Brooklyn College Honors Academy Expands

Spotlight

December 30, 1998
Brooklyn College Honors Academy Expands

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Alice Newcomb-Doyle (718) 951-5882

Brooklyn, NY - The Brooklyn College Honors Academy, which comprises four undergraduate honors-level programs, is now opening its doors to students in three additional programs.

The Dean's List-Departmental Honors Program, for exceptional students who enter the Honors Academy at the beginning of their junior year, emphasizes workshops on academic culture and applying to graduate or professional school, and interdisciplinary seminars.

The Engineering Honors Program enables students to make a smooth transition as juniors to engineering programs at the City College of New York, the College of Staten Island, or Polytechnic University.

The Special Baccalaureate Degree Program for Adults (Special Bacc) offers a unique course of study for adults returning to school -- homemakers, business executives, entrepreneurs, among others -- who have demonstrated high achievement, and have strong academic potential. The program provides a curriculum of seminars in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics, which students complete during their first three years at the college.

The Honors Academy, with approximately 200 members, functions as a small liberal arts school within the college, where outstanding students work closely with faculty mentors to prepare for graduate study.

"The Honors Academy is an important component of our educational excellence," said Vernon E. Lattin, president of Brooklyn College. "It enables us to bring together the best students in Brooklyn and create communities of learning."

Although the added programs are not new, their affiliation with the selective Honors Academy raises their status as well as the status of the degree the students receive.

In fact, the Special Bacc program, administered by Pamela Hinden, director of adult degree programs, is already nationally known and widely emulated.

The four initial honors programs affiliated with the Honors Academy are:

The Scholars Program, which stresses interdisciplinary study and was among the first honors programs to be established at an American college.

The B.A.-M.D. Program, which focuses on the caring, not only the curing, dimensions of medicine.

The Ford Colloquium, which helps prepare students for careers in college and university teaching and research.

The Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship, which is for students considering academic careers in the humanities, anthropology, physical sciences, and math.

All honors students must maintain a 3.50 grade point average and complete one Honors Academy interdisciplinary course in order to graduate as a member of the academy.

Brooklyn College, founded in 1930, is one of the eleven senior colleges of the City University of New York. It educates 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The school is known nationally for its core curriculum, which has been hailed as one of the "bright spots" in American higher education. Located on a 26-acre tree-lined campus in Flatbush, Brooklyn College has a diverse student body representing more than 70 of the borough's 100 ethnic groups.

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