and Human Development: Equity and Education, Interdisciplinary Studies

·       College of Liberal and Fine Arts: Art, Anthropology, Classical Studies & Humanities, Communication, English, Film & Media Studies, Geography & Environmental Sustainability, Global Affairs, History, Medical Humanities, Modern Language Studies, Music, Philosophy, Politics and Law, Political Science 

·       College of Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Microbiology & immunology, Mathematics, Math of Data and Computing, Neuroscience, Physics 

·       Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design: Architecture, Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Construction Science and Management, Electrical Engineering, Interior Design, Mechanical Engineering

·       College of Health, Community and Policy: Criminology & Criminal Justice, Health, Kinesiology, Nutrition and Dietetics, Public Administration, Psychology, Public Health, Sociology

·       University College: Multidisciplinary Studies

·       Certificates: Aerospace Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Programming for Engineering, Data Science, Design Communication & Fabrication, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Legal Studies, Nutrition for Health Professionals, Public Policy and Data Analysis

   

Students Future Plans:  

·       Accepted into:

·       Beginning career/Accepted Positions/Internships:

·       Applying for law school, medical school, pharmacy programs

·       Travelling overseas for the summer

·       ...and more!  

 

Best Regards,      

Alegra Lozano, Director of Counseling, Honors College, alegra.lozano@utsa.edu                

Hector Aguilar, Associate Dean, Honors College, hector.aguilar@utsa.edu    

     

Honors email: honors@utsa.edu     

Honors advising email: honors.advising@utsa.edu     

Honors website: https://honors.utsa.edu/

Honors Experiential Learning Lab: https://honors.utsa.edu/academics/experiential-learning-lab.html