Honors New Students

Orientation

To help incoming Honors students learn about the opportunities the Honors Program offers to enhance their undergraduate education, new Honors students participate in an orientation program. This New Student Orientation program starts on the Thursday before classes begin, with students living on campus being able to move in early. This orientation is in addition to the university-sponsored Connections Program. Honors New Student Orientation is for students only.

This Orientation program includes meeting returning Honors students, the Director of the Honors Program, and Honors Program staff. Students will receive tours of campus and downtown Kutztown, meet Honors Professors, participate in ice-breaker activities, and go over Honors Program requirements.

Incoming Honors students will receive email communication from our Honors New Student Orientation student facilitators regarding details of the program. Communication will come from hporient@kutztown.edu. Questions regarding Honors New Student Orientation can be sent to hporient@kutztown.edu.

Fall 2024 Orientation will begin on August 22.

Peer Mentoring 

A thoughtfully designed approach to peer mentoring can bolster retention on multiple fronts, such as helping new students establish connections within the Honors community, ensuring participation in Honors programming, deepening the affiliation of the peer-mentors themselves, and creating worthwhile service that fortifies valuable “soft” skills. 

New students are paired with an older honors student in their major (if possible). Mentors send weekly correspondence to mentees about KU's campus and many resources, upcoming events and important information about the honors program, and mentor group meetings! 

Our research has proven to be very successful when new students participate in the mentoring program. They are more likely to meet all necessary requirement after their first semester and have success in their sophomore year moving into their capstone! 

Allentown-as-text

City as Text is a programming initiative coordinated through the National Collegiate Honors Council that is used by Honors programs throughout the country in a variety of ways. When students come with us to present their projects at the National and Regional Honors Council meetings, there is always City as Text programming. The idea, to put it simply, is that material community landscapes act as textbooks for direct interdisciplinary exploration, learning, and dialogue. We do a stripped-down version of it as a way to community build and lay foundations for new incoming Honors students.

Students make critical-reflective observations at one of the four sites: The Baum School of Art, America on Wheels, The Lehigh Valley Heritage Center, or Da Vinci Science Center. Over lunch, students exchange and dialogue comparing what they learned individually at the various sites and helping them work toward general evidence-based conclusions about Allentown as a city.  Students earn L/L credit for participation.

Fall Allentown-As-Text will happen on September 13th.