by Janelle Kohner
Staff Reporter

Shoreline’s Honors Program has managed to remain fairly unheard of around the school despite its birth last year. According to Kenny Lawson, founder of the Honors Program, “The overall goal is to provide students with a more rich and deep experience in their studies.”

The program this year will consist of four classes taken over the course of four quarters beginning in spring 2008 and ending in spring 2009.

To be accepted into the Honors Program, it is recommended that students have a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Even so, Lawson says, “we want the program to be relatively open, we don’t want to make the GPA a barrier” so as not to hold anyone back from higher learning just because of a slightly low GPA. The program also accepts letters from teachers recommending certain student to the program.

Students who qualify based on their GPA will have letters sent to their residences at the end of the fall quarter so that they can use the winter quarter to decide whether or not they would like to enter the program.

The Honors Program begins with a five-credit Cornerstone class taught by teachers from around the school. In the class, students are urged to think about a big question. A two-credit Seminar class that requires students to complete a project based on the big question that they were considering in the Cornerstone course follows. Then the Seminar transitions to Colloquia, another five-credit class.

In Colloquia, students receive instruction in speech, but the class is more focused on analyzing public speakers. The students are expected to witness and properly analyze public speakers around the Seattle area. The final quarter of the Honors Program consists of a three-credit Capstone course dedicated to building on the student’s previous Seminar project. This time, the student works one-on-one with a teacher on their project to ensure the best results.

The Honors Program started in the winter quarter of 2006. Most students who were invited into the Honors Program found out about their acceptance after they had registered for other winter quarter classes. This year, “I think we have our timing down a little bit better,” said Lawson. The Honors Program had a mere 15 students registered last year, but Lawson claims that the size was appropriate since the program was in its grassroots stage. “Now that we’re more clear, I hope to get more publicity,” stated Lawson.

For the students who are invited into the Honors Program, it may be a concern that all of the honors credits are electives. To accommodate the desires of more students, the Honors Program has had one class eliminated since last year, although the number of required credits (15) remained the same. Lawson would also like it to be known that “We (the Honors Program) do, at least for this spring, have money available to pay for the honors credits. We’re able to do that due to money that was donated to the program from someone in the community.” For all interested students, this spring will be the ideal quarter to challenge oneself by applying for SCC’s Honors Program.