Wichita State University
Honors Faculty Fellows
Honors Faculty Fellows
Honors faculty fellows develop independent or collaborative projects to advance Honors education and high-impact practices across campus. They research best practices, develop preliminary honors course or research project designs, develop new academic programs, and present project outcomes, when relevant, to the Cohen Honors College Faculty Council. Fellows are expected to share their Honors work with their departments and colleges to promote additional understanding and collaboration.
Deadline
Submit materials by April 1st for work during the summer or the following academic year.
Application
Submit to: Campus Box 102 or by email to honors@wichita.edu:
- A two- to three-page proposal (statement of interest) that includes background sources, if appropriate, information about why you are interested in Honors or high-impact practices, what prepares you for this work, a timeline and budget;
- A curriculum vitae; and
- A letter of support from your department chair and dean or supervisor.
Preference may be given to proposals that clearly articulate a connection to current Honors Goals and to the University Strategic Plan.
Selection: Final fellow appointments are made by the Honors College Dean based on the Honors College Faculty Council application review and recommendations. Fellow nominations are welcome from other academic college deans.
Background and Purpose
We seek to engage a diverse group of faculty and staff each year to increase our Honors course offerings and increase or improve Honors and high-impact experiences such as undergraduate research, service-learning, and study abroad.
Faculty are invited to submit proposals to fund honors course development and other projects related to Honors. Fellows may propose funding for research and implementation of high-impact practices/programs such as the recent first-year research experience program (FYRE).
The first Honors Faculty Fellows served in summer 2013 to develop the Honors College concept and curriculum. These faculty, in collaboration with the Faculty Senate Honors Committee, articulated the college vision and intended benefits that current Honors-affiliated faculty and faculty fellows support.
Eligibility
All fulltime faculty and staff are eligible to serve as Cohen Honors Faculty Fellows. Some Honors -affiliated teaching faculty are selected as fellows based on their tenure of teaching within Honors or on a course proposal in an area such as first-year teaching or study abroad.
Departments, offices, and colleges may submit proposals for development of substantial honors experiences in their college/unit or for collaboration across areas. All individual applications must include a letter of support from the department chair/supervisor.
Expectations
Fellows agree to serve a one- or two-year appointment with possibility for renewal based on project goals and measures. Fellows will establish project goals and measures in collaboration with their chair/supervisor, and the Honors College Dean at the beginning of the fellowship period.
In addition to individual work toward their proposed course or project, fellows are asked to meet once per semester as a group to share project developments including research findings, best practices, challenges, and questions.
Funding
- Up to $1500 for new course or curriculum development typically paid as one-time summer additional compensation
- Up to $25,000 for up to two years to design and pilot an academic program/experience may include elements such as student scholarships, faculty release time, materials
Honors also can partner with colleges to fund release time or overload and/or professional development such as conference travel, depending on department capacity and project goals.
Example of Faculty Fellow Projects
Elaine Bernstorf, Kara McCluskey, Chelsea Redger-Marquardt
Project: AAC&U Electronic Portfolio Institute
Project Summary: An interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff working to understand current best practices related to electronic porfortfolios and to integrate eportfolios more intentionally across campus. Participants in the year-long AAC&U Institute attend a series of workshops, meet with a faculty mentor, and develop an action plan for their campus intiatives. Honors-engaged faculty are exploring ways to use portfolios in classes and to integrate all four years of the Honors curriculum.
Project: CHEM I Honors Lab Enhancement
Project Summary: The proposal is to pilot the use of virtual reality headsets (VRH) in the chemistry laboratory. We are planning to use VRH for lab safety lecture/activities and simulations of proteins and biomolecules. Specifically, students will interact with a model of tau protein, which is implicated in the disease pathway of Alzheimer’s disease, and they will compare the VRH experience with manipulating the structure in computational programs such as PyMol. A graduate student will be working with the faculty fellow to pilot VHR with small groups of chemistry students. We plan to use best practices for VHR in the classroom, as described in the literature. (J. M. Arguello and R. E. Dempski, “Fast, Simple, Student Generated Augmented Reality Approach for Protein Visualization in Classroom and Home Study”, Journal of Chemical Education 2020, 97, 8, 2327–2331.)
Project: Honors Interdisciplinary Enterprise
Project Summary: An increasingly interconnected global economy has created collaborative opportunities and competitive pressures for U.S. companies, generating the need for broadly educated, entrepreneurial minded professionals. The proposal is to develop a cohort-based interdisciplinary honors program, which is comprised of a sequence of applied projects, culminating with senior capstone design. Students will work in teams to develop professional skills sets, applying their discipline specific theory and tools to solve industrial based sponsored projects. The honors courses will be based on combinations of current listed courses so not as to require additional faculty. It is intended that the program will supplement students’ standard curriculum with honors-based core courses and will focus on applied, entrepreneurial and real-world experiences. It is also envisioned that students will earn significant credit toward minors in other disciplines. Interdisciplinary cohorts of undergraduate students will work together on proposed courses from Freshman through to Senior year. Students who complete the program will receive a HIE Certificate. The cohort size will be determined by the industry agreements. Students will graduate with dual certification and with broader skillsets and mindsets.
Project: First-Year Research Experience and Beyond
Project Summary:
- Sustain and expand the first-year research experience (FYRE) program now welcoming its 4th class of first-year and transfer student to faculty-mentored research.
- Continue working with chemistry faculty to change the structure of general chemistry laboratories to better prepare students for careers in STEM fields.
- Recruit more faculty across the STEM disciplines to transition from expository lab experiments to course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs).