National Collegiate Honors Council
National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters
Date of this Version
2025
Document Type
Book Chapter
Citation
A chapter in Honoring the First-Year Seminar: Exploring High-Impact Learning Experiences for the First Year in Honors, pages 69-94
Lincoln, Nebraska: National Collegiate Honors Council, 2025
ISBN: 978-1-9450001-23-9
Abstract
In the opening essay for an issue of JNCHC focused on this question of risk-taking in honors, Cognard-Black posits that the problem of students’ apparent rejection of risk may be the structure of honors programs themselves. He challenges honors educators to consider how the structure of their programs perpetuates an elitism that causes honors students to maintain their focus on status and external reward, which are potential barriers to deeper and more critical engagement with ideas (6). In this chapter, we take up Cognard-Black’s challenge and use our experiences creating the first-year seminar at the College of Charleston to argue that first-year programs—by employing a developmental approach and service learning opportunities to harness the disruptive power of the students’ transition into college—can create transformational learning experiences that break down existing structures of privilege and push students to examine deeply held beliefs.
Comments
Copyright 2025, NCHC and the authors. Used by permission