Honors Program Benefits

Honors students in good standing (see Honors Program Requirements) receive an annually renewable scholarship in the amount of $750.00 applied directly to their student bill. Students have an opportunity to increase their scholarship each year, tiered to student engagement with Honors Program co-curricular opportunities, including professional development workshops, guest speakers, community service opportunities, and leadership training. Current students looking for updated information about Honors Program scholarship tiers should sign in to the Honors Program Organization in PLATO.  

In acknowledgment of their need to satisfy requirements for multiple programs, honors students receive Honors-related academic advising from qualified faculty, who are familiar with the honors curriculum and pedagogy.

Members of the Honors Advisory Council receive training to serve as honors advisors within their home departments, including the employment of inclusive-based advising strategies so they can provide student-centered growth opportunities to a diverse body of students, in addition to being sources of information about the honors program. 

Priority registration is provided to all Honors students in good standing in recognition of the potential for scheduling difficulties arising from the need to satisfy both honors and major program requirements.

The honors curriculum requirements offer flexibility for students to satisfy them in numerous ways, including stand-alone honors seminars, honors sections of Gen Ed courses, honors courses by contract, honors research and creative projects, and honors internships. 

Honors classes serve as an innovation hub for interdisciplinary exploration and pedagogical experimentation. Honors faculty teaching Gen Ed courses are strongly encouraged to utilize high impact practices to distinguish their honors sections as deeper, broader, and more complex than traditional coursework.

Examples of high impact practices include:

• Discussion-based colloquia and guest speakers
• Undergraduate research and participation in academic conferences
• Experiential learning
• Community engagement and service-learning 
• Study away (field trips) and short-term study abroad

The Commonwealth Honors Program values equity and social justice. We integrate the voices of historically minoritized and underserved populations and work with faculty who employ a wide range of inclusive teaching practices reflected in their course design, syllabus constructions, classroom environment, learning activities, and modes of assessment. 

We strive to provide diverse curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students to participate in civic engagement, undergraduate research, leadership, cultural programs, and service-learning in order to build a strong resume of experiences, develop a sense of community and belonging, enhance affinity with collaborative partners on and off campus, and promote greater student-to-student asnd mentor-to-student interaction in an engaging learning environment. 

Honors Orientation

The Commonwealth Honors Program at Westfield State University facilitates an honors orientation program, including early move-in for residential students,  which establishes affinity to the honors program and greater community of honors scholars as soon as students enter the institution and encounter campus. 

Honors orientation programming for first-time first year students brings different units across campus together in support of student engagement, and also introduces the students to the local City of Westfield community via Place As TextTM, including a service-learning experience. 

Note: Place as Text™ refers to structured explorations of environments and ecosystems. Designed as on-going laboratories through which small, self-guided teams investigate contested areas and issues in urban environments or competing forces in natural ones, these exercises foster critical inquiry and integrative learning across disciplines.

Annual honors orientation programming for current students provides an opportunity to integrate student voices into a shared governance model, while providing updates on program activities for the upcoming academic year. 

Honors Fall Workshop Series

Each Fall semester Honors students are invited to participate in a series of workshops, linked by a common theme, facilitated by experts from both on and off campus. Each interactive and interdisciplinary workshop will engage students with new knowledge and skills aimed at increasing their confidence in achieving their short-term and long-term personal, academic, and professional goals. 

Honors Spring Speaker Series

Each Spring semester Honors students are invited to interact with a series of guest speakers, linked by a common theme, to address issues of relevance and importance to the student experience. Each guest speaker will contribute to our efforts to promote critical thinking and problem solving, while inspiring students to consider their own agency in shaping our collective future. 

Honors Service-Learning

The Commonwealth Honors Program offers civic engagement programming, giving students diverse opportunities to connect their academic work and leadership training with off-campus partners on projects that have a positive impact on local, regional, and global communities. This will include single day service-learning events, extended service-learning trips (Alternative Spring Break), as well as ongoing opportunities to work with our established local community partners as needs arise. 

Participation in Academic Conferences

The Commonwealth Honors Program provides financial and logistical support for student participation in local, regional, and national academic conferences, including:

• Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA)
• Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference (MassURC)
• Northeast Regional Honors Conference (NRHC)
• National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC)
• Regional and national academic conferences across disciplines 

In addition, the Commonwealth Honors Program hosts two on-campus academic conferences, specifically for students in our program to formally present the culmination of their Commonwealth Honors Project, aptly named the Honors Fall Forum and the Honors Spring Symposium.