During the first year of study, Honors students are introduced to great ideas of civilization in a series of seminars taught by established scholars at Peninsula College. In these seminars, students are introduced to seminal ideas through reading and discussion. Here they learn self-assessment, the process of carefully and critically examining their understanding of ideas and their contribution to the seminar learning experience. Students establish goals for their own performance and evaluate the extent to which they achieve those goals.
In the Peninsula College Honors Program, we believe students are the best judge of their achievements and self-assessment is used to evaluate performance throughout. Winter quarter students learn about the nature of knowledge and how knowledge is pursued in different academic fields. The goal is for students to develop the capability to explore ideas from multiple perspectives, and thus deepen their academic experience.
The first year ends with a projects course. Here, students are introduced to a variety of ongoing projects at Peninsula College sponsored by faculty active in their fields of expertise. Through these project introductions, students select a project that will become the focal point of their own research, or design an independent project.
In the second year of study, students continue the process of self-assessment and interdisciplinary understanding while making progress on their projects through a fall and winter seminar series. Students share developments in their work with classmates; classmates provide useful commentary using an integrative approach to knowledge. In spring quarter students complete all phases of their research projects, including a formal presentation, a written statement addressing the interdisciplinary value of their project, and a video where they explain its significance to themselves. Through this sustained two-year effort, students will graduate with an enriched academic experience and be able to demonstrate their capabilities with their projects.