Honors Program
Membership
There are two components required for membership in the Honors College at Missouri State. The first is general honors, which applies to general education coursework, and the second is departmental distinction in your major. You may stop after completion of the general honors and still receive all privileges of the Honors College, as long as you maintain the required 3.25 GPA.
Departmental distinction
To receive departmental distinction in communication, you must complete an additional 12 hours of honors credit within your major. You may take courses already designated as honors sections, such as COM 115 Fundamentals in Public Speaking. Additional course hours can then be completed by adding a one-hour honors component to a three-hour course. This option requires the approval of the faculty member teaching the course and may require an additional project or paper.
Senior honors project
You must complete a senior honors project, which can count as three hours of independent study toward the 12-hour requirement. To begin your honors project, you must submit a proposal that is approved by the advisor, department head and director of the Honors College. Approval for your project must be received in the next-to-the-last semester before graduation.
Honors project examples
Past honors projects within the department of communication have explored the following:
- Faculty perception of the College of Arts and Letters newsletter
- Rhetorical study examining sermons from two well-known ministers
- Writing a script for a children’s book, with approval from a publisher
- Student perception of a leadership minor
- Attorney’s nonverbal behaviors in the courtroom