Honors Mentoring Agreements (HMAs)

An Honors Mentoring Agreement (HMA) is a formal agreement between a student, a mentor, the Departmental Honors Advisor, and the University Honors Program to complete an academic or professional project that extends learning beyond regular coursework (an exception to this is graduate level coursework completed as an undergraduate: please see the Honors in Practice Handbook for more information). Students earn 3 Honors points for every successfully proposed, completed, and approved project.  Students can earn a maximum of 18 points by completing HMAs.

Importance of HMAs

Students take control of this part of the Honors curriculum, which allows them to identify meaningful real-world experiences and to articulate the personal and professional value of these experiences. HMAs prepare students for the future and allow them to use what they know in concrete ways. Whether these agreements focus on the near future (Honors Capstone preparation, exploration of academic interests, study abroad) or a long-term plan (national fellowship applications, Honors Excel graduate courses, internships, professional research), they allow students to follow their intellectual passions and to make the most of USU’s many outstanding academic resources.