Gannon's Honors students are academically talented and highly motivated students. Our curriculum prepares them to be ethical, thoughtful and effective leaders with a global worldview.
Selected from the top ten percent of Gannon's incoming class, honors students excel not only academically but in leadership. Students actively help run the honors program through the Faculty/Student Honors Committee and the Student Advisory Board.
Students enjoy discussion-based classes, trips to national and regional conferences, cultural activities, a lounge of their own and priority registration.
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?
- After a year of studying energy and water conservation in Erie and on campus, 10 Honors students will have the opportunity in 2015 to explore 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 will walk, bike, hike and boat their way through this eco-inspired urban adventure. Costs of the trip are significantly defrayed through funds from the Office of Residence Life, the Honors Program and fundraising activities. If the students can lower the heating bill in the residence hall they are living in, the savings will be passed on to the students for their trip.
- 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).
- Students traveled to New Orleans and Niagara Falls last year 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.
What are the criteria for admission?
- Essay
- High school grade-point average of at least 3.3
- SAT of at least 1050 or an ACT of 23 (many are higher)
- 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.