Honors Activities

Honors Retreat

Every year incoming freshmen attend the Honors Retreat. The retreat is held at the beautiful Camp Grace, a privately owned and operated property spanning over 220 acres in Mobile, Alabama. The facilities include: wheelchair accessible pathways, 48 air conditioned log cabins, three air conditioned multi-purpose buildings, a 60’x80’ covered pavilion/dining hall, two bath houses (including one which is handicapped accessible), a fully stocked 18 acre lake and a lighted Odyssey III High Ropes Course. These amenities combine to provide a fun and adventurous feel that one would expect from a traditional summer camp.


Honors College Association

The HCA is the student organization for Honors College students. This is an active, student run, and student
organized group. Each year HCA coordinates service activities, provides support, and spearheads the planning of fun and innovative gatherings. This year, one such activity was the Ghouls for Good canned food drive.


National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) Trip

Every year since 2011, the Honors College has brought students to the NCHC National Meeting. This is the premier conference for Honors Colleges/Programs and students in the US. Our students have presented extensively there, and USA Honors Student Connor Favreau won the prestigious Portz Scholarship for best honors thesis in the nation there in 2013!


Ghouls for Good

On Halloween Night, students from across all disciplines and from many different backgrounds join forces to go trick-or-treating. Instead of getting candy, they collected cans for the Bay Area Food Bank and books for the children of underprivileged families. This event, known as “Ghouls for Goods”is hosted in the Bethel Theatre by the Honors College Association. The upstairs area in the Bethel becomes loaded down with stacks upon stacks of canned goods and piles of books following the project.


12th Night Celebration

The USA Honors College attracts the best and brightest students to campus each year. Students in all academic units and many different majors participate in this program and add to the accomplishments. The Honors College seeks to provide a greater array of opportunities to these talented students so that they might reach their full potential, earn prestigious national awards and scholarships, and bring recognition not only to themselves but to the university. At the core of the honors experiences are --undergraduate research, service-learning and study abroad. Many faculty across the university generously give their time and talent to the Honors College by mentoring these students and directing their thesis work or teaching honors courses.

To help support this growing and successful research focus the Honors College has created a fun fund raising event which has become an annual event, 12th Night Celebration. This Mardi Gras style tableaux was first held on the 12th Night after Christmas in 2012.

The Honors students prepare a fun and entertaining show around a different theme each year. All proceeds go to support research and travel for the students in the Honors College. Proceeds are used to provide partial support for students to attend the national conference.