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Beebe
1000 Iowa Street
Beebe, AR 72012
501.882.3600
Searcy
1800 East Moore Avenue
Searcy, AR 72145
501.207.6200
Heber Springs
101 River Crest Drive
Heber Springs, AR 72543
501.362.1100
Little Rock Air Force Base
1490 Vandenberg Blvd, Suite 115
Jacksonville, AR 72099
501.882.4581
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Honors Program

Honors Program
The ASU-Beebe Honors Program is a rigorous course of study designed to meet the needs, abilities, and potential of highly skilled, highly committed students seeking to augment their intellectual experience at the college. Its rotation of selective courses is intended to provide demanding academic and intellectual learning opportunities encouraging self-examination, reassessment, and development. Students are also required to perform service to the community through course projects and participate in group cultural events, which, in tandem, aim to promote good citizenship, social responsibility, and cultural awareness in addition to intellectual rigor.

Mission

Our mission in the Honors Program at Arkansas State University-Beebe is to provide a vibrant educational environment for innovative teaching and learning within an interdisciplinary curriculum sparked by creative, critical inquiry and respect for a diversity of thoughts, experiences, and identities. The educational environment is both stimulating and rewarding.

Why Enroll in an Honors Course?

An honors course is required every semester for the honors students receiving an Honors Scholarship with a minimum of 3.75 GPA. Students with certain GPAs who are not part of the Honors Scholarship recipients are also invited to enroll in honors classes. Ideally, honors students start their first semester with ASU-Beebe to gain all the benefits ASU-Beebe has to offer. By the time of graduation, to be considered graduating with honors, students would have taken at least four honors courses during their two-year study at ASU-Beebe.   
Honors courses are intended to be more complex, not necessarily more difficult. Faculty members who teach our honors courses are highly encouraged to explore their own pedagogical boundaries. Honors students are challenged to think critically in and beyond the classroom. The Honors Program is a nurturing ground for pedagogical innovation and exploration that transforms the quality of educational experiences across the college.

Fall Rotation of Honors Courses:

ENG 2003H World Literature I (Honors) 3 credits

ECON 2313H Online Principles of Macroeconomics (Honors) 3 credits


Spring Rotation of Honors Courses:

POSC 2103H Intro to U.S. Government (Honors) 3 credits

BIOL 1014H Principles of Biology (Honors) 4 credits


Note: "Add-on" Honors courses are available to accommodate Honors Scholarship students to take Honors courses not included in the regular "free-standing" honors courses rotation.

For consideration, students must submit the Honors Program Application Package by August 5 for fall semester and January 2 for the spring semester. Qualified applicants will then be contacted for an interview with members of the Honors Program committee.

A student may be eligible for the scholarship for a maximum of four semesters. Continuation is reviewed at the end of each semester and requires a 3.50 cumulative GPA with enrollment in at least one Honors course every semester. At least 12 credit hours of Honors courses are required for a student to graduate with Honors. Recipients are expected to be active members of the Beta Omega Alpha, a chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. 

What is Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society?

Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) recognizes the academic achievement of college students and provides opportunities for its members to grow as scholars and leaders. Established in 1918, Phi Theta Kappa has a presence on almost 1,300 community college campuses in 11 nations. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) recognized Phi Theta Kappa as the official honor society for two-year colleges in 1929. More than 3.5 million students have been inducted since 1918, with approximately 250,000 active members in the nation’s community colleges, making Phi Theta Kappa a true catalyst among members and colleges.


For more information, you can visit the PTK website at: https://www.ptk.org/ or the FAQ page at: https://www.ptk.org/join/faqs/. 


What is the difference between the honors program and the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society?

ASU-Beebe's honors program consists of specific academic courses that challenge students in the classroom while providing the unique opportunity to work one-on-one with instructors.

An honors course is required every semester for the Honors students receiving Honors scholarships. Ideally, Honors students start their first semester with ASU-Beebe to gain all the benefits ASU-Beebe has to offer. By the time of graduation, to be considered graduating with Honors, Honors students would have taken at least four honors courses during their two-year study at ASU-Beebe.


Honors courses are intended to be more complex, not necessarily more difficult. Faculty who teach Honors courses are highly encouraged to explore their own pedagogical boundaries. Honors students are challenged to think critically in and beyond the classroom. We believe the Honors Program serves as a nurturing ground for pedagogical innovation and exploration that transforms the quality of educational experiences across the university.

It is a digital collection that documents knowledge, skill, and abilities you have gained through all your experiences in college. Creating and working on an ePortfolio lets you figure out how all the different aspects of your college experience fit together. In short, it offers an excellent opportunity to share your story with faculty and peers.


E-Portfolio Benefits

Having an ePortfolio can benefit you in many ways. Here are some of the main ones:

  1. Discover your purpose. Do you have a clear idea of what you want to do with your life? If you don't have a clear answer, you are not alone. The ePortfolio gives you a place to figure that out. Treat it as your life journal in your pursuit of transformation.
  2. Follow your progress. It does make you feel good and satisfied seeing a bunch of A's on your transcript. However, it does not tell you much about what you have learned. Your ePortfolio gives a more accurate account of all your knowledge and skills.
  3. Make yourself more marketable for jobs, internships, and scholarships. ePortfolios give employers a detailed inventory of what you have to contribute that goes beyond simply a resume. But even if you never share it, creating an ePortfolio is an excellent practice for talking about what is essential to you and what you want to accomplish. In addition, sharing with faculty helps you get better, more detailed recommendation letters.

Please start working on your e-Portfolio your first semester. 

Why Teach an Honors Course?

Teaching an honors course is not required of faculty, but it adds to a faculty member’s teaching accomplishments (as suggested below) and is considered a service to the college as a whole. Honors courses are intended to be more complex, not necessarily more difficult. Faculty who teach Honors courses are highly encouraged to explore their own pedagogical boundaries. We know that teaching honors can enhance not your life as faculty but also the lives of all students with whom you work – not just those who interacted in Honors courses. We believe the Honors Program serves as a nurturing ground for pedagogical innovation and exploration that transforms the quality of educational experiences across the college.

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