Honors Program

Cara Hersh, Ph.D., assistant provost for scholarly engagement & career readiness

The mission of the University of Portland Honors Program is to enhance the intellectual life of the University community by mentoring high achieving and intrinsically motivated students to serve as public intellectuals at the University and beyond. The Honors Program fosters in these passionate and gifted students a love for the life of the mind and the desire to enrich their communities.

The traditional Honors Program curriculum is composed of 18 credit hours, 12 of which also fulfill requirements in the individual student’s academic degree program. Each year, Honors students take one 3-credit hour Honors course that fulfills a course requirement for their academic degree program. In the first and second year, the Honors course fulfills a UP Core requirement. In the third and fourth year, the Honors course fulfills an academic major course requirement. An additional six credit hours of Honors courses are spread over the student’s four-year career. Students who enter the Honors Program in their sophomore year as lateral entry students complete all requirements except for the first-year Honors Core course. Each Honors student is assigned a faculty mentor.

For more information, see the Honors Program webpage, call (503) 943-8264, or email honors@up.edu.