Honors students are academically talented and highly motivated students who are selected from the top ten percent of Gannon’s incoming class. Our curriculum prepares students to be ethical, thoughtful and effective leaders with a global worldview.
Honors students excel academically and in leadership. Students actively help run the honors program through the Faculty/Student Honors Committee and the Student Advisory Board.
How will honors advance my career?
Honors on a transcript sets you apart from the crowd and signals to employers that you are a person who strives for excellence.
The discussion-based, reading- and writing-intensive Honors courses also further hone your critical thinking and communication skills, qualities vital to employee advancement.
The small class sizes allow you to work closely with faculty and facilitates mentoring opportunities.
Will it fit with my major?
Our curriculum meets the requirements for the CORE curriculum and our students come from all majors.
Classes often have themes and often feature field trips or service-learning. Some examples:
- Prose Literature: Harry Potter and Fantasy Literature
- Environmental Issues: Students select topics of interest related to the environment, conduct research and arrange local trips.
- History Without Borders: Human Rights (includes Skype conversations with students at the American University of Madaba in Jordan)
- Introduction to Literature: Literature and the Healing Arts
How does the honors program support travel?
- Honors
students who study abroad for a semester receive $500 from
Honors.
- Honors
students who take an international short-term study abroad trip
receive $250 from honors (as funds last).
- In recent
years, students traveled to New Orleans, Chicago, Denver, and
Niagara Falls to learn about honors programs and network with other
student leaders at honors conferences.
- An Honors
student was Gannon's first recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman
International Study Abroad Scholarship, which allowed her to study
in Chile for three months over the summer.
- After a year
of studying energy and water conservation in Erie and on campus, 10
Honors students in 2015 explored one of the world's most
sustainable cities - Melbourne, Australia--for ten days. Known for
its breathtaking rivers, parks, coastline and bay and its goal of
becoming carbon neutral by 2020, students walked, biked, hiked and
boated their way through this eco-inspired urban adventure. Costs
of the trip were significantly defrayed through funds from the
Office of Residence Life, the Honors Program and fundraising
activities.
What are the criteria for admission?
- Essay
- High school
grade-point average of at least 3.3
- SAT of at
least 550 Verbal on the SAT or a 23 Reading score on the
ACT.
- Participation
in extracurricular and co-curricular activities
- Letter of
recommendation
Are there scholarships offered through the Honors Program?
Gannon awards academic scholarships, but they are not tied to participation in the honors program. To learn more about these scholarships, click here.