Like all Honors College students, those on the Personalized Path begin their First Year Experience with our New Student Retreat. Then, you start to truly personalize your own path with a First Year Honors Seminar of your choice. As you work toward either Distinguished Honors (by earning 18 hours of honors credit) or High Distinguished Honors (30 hours), you’ll have a variety of choices to get there. Honors credit hours can be earned through Honors Seminars on an array of special topics; honors sections of the Blazer Core Curriculum, major, and elective courses; courses in School or Departmental honors programs; supervised Honors independent study; graduate courses; or Honors by Contract.

Making your undergraduate experience unique and meaningful is the point, and not just through your coursework. You’ll also complete at least one experiential learning adventure (this can be service-learning, undergraduate research, internship, or study abroad). Your honors advisor will help you through it all, so that your undergraduate experience is as personalized as possible!

Sample First Year Honors Seminars: Case Studies in Great (and Not So Great) Leadership; Ethical Conflicts in Healthcare; Witch Narratives; Social Determinants of Health; Reading the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Cannabis in Cancer: What’s all the Highpe?; Safety & Sustainability: The Eco-Soap Making Project

Sample Special Topics Honors Seminars: Conflict Resolution: Peace Building Skills to Change Your World; Poverty and Human Capability; Disability and Film; The Mindful Student; Who is Jesus? Exploring a Cultural Phenomenon

Student Involvement

Honors students on the Personalized Path are known for leadership. Look at any major student organization on campus — Ambassadors, TrailBlazers, Student Government, Residence Life, Athletics, Greek life — and you’ll find an honors student in a leading role. We count on our students to lead the Honors College through opportunities such as the Honors Ambassadors and the Honors College Student Leadership Council to develop their leadership potential. Leadership comes in many forms, but the element that brings them together is passion — to make the world better, to accomplish change, to innovate. It involves knowing who you are, what’s important to you, and how you can make a difference. And that’s why we get to know you on a personal level and why we allow you — and challenge you — to personalize your experiences in the classroom and out in the world around you.

UAB Honors College students start their freshman year strong, studying under top-notch faculty from the first day of their first Honors Seminar.

The GCL curriculum is a carefully crafted mix of interdisciplinary coursework that will equip you to make a difference in local and global communities. Our “Burning Issues” course educates you on human rights, the environment, health, and educational opportunity — four foundational areas that impact almost every social justice issue facing society. Once you’ve identified your own burning issue (you know, the thing that keeps you awake at night and motivates you to make a difference), our GCL advisors will help you find additional courses to deepen your understanding and fan the flame of your passion. From there, you’ll complete a capstone course called “Stoking the Fire — Leadership in Action,” which will provide you with the skills and abilities to be a social change leader.

But it’s not just about the coursework — GCL courses lay a foundation for all of the other educational experiences you’ll have out in the world. Whether you study abroad or partner with local nonprofits, every new encounter is an opportunity for service, and every lesson learned is another step toward engaged, responsible, inspiring leadership.

In GCL, our four core values are Participatory Citizenship, Ethical Leadership, Creative Problem-Solving, and Effective Community. Of course, we don’t need to explain that to you because you already have the drive to internalize those values and put them to use in the world. Our goal is to connect you right away with service experiences and leadership opportunities that will prepare you for all of the impactful work you will do in the future.

Sample Courses: Birmingham Civil Rights History; Dialogue on Race and Racism; Burning Issues; Leadership in Action

Student Involvement

Students in the program take the education they receive about world issues, with the guidance and support in developing their leadership strengths, to initiate real change in the community and throughout the globe. Engaged, driven GCL students hold leadership positions on the Student Leadership Council, which hosts social events such as Friendsgiving, Movie & Discussion Nights, trips to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Birmingham AIDS Outreach, along with a service project with Magic City Acceptance Center. Their accolades include receiving esteemed internships with the UAB Institute for Human Rights, UAB Sustainability and local nonprofit organizations. They consistently win prestigious awards, including UAB’s first recipient for the Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service.

Requirements

GCL students must complete a minimum of 18 hours of designated honors coursework; students may complete 30 hours of honors coursework to graduate with high distinguished honors.

Coursework

12 hours of designated GCL honors coursework:

• HC 110-130 Honors Seminar (3 credit hours) – Seminar on a topic related to GCL’s mission; topics vary annually.
• GCLH 150 Burning Issues (3 credit hours) – Overview of various issues facing society (e.g., human rights, sustainability, healthcare access, educational opportunity). Course includes guest speakers, topical readings, and significant reflective writing. Ultimately, students identify an issue that ignites their passion – their “burning issue.”
• Fanning the Flame: Variable courses (3 credit hours) – Student will select a course that provides further exploration of the student’s “burning issue.”
• GCLH 350 Stoking the Fire - Leadership in Action (3 credit hours) – Students will learn, develop, and put into practice a pragmatic skill set for management and operations in social change leadership.

Six additional hours of honors coursework:

 
• Students should take the remaining hours from approved honors courses relevant to GCL’s mission. GCL administration will designate appropriate honors courses for GCL students each semester, and students will choose the courses that are most applicable to their own passions and goals.

Experiential Learning

GCL students are required to complete a minimum of one experiential learning course at UAB. These courses may include service learning, study abroad, research, or internships.

The STH curriculum lays out a challenging, engaging four-year path from student/learner to skilled technician to scientist/innovator, from the basics of lab techniques, scientific communication, and planning to the intricacies of scientific research and leadership. Students graduate from the program with exciting knowledge, honors recognition (and most students can satisfy requirements for honors in their major using their STH thesis), and years of lab experience already under their belts before they even start grad school.

A series of STH seminars will explore methodologies and techniques used to study biology, cell biology, chemistry, complex information systems, engineering, neuroscience, physics, and more. A series of Research Approaches courses will teach you state-of-the-art lab methods in biotechnology, molecular genetics, and other disciplines (ever wanted to splice DNA?), taking you to active research labs to observe researchers up close. And your honors thesis will put all of that to use, launching a two-year, hands-on research project that takes you from proposal to publication — from skilled lab technician to actual scientist.

It’s all about experience. Our semiannual “Quick Connections” event is like speed dating for research scientists, helping students connect with faculty mentors who share their interests and want to help support their goals. Those connections can get STH students into the lab as early as freshman year, working one-on-one with their mentors and other researchers to see what real scientific discovery looks like up close — and to make discoveries of their own.

Sample Courses: Problem Analysis and Project Planning; Communicating Science; Big Ideas in Science and Innovation

Student Involvement

Innovation and teamwork are two of the most essential skills a scientist can bring to the lab — and they can only be taught to people who really want to learn them. Through a two-semester leadership sequence, our students plan and carry out service projects to benefit the program and others. UAB’s annual regional Science Olympiad, the Middle School Math Tournament, and the student awards program at the Alabama Academy of Science have been STH initiatives. STH students also hold important positions on the program's Student Executive Council, planning key aspects of the program, assisting faculty with program seminars, and mentoring and tutoring. No evil scientists here — our students use their powers of research, critical thinking, analysis, and discovery to do good.

Requirements

All Science and Technology Honors students complete 30 credit hours of honors coursework. In the first two years, our students participate in a four-course sequence introducing them to the scientific process, exposing them to research methodologies and techniques, and providing them with hands-on experience in in the lab. Building on this foundation, students then complete a two-year intensive research experience under the direction of UAB faculty mentor. This project becomes the student’s Honors Thesis and is prepared for publication in a scientific journal and for presentation at a national conference.

Coursework

Each student in the program takes the following coursework in the program to prepare for their independent research experience:

• STH 199 Introduction to the Scientific Process (3 credit hours) – Fall semester of freshman year. Students work in teams to analyze current scientific problems under investigation by UAB faculty, learning about how scientists approach problems and conduct their research, including ethics and institutional review of human and animal research.
• STH 201 Research Approaches (3 credit hours) – Spring semester of freshman year. Systematic training in foundational research methodologies and opportunity to application of the methods in research laboratories. Students choose among biotechnology training, advanced chemical analysis, molecular genetics or engineering design principles.
• STH 299 Interdisciplinary Seminar (3 credit hours) – Fall semester of sophomore year. This course illustrates the synergy achieved by interdisciplinary analysis of problems. Example topics include Clinical Innovation, Brain Science, Creating a Culture of Sustainability, The Race to Develop an Artificial Pancreas, and Cardiovascular Disease from Cell to Society.
• STH 240 Big Ideas in Science and Innovation (3 credit hours) – Sophomore or junior year. This course will integrate skills developed in STH 199, STH 201, STH 299, and EH 102/202 to examine current controversies and challenges in science and technology. Students will analyze scientific research and explore the “conversation” between scientists and other constituencies regarding the interpretation and application of the findings.
• STH 340 Current Challenges in Translating Science into Benefit (3 credit hours) – Junior or senior year. This course will build upon students’ research experiences by exploring the spectrum of basic to applied research in which each investigation is embedded. Through reading original scientific papers and using technical databases, students will explore “wicked problems” and develop innovative solutions.
• STH 395 and STH 400 Proposal and Thesis Preparation (2 credit hours each) – Small enrollment courses typically taken in junior and senior year that mentor students through preparing a compelling proposal for their honors thesis research and a scientific publication reporting the research.

To complete the program, students also take a special section of English composition that focuses specifically on scientific and technical communication, a biostatistics or other approved statistics course, and two-course sequence in leadership preparation.

An expansive interdisciplinary course focused on broad themes and taught by a six-person team of faculty and otherwise knowledgeable community members is created afresh each year for the combined class of first- and second-year students. Honors seminars are taught to students of all years by diverse faculty on subjects related to their fields of expertise but not found among the usual department listings. Service learning is formally incorporated into the interdisciplinary curriculum as an annual joint project between UHP and a selected program in the community.

Housed in a beautiful old church on the southern edge of campus and led by a supportive and devoted team of faculty and staff, UHP provides an environment that is as familial as it is academic wherein students are encouraged to step out of their comfort zones, be steered by their intellectual curiosity, and develop the full diversity of their interests and talents. Many students travel (program-funded) to present research at regional and national honors conferences.

Sample Interdisciplinary Courses: Representation and Reality; Happiness; Food

Sample Seminars: Japanese Woodblock Printing; Church, Slavery, and Civil War; Ethnographic Filmmaking; The Western and the Gangster

Student Involvement

UHP has a long tradition of empowering its students to lead within the program, across campus and our community. UHP students lead the program's Steering Committee that oversees all student extracurricular activities and initiatives in the program from community service, sustainability, and Homecoming to road trips, and intramural sports. Many have an active voice in the operations of the UHP program including the selection processes by which seminars are chosen and students are admitted. Many contribute to and help design the student-run creative arts journal, Sanctuary, while others study or engage in service activities abroad for weeks, months, even a year at a time.

Requirements

Students in the University Honors Program take 33 credit hours of honors coursework and three credit hours of mathematics that replace Blazer Core Curriculum requirements. UHP students take two, nine-credit hour interdisciplinary courses and five UHP honors seminars.

Coursework

The interdisciplinary honors courses are offered during the fall semester and are open only to University Honors Program students. These courses are team-taught by faculty members (usually six) from different schools in the university and by guest lecturers from the medical center, the business, and other areas. Each interdisciplinary course is organized thematically and designed to cover a broad range of material so the student is introduced to all areas covered by the Core Curriculum and to a wide variety of other areas as well. Topics of past interdisciplinary courses have included “Minds and Realities," "In Search of Human Nature," "It's About Time," and "The Anatomy of Desire." As part of the course, each student works on an independent project related to the central theme.

The University Honors program offers about 18-20 different honors seminars each year. UHP seminars are offered during the fall semester, spring semester, and summer term and are limited to 16 students. Honors seminars are available in a variety of different fields and focus on issues that are of major interest within the field and also have implications and applications beyond it. Examples of honors seminars which have been taught are "Ethnographic Filmmaking," " China's Next Phase," "Cognitive Brain Imaging," "Philosophy, Psychology, and the Economics of Happiness," "Existentialism and Modern Literature."

UHP students can also receive up to three credits for participation in special UHP events and completing UHP-approved long-term community service projects. In addition, students may propose an internship or independent study project in place of one seminar. They also have the option of registering for one, two, or three credit hours of Honors Research.

As a first of its kind in Honors College history, the Honors Leadership Certificate was established to provide students with an opportunity to earn an academic credential that exhibits competence in ethical leadership skills that are transferable to future careers.

The innovative curriculum provides an experience that is tailored to each student and develops their leadership strengths. Through experiential learning and dialogue among leadership mentors in the community, the Honors Leadership Certificate will provide life-long relationships as well as foundational skills that give students an edge in graduate school and job applications after earning their degree. Upon successful completion of the required coursework, students will graduate with the Honors Leadership Certificate.

To earn the Honors Leadership Certificate, Honors College students must be accepted in the Honors Leadership Academy. This unique program gives honors students opportunities for personal development and training that features mentoring opportunities with established leaders in our community. The Honors Leadership Academy will allow students to use their classroom experience and apply it to practical, real-world issues to capture the What, Why, When, Where, and How of leadership.

Sample Courses: Leading You; Case Studies in Great (and Not So Great) Leadership; Ethical Conflicts in Health Care

Admission Process: Honors students can be self-nominated or be nominated by UAB Honors College faculty or staff, Academy alumni, or current students in good standing. Nominees must:

• Attend an Interest Session
AND
• Submit an application which includes an essay

After applications are reviewed anonymously, a select number of students will be selected for an interview. A combined score of the essay and interview will be used to determine who will be selected for the cohort.

**Honors Leadership Certificate is open to all Honors College students who are accepted into the Honors Leadership Academy.

**Eligibility Update: Leadership course prerequisites are no longer mandatory to be admitted into the academy.

Leadership Beyond the Classroom

Students in the Honors Leadership Development Academy receive opportunities for personal leadership development and training in addition to the 15-credit honor honors curriculum. These experiences include the Leadership Link-up Luncheon, where students are “linked” with their mentors from the local business community, and the Honors Leadership Academy Symposium, which is the culmination event where students present their leadership projects and experiences. Fun activities, such as the Leadership Lift-Off Workshop, allows students to develop leadership team building skills through a variety of programming.

Requirements

Honors College students accepted into the Honors Leadership Academy must complete 15 hours of designated coursework, which includes an internship and a Leadership Capstone. The capstone is a culmination of students’ learning experience in the Honors Leadership Academy, where they demonstrate their creative leadership skills and elevate their leadership through a report and presentation.

Students selected for the cohort are recognized as “Candidates” of the Leadership Certificate with the goal of becoming “Cadets” of the Honors Leadership Academy and later, “Scholars” upon earning all 15 credits for the Leadership Certificate.

Coursework

The following courses for the Honors Leadership Certificate will count towards the Honors College graduation designation:

• HC 101 Honors College Leadership Seminar (3 credit hours) – This course introduces the study of leadership, focusing on the study of traits and characteristics of leaders, various dimensions of exemplary leadership, the situational nature of leadership, values and ethics used in administration, and the study of leadership as a team.
• HC 201 Leadership Skills (3 credit hours) – This course is a leadership-skill development course focusing on the challenges of effective leadership. Students will explore authentic leadership by writing reflection papers on the readings and video lectures, learning about conflict management, and interviewing community leaders in medicine, academics, philanthropy, business, and religion to learn how they lead. A written, oral report culminates the final project presentation.
• HC 301 Advanced Leadership Skills and Practice (3 credit hours) – The course allows students to develop an independent project using leadership principles and skills. Students will have the opportunity to shadow and engage with leaders in their respective fields. They will learn critical thinking skills to address current problems and resolve issues. The course culminates with a project report based on what the students have learned.
• HC 401 Honors Independent Leadership Project (3 credit hours) – Completing an honors course during the fourth year culminates in an e-Portfolio of the student’s HLA experiences and demonstrates critical thinking, analysis, and decision-making. Under the supervision of the HLA Director/Dean’s designee, the student prepares an e-Portfolio and makes an oral presentation.
• HC Leadership Elective (3 credit hours) – One elective can be chosen from the following courses (or other Honors seminars as approved by the Dean’s designee):
• HC 118 Now I Become Myself: The Quest for Integrity; or, Ethical Conflicts in Health Care
• HC 219 Poverty and Human Capability
• GCLH 350 Stoking the Fire
• HC 319 The Challenge of Authentic Leadership; or, Difficult People
• HC 396 Honors Service Learning

UAB offers several options for high-achieving undergraduates to accelerate the time necessary to complete both their undergraduate and graduate degrees. These include Accelerated Bachelors/Masters Programs (ABM), Fast-Track programs, and Early Acceptance Programs.