A brand new minor gives honor students a chance to travel the United States and the globe.
The ecology & legacy minor is being offered through the Honors College.
Jill Stephenson, academic program manager for the Honors College, said the new minor was specifically designed to help students complete honors requirements in more of a chunk rather than a series of unrelated classes.
“It’s a great way for those lockstep majors such as dance, performing arts or engineering students to meet honor requirements in a short amount of time,” Stephenson said.
The 6-week intensive program will be 18 credit hours and will mostly take place during the summer 2015 semester and continue to run every subsequent summer.
Students who take on the minor will travel to Montana for two weeks for their intellectual traditions requirements. Then they will come back to Salt Lake City and learn about critical landscapes at the Great Salt Lake. They will also travel to Argentina for 10 days to learn about the geography of Latin America. The program will wrap up with a research paper.
The goal for this new minor is to make students think beyond where they are and what they see. The program asks students applying for the minor to answer one question: “What will my legacy be and how do I live my life now to better ensure my legacy comes to be?”
Starting Oct. 1, students will be able to apply on the Honors College website and the deadline to apply will be Nov. 1. The main target will be freshmen honors students.
“We have about 20 students that expressed interest in this minor and we’re trying to target more” Stephenson said.
Gui Pelaz, a sophomore double majoring in journalism and international studies, is considering taking advantage of this global opportunity, but isn’t sure if she will have time.
“For me, I’ve had great experiences traveling around the world — it’s a great way to learn,” Pelaz said. “Traveling reveals so many things you wouldn’t even know existed.”
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