Signature courses are required; they challenge students to think about knowing, and to investigate what we don't know.

• WP 101H: Honors First-Year Seminar: Knowing and Not Knowing, Awareness and Inquiry
• WP 400H: Honors Capstone Experience
• Special Honors-only interdisciplinary seminars
• Honors Core Electives in history, music, economics, biology, psychology, philosophy and more.

Signature experiences complement on-campus coursework with interdisciplinary experiences that include travel to Manhattan, Hartford, Hamden and New Haven to explore:

• The National Museum of Mathematics
• The High Line
• Jazz dance
• Gay and lesbian NYC
• The CT Forum
• Leadership and social justice
• Long Wharf Theatre

The University Honors Program embeds the value of service in each of its community commitments. We “give back” through service — but we also think about service from a wide variety of academic angles, courses and experiences. On- and off-campus, honors students participate in a variety of initiatives that focus on service in the local community and beyond, such as:

• Tutoring local students at Hamden middle and elementary schools
• Relay For Life
• The Big Event
• Project Angel Tree: Providing gifts to children
• New Haven Reads Book Drive
• QTHON

The Honors Program supplements Signature education expectations with “Be Here!,” a series of events we sponsor that is also open to the wider Quinnipiac community. Examples of some of these events include:

• 60-Second Lectures
• Got Privilege?
• Ice Cream Social(ly) Responsible
• Senior Honors Capstone Conference

Small groups of honors students travel with faculty and senior students to explore the culture, arts and environment of Hamden, Hartford and New Haven, all in pursuit of rich and vibrant educational experiences, such as:

• Shakespeare in the Park
• Yale University Art Gallery
• New Haven Symphony Orchestra
• Crypt tour
• Apple picking
• Escape New Haven (team-based puzzle challenge experience)

Global and intercultural education promotes life fulfillment and success during and after college. The Honors Program encourages students to study abroad for college credit or through not-for-credit trips that foster an open frame of mind through new experiences, challenging ideas, and intercultural dialogue. Honors students have traveled to Quebec, and the Honors Program is developing trips to Ireland, Poland and Hungary.

The Honors Leadership Board is comprised of highly motivated and active members of the honors community who are elected by their peers to help plan events like 60-Second Lectures, Honors Orientation, Greater New Haven events among many others. Board members also have other commitments such as tabling at Open Houses, writing blog posts and helping to plan what honors courses should be offered.

The Honors Program participates regularly in NCHC (National Collegiate Honors Council) conferences and institutes, developing a cohort of colleagues across the country on whose expertise and collective wisdom is essential in continuing to strengthen our own program. Through encouraging and supporting participation by our students — out of a belief that the wider Honors community is an invaluable resource to which we also contribute — the NCHC has been instrumental in providing both resources that have been made available to the QU Honors Program and the wonderful new colleagues in other nationally recognized honors programs that we now consider friends, mentors, and mentees. At the NCHC conference, students are given professional development opportunities and an occasion to share and present their ideas about how to be innovative while retaining core academic values.