Now in its 15th year, BMCC’s Honors Program accepts approximately 20 students each semester. Like similar programs at other colleges, it’s designed for students seeking academic challenges above and beyond the ones they face in class each day. But according to Jerrold Schoenblum, a professor in the Music and Art Department and co-chair of the college’s Honors Committee, BMCC’s Honors Program stands apart in two key respects.
“For one thing, Honors students work with faculty mentors on an individual basis – not as part of a class or larger group,” he says. “And each is required to sign a contract describing his or her project’s parameters and objectives in detail, including the supporting research and resources.”
The drafting of a contract imparts a unique measure of clarity and discipline to the Honors experience, while underscoring the importance of the student-mentor relationship, Schoenblum says. And, invariably, adds Honors Committee co-chair Carol Wasserman (who is also co-deputy chair of the Modern Languages Department), “the quality of the work is extraordinary.” In fact, six students currently in the program have been nominated by Schoenblum and Wasserman to represent BMCC in the Beacon Conference for Student Scholars at Two-Year Colleges, an annual competition that showcases the achievements of outstanding two-year college students in academic research and writing.
Eligibility requirements
To be eligible for Honors work, a student must maintain a 3.2 GPA and have at least 12 completed BMCC – i.e., non-transfer – credits with no remediation pending. Having met those requirements, “a student can approach a faculty member early in the semester to propose a project and ask that the faculty member serve as mentor,” says Wasserman. Once the contract is drafted and signed by the student and mentor, it is vetted – and, hopefully, green-lighted – by the Honors Committee. Projects are typically completed and submitted to the Committee for its approval over the course of a single semester.
“Projects can be based on virtually any non-remedial course offered by the college,” Wasserman adds. “The exceptions are in languages and computer science, where the course must be at the 200 level or above. That’s because projects in those areas require a certain minimum level of proficiency to be meaningful. But generally, the idea is for a student to take one aspect of the class that especially grabs them, and run with it.” A case in point: a student in Spanish 210 wrote a 12-page paper in which she summarized and analyzed a short Spanish-language novel.
Letter of credit
Successful completion of an Honors project is designated by the letter “H” on the student’s official transcript. “It can be a very valuable credential – even more so than a letter of recommendation from a teacher – when the student is applying to a four-year college, or for employment afterwards,” says Schoenblum. “But perhaps even more important, it gives students an opportunity to pursue an area of special interest and create something truly worthwhile. In many cases, the papers they write are on the level of masters theses.”
