The Columbia College Honors Program provides an enriching academic experience for outstanding students committed to excellence. The fundamental assumption of honors education is that the honors student should continually challenge her intellectual limits, working creatively and seriously to reach her highest potential as a scholar, reflective learner, individual thinker, and leader.

The Honors Program emphasizes independent learning and spirited exchange of ideas in a stimulating classroom environment which encourages a student to develop her own ideas in a knowledgeable and reasoned framework.

Chartered in 1985 to recruit, retain, and develop bright, motivated students, the Columbia College Honors Program is one of the fastest growing and most recognized programs on campus. Paramount to the mission of honors teaching and learning are certain key qualities that translate into goals in courses and in programming:

• Uncompromising academic standards
• Liberal, interdisciplinary knowledge
• Willingness to engage intellectual risk
• Independent, reflective learning
• Creativity

The Columbia College Honors Program endeavors to offer exciting, unique, accelerated courses and out-of-class experiences and to attract and develop outstanding students and faculty to help fulfill the high aims of honors education.

In simple terms, the Honors Program at CC is all about experiencing more inside and outside of your classes. The honors experience at CC can add more than just academic challenge to your undergraduate career. It can include travel to national and regional conferences, recognition for papers and independent projects, and opportunities that are available only to those who call themselves Columbia College Honors Students.

According to Dr. John Zubizarreta, Director of the CC Honors Program, "Honors is about risk. A student accepts great risk in pushing herself to the highest intellectual levels. Our responsibility is to encourage students' intellectual growth, provide them with valuable experiences, and challenge them to reach higher."

Want more information concerning Columbia College’s Honors Program? Click the “YouTube” logo to view the program’s documentary produced by former Honors student Karen Engle.

Also, view the program's fact sheet to learn more about Honors at Columbia College.