Academics

About the Commonwealth Honors Program

Honor Program Flowsheet

Honors Program Application Form

Mailing Address

Commonwealth Honors Program
Salem State College
352 Lafayette Street
Salem, MA 01970

Location of the Honors Center - Enterprise Center, Suites 451 & 452

The Honors Program at Salem State College meets the needs of students seeking a curriculum that is unusually rich and challenging. Students fulfill the college's core requirements in writing, literature, history, and speech through designated Honors Program courses; courses that stand out not because they are more difficult and time consuming, but rather because they are stimulating and challenging. Additional honors-level courses are offered in biology, English, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, nursing, and geology. In honors courses, a premium is placed on interaction and discussion, with the expectation that students will learn from one another as well as from their faculty. Junior and senior participants take part in honors seminars, and all complete a senior honors project.

Honors Program students at Salem State are representative of nearly every major. Although selected for their academic achievement, the 190 current members of the program display leadership on campus as well. Honors Program students have served as officers of student government, editor of the student newspaper, manager of the radio station, and as officers in most campus student organizations. They are heavily represented among varsity teams, and in choral groups, theatre productions, and service activities. Salem State Honors Program students annually participate in the Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Conference as well as regional and national conferences.

Commonwealth Honors Status

In 2004, under the leadership of Professor Rod Kessler, the Salem State Honors Program was granted membership in the Commonwealth Honors Program by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. Current and past coordinators have played an active role in this integrated network of honors programs throughout the Massachusetts public college and university system.

Institutional Memberships

Salem State College is a long-standing member of both the National- and Northeast Collegiate Honors Councils. Salem State coordinators and students have attended and participated in recent national and regional meetings in Orlando, Florida; Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Illinois; Morristown, New Jersey; Brooklyn, New York; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; and Rhode Island.

Faculty Coordinators

The current program was launched in 1983 with psychology professor Patricia Markunas as its first coordinator. She was been followed by sociology professor Patricia Ould, English professor Rod Kessler, and education professor Michelle Pierce. In January 2008, the current coordinator, Professor Joanna Gonsalves (Department of Psychology), assumed the chairmanship