Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College

The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College (WHC) is an academic, residential college of Florida Atlantic University (FAU), at the John D. MacArthur campus of FAU in Jupiter, Florida. The WHC opened in 1999 and offers a liberal arts education through the platform of a public institution, with a focus on interdisciplinary studies. It features a student body of 500 and 32 full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty, all of whom have terminal degrees in their field.[1] On July 1, 2020, Justin Perry began serving as WHC Dean.[2]

Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Established1999
DeanJustin Perry
Academic staff
70
Undergraduates500
Location
5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter, Florida
Websitewww.honorscollege.edu

Like many honors colleges in the US, the WHC is part of a large public university. Unlike other honors colleges, the WHC is an immersive experience, with students taking all or nearly all of their coursework (120+ hours) within the WHC, and few if any classes from other colleges within the University.[3]

The Honors College shares the Jupiter Campus with the Scripps Research Institute and the Max Planck Florida Institute, where many Wilkes Honors College students have been accepted to participate in internships.[4]

Academics

The Wilkes Honors College offers a full complement of degree-fulfilling courses taught by its own faculty. The college emphasizes small class size, with a faculty-student ratio of approximately 1:15. Its core curriculum, which makes up about a third of credit requirements for the B.A., focuses on critical thinking and writing skills in a broad range of disciplines. One distinguishing feature of the curriculum is that students are required to take at least three separate classes which are team-taught by faculty in different disciplines. [5]. An additional graduation requirement is that students complete either an internship or a study abroad and, as noted below, an honors thesis.

Scholarships

Scholarships are abundant for students attending Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College. The college offers a number of scholarships that cover the full cost of enrolling at the institution. One of the more competitive scholarships, The Henry Morrison Flagler Scholarship, is available to incoming freshman and covers tuition, four summer enrichment programs, and exceeds $72,000 over four years.[6][7]

Majors and concentrations

Students receive a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Arts & Sciences,[8] with a concentration in a specific area of study.The WHC offers concentrations in American Studies, Anthropology, Art (Transdisciplinary Visual Arts), Biological Chemistry, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Economics, English Literature, Environmental Studies, History (Interdisciplinary), Interdisciplinary Critical Theory, International Studies, Latin American Studies, Law and Society, Marine Biology, Mathematics, Mathematical Sciences (Interdisciplinary), Medical Humanities, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Pre-Med, Psychology, Spanish, Women's Studies, and Writing.[9]

Pathways into medicine and the professions

The Wilkes Medical Scholars Program is a selective early admission program into medical school: Students receive a B.A. or B.S. degree from the Wilkes Honors College in Jupiter and the M.D. degree from FAU’s College of Medicine in Boca Raton in seven or eight years. [10]. Other academic pathways are integrated with graduate study in Business, Education, Engineering, Computer Science, Nursing, and History.[11]

Honors theses

Each WHC student completes an honors thesis as part of the requirements for the BA or BS degree.[12]. Some of these theses have led to published papers in peer-reviewed journals, and many can be found in FAU's online digital library.[13]

Symposium/research day

The Honors College Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Research is an annual event that showcases student research in a conference format with talks, a poster session, and a visual arts presentation. Each year, the Chastain Honors Symposium Lecture is given by a faculty and staff chosen keynote speaker, and is open to the public. Past presenters have included The Honorable Carole Y. Taylor, a judge on the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal, and Dr. Michael Ruse, Guggenheim Fellow and editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought.

Graduate and professional school placement

Some 65% of WHC alumni enter graduate school, and have pursued degrees at institutions including MIT, Harvard Medical School, the University of Chicago, Georgetown, and UC Berkeley.[14]

Prominent alumni

Prominent alumni include Olsi Gjyshi ('06, Biochemistry), Resident Physician at the University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center http://www.fau.edu/honors/alumni-spotlights/olsi-gjyshi/, Michael Metzner ('12, Biological Chemistry And Visual Art), a writer for ABC's Grey's Anatomy.[15]. Although the WHC is both small and young, a number of its graduates already hold faculty appointments at other universities, including Erik Pettersson (Psychology, '04, now at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm)[16], Ari Rosenberg (Psychology, '04, University of Wisconsin)[17], Michael Degani (Anthropology, '05, Johns Hopkins)[18], Rachel Pauletti (Psychology, '07, Lynn University)[19], and Tarah Raldiris ('11, Flagler College).[20]

Notes
  1. https://www.fau.edu/honors
  2. http://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/wilkes-honors-college-new-dean.php
  3. https://publicuniversityhonors.com/2018/04/18/florida-atlantic-univ-wilkes-honors-college-is-full-on-honors/
  4. https://www.fau.edu/honors/undergraduate-research/stem
  5. http://www.fau.edu/academic/registrar/FAUcatalog/honors.php
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-10-03. Retrieved 2013-10-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-10-03. Retrieved 2013-10-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. Honors College academics
  9. http://www.fau.edu/honors/academics/majors/
  10. https://www.fau.edu/honors/future-students/medical-scholar-program/
  11. http://www.fau.edu/honors/academics/pathways/
  12. http://www.fau.edu/honors/academics/honors-theses/
  13. https://fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/search?type=edismax&collection=fau:hon
  14. https://www.fau.edu/honors/current-students/graduate-school-placement
  15. http://www.fau.edu/honors/alumni-spotlights/michael-metzner/
  16. https://staff.ki.se/people/erpett
  17. https://rosenberg.neuro.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/308/2017/05/AriRosenberg_CV.pdf
  18. https://anthropology.jhu.edu/directory/michael-degani/
  19. https://www.lynn.edu/campus-directory/people/rachel-pauletti
  20. https://psychology.vcu.edu/people/graduate-students/raldiris.html

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