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My Honors College

Alternative Beyond the Classroom Experience

Beginning fall 2025, the Honors College Beyond the Classroom requirement is exclusively credit-bearing. Students who have already been approved for an Alternative Beyond the Classroom experience are not impacted by this update.

 

An Honors Beyond the Classroom (BTC) experience focuses on one of four areas – internships, research, service learning or study away – with a few exceptions. The BTC requirement is usually a credit-bearing experience in which a student is enrolled and receives course credit. However, on rare occasions the Honors College will allow experiences beyond internships, study away, service learning and research to fulfill the BTC requirement.

Students should talk to their Honors advisor about other experiences that may be suitable to meet the BTC requirement. An alternative BTC activity typically:

  • Aligns in some way with one or more of the four areas of Honors BTC – internship, research, study away or service learning.
  • Is a structured program in which:
    1. The student works with a mentor or supervisor.
    2. The student receives regular feedback from a mentor or supervisor.
    3. The student takes part in structured reflection of the experience.

If the advisor and student deem the activity to include the above criteria, the student should complete an Alternative Beyond the Classroom Application. Please note that Alternative Beyond the Classroom experiences will not be considered beginning fall 2025, unless a student and Honors advisor discussed and documented (for example, through email or EAB) plans for such an experience prior to this curriculum change. If you have questions, please contact our director of experiential learning, Sarah Kelly.

Important Notes:

  1. All alternative BTC activities must receive prior approval from the Honors College in order for the activity to fulfill the BTC requirement.
  2. Upon completion of an approved BTC experience, students must provide documentation of engaging in at least 150 hours of the experience. If this documentation is not provided then the student will not fulfill the BTC requirement.
  3. Although valuable experiences, activities such as participating in a mission trip or various types of work without a prior internship/research agreement will not fulfill the BTC requirement.

Alternative Beyond the Classroom Application

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