University Honors Program

Southern Methodist University

The University Honors Program is at the heart of SMU’s intellectual community.  Students are prepared for the future through a program that centers on the values of a broad-based education in the liberal arts.  The program offers students of all majors the ability to experience academic challenges beyond their major courses, by choosing seven courses that offer an enhanced version of SMU’s University Curriculum.  Honors students enjoy intellectual challenges from the University’s best professors in smaller classes that are discussion-based. 

The University Honors Program extends beyond the classroom to include an upper-class mentoring program, the Virginia-Snider Honors Residence Hall, dinners, lectures and a full calendar of events.  Students are also encouraged  to explore their individual interests through special research projects and interdisciplinary studies on  the Dallas campus, at SMU-in-Taos and elsewhere in the United States or abroad.   

 

A Graduating Senior Reflects on the UHP

(Excerpt from End-of-Year Dinner Speech)

 

By Sanaz Talaifar

Richter Research Fellow to Fiji and Mauritius

French and International Studies Major, Psychology Minor

President's Scholar

“You are in the Honors Program not because you want something else to add to your resume, but because you are curious and love to learn, and the Honors courses allow you to do that at a higher level and in smaller classes than you otherwise would be able to. The same could be said about the Richter Research Fellowship… Yes, it was great to be able to tell my job interviewers about all the things I accomplished through this project, but first and foremost, the Richter is about giving you the tools to satisfy your endless curiosity about any subject. You learn because you want to and because you need to, not because anyone has told you to do it.

Second, the Richter is independent. You get out of it what you put into it, and this is true of everything in life. There is no handholding or cheering as you cross the finish line. In fact, there really isn’t a finish line, because there is always more to learn. As I get older, I care less and less about awards because regardless of any awards I might receive or not, I know what good work is. I know when I am doing good work and when I am not, no matter what anyone else says.

Finally, the Richter flings you out into the world and exposes your to people and ideas you otherwise would not have encountered…. The world is so open to you. When I was in Mauritius, I found and walked into the offices of all the top radio stations and newspapers of the country without having made prior contact….I met a man so passionate about saving Mauritius’s beaches for future generations that, despite death threats and harassment from the government, he had won ten cases in the Mauritius Supreme Court protecting the environment. And he was not a lawyer. He owned a small restaurant and did his advocacy work in his spare time.

Which raises another important point about the Honors Program: community. Yes, the University Honors Program and the Richter Project are about curiosity, pursuing this curiosity independently, and acquiring the mental agility needed for all the situations you encounter. But George Ah-Yan, the restaurant owner I was just telling you about, did all that he did because he felt that he was part of a community and had a duty towards that community. The Honors Program is a community here at SMU for the lovers of learning. As I am graduating, I think back to second semester rhetoric class, then titled “Human Responsibility.” Such responsibility comes in many forms, and one form is responsibility to our community, whether it is a small island nation whose environment is under siege, or a community of curious college students up to endless shenanigans in Virginia Snider. The honors program is one of your communities, and it is up to you to make or get from it what you want."

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