Greetings, honors students, faculty, staff and other friends,

I write to you as the new interim director of the Honors Program. I am an associate professor in the Department of English, and I've been a member of the Miami faculty for 5 years. I've taught in the honors program and served on the advisory committee for several years. Although there is much to learn, I am excited to be directing this extraordinary program, a program dedicated to meaningful and excellent educational experiences.

Committed to advancing honors education and the experiences of high-ability students, I would like, in particular, to encourage interdisciplinary inquiry and promote undergraduate research experiences across the university, including the social sciences and the humanities. These initiatives will require not only time but also creativity, and I believe they will make this program even stronger and more successful than it already is. These initiatives join several others: a web-based interface to streamline our students’ experiences, centralizing e-communication through the HUB, and more.

As many of you know, our curriculum has become more expansive and diverse with courses and intensive co-curricular programs from almost every department and program on campus. Our program has shifted from a standard GPA and course-based set of requirements to a portfolio, outcomes-based program with lots of room for individualized study. Our outcomes are based on these competencies: written communication, collaboration, critical and intigrative thinking, intercultural understanding, inquiry and reflection. Today, the University Honors Program receives over 1,800 applications annually for an incoming class of 350-400 students, and our average student has earned a 31 ACT score and is ranked in the top 6% of their graduating class.  With our new innovative curriculum and committed advising team, retention rates for the program have soared. We have expanded our residence halls to two large first- and second-year halls with robust educational and social opportunities.  Our students are accepted into professional and graduate schools at extraordinary rates, and they have earned prestigious fellowships for post-baccalaureate study.  This past year alone, for example, our students won Goldwater, Astronaut, Beckman, and Fulbright Scholarships. 

I ask you to take a look at the information in this newsletter, to consider offering a course or contacting me about potential course offerings. Our program depends vitally on faculty, who continue to offer amazing and challenging courses for our students.

I look forward to the new year, 2013, to meeting more students, gathering perspectives, and making our program more intellectually formidable than ever before.

Cindy Klestinec
Interim Director of Honors Program
Professor, Department of English