Honors Courses

Latinx Voices and Experiences in Our Community focuses on learning about, with, and from our local Latinx community. The course is designed to provide a broad overview of the history and sociocultural aspects of the U.S. Latinx community, and more specifically, of the Latinx community in Utah and Cache Valley. We will examine and analyze a wide range of materials, including academic books and articles, current news articles, and creative perspectives from the U.S. Latinx community like novels and documentaries. Community-engaged learning is a key component of this course. Throughout the semester, students will engage in approximately 15 hours of service with community organizations, completing tasks or projects that answer the needs of our community partners and that are connected to the Latinx community.

Enroll in a small, Honors-only, hands-on mentored research experience in the NIH-supported Behavioral Economics Lab at Utah State University. In the lab, we employ preclinical models to study behavioral-economic mechanisms of impulsive decision-making. Our research is focused on developing interventions with clear biomedical relevance (e.g., reducing substance use, increasing medical treatment adherence). Each week you’ll join a 90-minute, journal-club style meeting to dissect a chapter or peer-reviewed article. In the lab (~6 hours/week), you’ll receive training and then help run humane, rewards-based animal (rat) behavior experiments. Students will maintain rigorous protocols and help graduate students to analyze/graph data. Students can continue in the experience by taking HONR 2200: Research II: Laboratory Experience in Behavioral Economics in the spring semester, where they can take on greater responsibility, propose new studies, and present findings at scientific conferences.

This interdisciplinary course explores how authenticity, identity, and aesthetics shape the ways we understand ourselves and connect with others. Drawing from psychology and design, students will examine concepts of self, well-being, community, and storytelling, with special attention to how authenticity is expressed through personal and collective branding. Through readings, discussions, field observations, and creative projects, students will investigate how meaning and identity are communicated in everyday life and will develop their own applied project that integrates psychological insight with aesthetic expression.

Schedule: Wednesday, August 26 – Friday, August 28, 2026, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., with Connections Luminary event on Friday from 8:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

CRNs: 45456, 45451, 45453, 45455, 45434, 45457, 45449

Honors requires incoming students to enroll in an Honors section of USU Connections, a two-credit academic course designed to ease the transition to USU and prepare students for college. Connections offers new students the opportunity to meet their incoming Honors peers, learn more about the University Honors Program and other resources at USU, and familiarize themselves with their campus before the school year officially begins.

The Honors section of this seven-week course is designed to introduce students to the Aggie First Scholars program at USU. The course teaches students who have not had familial exposure to college the important habits and skills they need to intentionally design and navigate their university experience. The Honors section focuses on providing tools for a successful transition to higher education and helping first-generation Honors students develop a sense of belonging and community at USU and within the University Honors Program.

The Honors lab section pairs a peer group of academically engaged and curious Honors students with an outstanding Biology lab instructor. BIOL 1615 engages students in an authentic long-term discovery-based research project using the Dr. Gene Miller Life Science Garden. Students communicate their findings by writing an in-depth scientific manuscript (lab report). Honors students perform the same projects as the standard laboratory sections but also enjoy an experience enriched by activities designed specifically for the Honors lab.

How did past Nobel laureates understand peacebuilding in their quest to improve the human condition? USU is a Partner in Peace Institution with the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo and the National Collegiate Honors Council. As part of that partnership, we have agreed to help USU Honors students think about what it means to be a peacebuilder and to help honors students start on a path toward one of USU’s peacebuilding certificates. In this class, we will learn about different types of peace and conflict, forms of power, and the importance of understanding “us & them” dynamics. You will be introduced to skills necessary to become a peacebuilder and develop a character of peace. The knowledge and skills you learn will be informed by the paths of past Nobel laureates, and we will make our own list of future Nobel laureate nominees. Students may have the opportunity to present their research at the 2027 National Collegiate Honors Council Conference.

This course teaches students to develop their own writing styles and voices, to integrate those voices with what others (often authorities) have to say about subjects, and to become stronger readers, writers, and thinkers. The class focuses on library and Internet research, appropriate documentation of such research, and persuasive writing. Students will evaluate sources, collaborate with classmates, and participate in peer-review of each other’s writing. Writing assignments emerge from a syllabus of topical and provocative readings, and students participate actively in class discussions, think carefully about the reading and writing assignments, and write several papers related to their own research interests.

This course teaches students professional communication as an area of inquiry and problem-solving activity. Students research communication contexts and genres in a profession of their choice and present their research in written reports and audio-visual presentations.