Our Students and Community
University Honors students become part of an active and engaged community, representing majors from across the university.
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Your Honors Community
Cohort Model: The sequenced curriculum of seminar classes in each Honors track means that you will take all your Honors courses with a cohort of students who start the Program in their first year at Seattle University. This model creates a close-knit and inclusive learning community that both challenges students to do their best academically and supports them.
Student Mentorship Program: Incoming Honors students are assigned returning Honors students as mentors, who serve as a resource throughout the first year and beyond.
More Ways to Get Involved
Honors Council
Our student advisory group is responsible for representing students’ perspectives to the Honors administration. Each year all cohorts elect representatives who meet once each quarter with the Honors Directors.
Honors Northwest Symposium
Seattle University Honors students frequently participate in this fun and friendly event which provides a great opportunity to meet Honors students from neighboring universities and showcase the high-quality work produced by our Seattle University cohorts.
Touchstone Lecture
This annual lecture is given by a faculty member who teaches in the program, on a subject of personal and professional interest to them.
Quarterly Student Plenaries
Each quarter all students in the cohort and their professors take part in these events, which may include a lecture on philosophy or economics, a museum tour or a trip to the theatre.
Social Events
Periodically, during the year, Honors students and faculty gather just for fun. In recent years, these events have included building gingerbread houses, hosting a Halloween party, and celebrating the end of the academic year.
Our Honors Graduates
Our alumni are employed in such diverse fields as law, education, medicine, social work, public administration, business and personnel management and foreign service.
Hanna Poole, BA Creative Writing, Business Administration Minor, 2019
“The Honors Program is a challenge, but this a challenge worth facing. I climbed mountains created out of years of history. I battled through waves of literary texts. I fought with philosophy from ages past. This program is difficult—but the reward it worth it. Climbing to the summit to the present time. Floating in the midst of literary worlds. Meditating with philosophers. This program is amazing—and I’m so glad I chose to do it.”
Lauren Silva, Anthropology/History Double Major, SU Junior
“Faced with challenging topics, important discussion, and expressive growth, my cohort grew stronger together and became what I believe is the true Seattle U student; dedicated to being social justice warriors in our futures, I know each of us will walk away from the Honors program with the heart and mind to do so."
Kellen O’Connor, BA Economics '10
“I especially appreciate the opportunity as a business student to expose and immerse myself in such a strong survey of philosophical, historical and literary traditions. I have become a much stronger student and, more importantly, a better person as a result of my experience in the Honors Program.”
Jerome Veith, PhD, Senior Adjunct Professor, Philosophy and Psychology
Our alumni are also represented on our faculty. Dr. Veith graduated from the Honors program with his degree in Philosophy and Psychology in 2005 and joined our faculty in 2012. He earned his Master’s degree in existential-phenomenological psychotherapy from Seattle U and his PhD in philosophy from Boston College. He teaches required philosophy courses in the core curriculum as well as humanities seminars on political identity, the politics of remembrance, and the concept of dignity.
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Meet Our Alumni
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Audra Lawlor
An Honors alumna, Audra followed up 10 successful years on Wall Street with launching her own business on Orcas Island. Her business, Girl Meets Dirt, creates handmade, small-batch artisanal preserves using locally-sourced fruit. Her products are available around the Northwest and as far away as New York.
BA, Economics, Minors History and English, 2001