Joel Benington, Biology Department Chair
Joel Benington, Ph.D.
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Our Honors Program is like a taste of graduate studies on the undergraduate level. The HON courses are seminars in which students from diverse disciplines explore questions in collaboration with an instructor, rather than having pat material presented to them.
Whenever I teach an Honors seminar, I intentionally choose a topic on the edge of my own expertise, so the students will be more willing to think for themselves because they don’t look on me as an expert. For their Honors Projects, students pursue independent research just like in graduate school, but on a more introductory level, of course.
Not surprisingly, many of our Honors students have entered Ph.D. programs at prestigious institutions after graduation.
Honors Courses Taught by Dr. Benington:
Christopher Stanley, Professor of Theology
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Christopher Stanley, Ph.D.
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Honors courses are designed for students who like to think for themselves, not just memorize facts for a test.
As a professor, I find great pleasure in sitting around a table with a group of bright, motivated, interesting students and exploring questions and issues that rarely come up in other classes.
I also appreciate how the Honors thesis helps to prepare students for research at the graduate level. It's a great program!"
Andrew Gould, Class of 2008
 Andrew Gould, 2008
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My honors project was a novel titled "Angelica." Creative writing has always been a hobby of mine. Also, I had always been interested in demons and angels and the theology behind those two spiritual topics.
So I figured instead of simply writing a history thesis, I'd incorporate research on those two topics in a creative way. The result was "Angelica." Never did I have so much fun doing a project. More importantly, I couldn't have been prouder of my accomplishment.
Andrew is attending Thomas Cooley Law School in Lansing, Mich.
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