Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Encyclopedia
The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College is an academic college of Florida Atlantic University
, located at the John D. MacArthur
campus of FAU in Jupiter, Florida
. The Wilkes Honors College opened in 1999 and offers a rigorous liberal arts
education through the platform of a public institution, with a focus on interdisciplinary studies. It currently features a student body of 400, and 37 full-time tenured, or tenure-track faculty, all of whom have terminal degrees in their field. The current Dean is Jeffrey Buller, a classicist.
The Wilkes Honors College is the first public honors college built from the ground up in the United States, and offers a full complement of degree-fulfilling courses internally, taught by its own faculty. The college emphasizes small class size, with a faculty-student ratio of approximately 1:10. Its core curriculum, which makes up about a third of credit requirements for the B.A., focuses on critical thinking and writing skills, in a broad range of disciplines. Each student must write a substantial honors thesis under the supervision of a faculty advisor during his or her senior year. These collaborations have led to publications in various spheres of academia
.
Students receive a Bachelor's Degree
in Liberal Arts & Sciences, with a concentration
in a specific area of study.
Beginning in 2006, the Wilkes Honors College, in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute
, hosts the Honors Summer Institute on the topics of science
, technology
and society
for high school
juniors and seniors.
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University, also referred to as FAU or Florida Atlantic, is a public, coeducational, research university located in , United States. The university has six satellite campuses located in the Florida cities of Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, Port St. Lucie, and in Fort...
, located at the John D. MacArthur
John D. MacArthur
John Donald MacArthur was an American businessman and philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, benefactor in the MacArthur Fellowships.-Early life:...
campus of FAU in Jupiter, Florida
Jupiter, Florida
Jupiter is a town located in Palm Beach County, Florida. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 39,328. The estimate population for 2009 is 50,606. As of 2006, the population had grown to 50,028, according to the University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research....
. The Wilkes Honors College opened in 1999 and offers a rigorous liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
education through the platform of a public institution, with a focus on interdisciplinary studies. It currently features a student body of 400, and 37 full-time tenured, or tenure-track faculty, all of whom have terminal degrees in their field. The current Dean is Jeffrey Buller, a classicist.
The Wilkes Honors College is the first public honors college built from the ground up in the United States, and offers a full complement of degree-fulfilling courses internally, taught by its own faculty. The college emphasizes small class size, with a faculty-student ratio of approximately 1:10. Its core curriculum, which makes up about a third of credit requirements for the B.A., focuses on critical thinking and writing skills, in a broad range of disciplines. Each student must write a substantial honors thesis under the supervision of a faculty advisor during his or her senior year. These collaborations have led to publications in various spheres of academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
.
Students receive a Bachelor's Degree
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in Liberal Arts & Sciences, with a concentration
Academic major
In the United States and Canada, an academic major or major concentration is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits....
in a specific area of study.
Beginning in 2006, the Wilkes Honors College, in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute
The Scripps Research Institute
The Scripps Research Institute is an American medical research facility that focuses on research in the basic biomedical sciences. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, with a sister facility in Jupiter, Florida, the institute is home to 3,000 scientists, technicians, graduate students, and...
, hosts the Honors Summer Institute on the topics of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
for high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
juniors and seniors.