The University Honors Program at Northeastern holds the following values to be crucial components of the Honors experience:
- Learning Happens Everywhere: At Northeastern, learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom—it happens in the residence hall, in the local community, and in the reflections in between. This is a major value of our university, but Honors embraces this value most through our mission, our attitude, and our focus. Be it an Honors service-learning course, presenting at national conferences, or participating in a global co-op experience, Honors enables learning opportunities wherever its students’ personal journey may take them.
- Student-Directed Learning: Only at Northeastern, with our educational philosophy centered around integrated learning and practice, can we enhance this for our Honors students by giving them the latitude to direct their own learning in a context they believe in and related to passions that fuel them. By offering opportunities to conduct advanced, interdisciplinary research and creative projects, build like-minded communities of scholarly peers, and participate in select research assistantships with university faculty, Honors students will have access to the resources and mentoring necessary to align their learning with their unique personal and professional goals. While the University Honors Program provides the resources, mentoring and a vast array of opportunities, students have the freedom to select and combine these opportunities to create something distinctly personalized to their passions and interests.
- Networked Communities: Honors students immediately begin their undergraduate journey as a part of the Honors community. They will then build layers and connections within and beyond that network as they join other communities through Honors Living Learning Communities, the Honors Alumni Mentoring Network, and their respective disciplines. It is through Honors that our students will grow a complex network of connections and support that will last a lifetime.
- Global Citizenship: Honors students are encouraged and supported to take advantage of the many global, experiential opportunities that Northeastern and Honors offers them—without boundaries or barriers. Through Honors Dialogues of Civilization, Honors Alternative Spring Break service-learning projects in Ecuador, or global co-op, Honors students are given the means and support to engage with the broader global community in which they inhabit.
- Personalized Growth Through Guidance and Support: Honors at Northeastern exemplifies our belief in personalized learning journeys. We take this a step further in Honors, as we curate and customize possibilities, while enabling our students be the architect of their path and personalize those to their needs and goals. Honors Academic Advising acts as the cornerstone in this effort, guiding students through one-on-one conversations grounded in developmental and reflective dialogue.
- Leadership: Honors students are prepared and empowered to take on leadership roles throughout their Northeastern experience. While they are the architects of their own futures, Honors students also shape the future of the University Honors Program itself. From participating in prospective student outreach as Honors Ambassadors, sharing their individual knowledge and expertise as Honors Teaching Assistants, to taking part in developmental workshops designed to foster leadership, communication, and team-building skills, Honors students have multiple opportunities to build leadership competencies in ways that align with their personal interests and goals.