At Whitworth, first-year Honors students have the unique opportunity to join the Honors Floor learning community. From 2021-2023, the Honors Floor could be found on the east end of Warren Hall’s 2nd floor and boasted a population of highly motivated young women. Victoria (Hyewon) Woo, Riia Yazepova, Madelyn, and Madeline discussed their experience on the Honors Floor during the 2022-2023 school year. And here’s an overview of the inaugural year of the Honors Floor, written for the 2018-2019 school year.   

Since the 2023-2024 school year, the Honors Floor has lived on Arend Hall’s 3rd floor, accommodating Honors first-year men and women. Arend, known for its spacious rooms and central location on campus, is also the new home of the Honors Lunch Network, which takes place every other week in the main common area on the 1st floor.  

Isaac Paxton, an Honors Sophomore studying Education and 2023-2024 resident of the Floor, says that his favorite part of the Honors Floor was the people, “When I first learned I was going to live on the Honors Floor, I was nervous that it would be very quiet, closed off and full of the same type of person, but it ended up being quite the opposite. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of people and talents on our floor last year, and we all blended into this really cool social community.”  

And when asked about how the Honors Floor Community impacted his first-year, he said, “My first year was heavily influenced by the Honors floor as I met my current roommate on that floor, went to Hawaii with some of my fellow floormates, which was an incredible experience, and the late-night conversations I had in the 3rd-floor lounge of Arend last year are still some of my fondest Whitworth memories! I doubt I would have enjoyed my first year here as much as I did if I did not live on the Honors Floor.” 

Jordyn Bennett, an Honors Political Science Major and 2023-2024 Honors Floor Resident, has said, “I made great friends on the Honors floor, who I had the privilege of joining on the Honors First-year Jan Term trip to Hawaii. I’m also still living with some of the girls I met on the floor, and we’re planning on renting a house together next year.” 

As for the 2024-2025 Residents, I went to the floor last week to see how they’re faring in the first couple weeks of school. I started in the 3rd Floor Lounge, where I found two Honors Floor students working on homework: Iliana Marshall (Environmental Science) and Jack Odone (Engineering). They lauded the floor as the best place to be, considering how close they were to the HUB and various buildings on campus. They also showed me the ‘hot man wall’ where posters of various attractive celebrities were put up in the lounge.  

I found nine students giggling in room 311 down the women’s hall, gathered around a laptop monitor watching Twilight: New Moon, eating popcorn and sitting on pillows, chairs, and blankets on the floor.  

Demilade Tope-Babalola, a student watching Twilight, remarked, “Everyone already knows each other.” She went on to talk about how she feels like the Honors Floor community is already so dense and rich despite only being on campus for three weeks. 

It’s safe to say that this year’s Honors Floor is getting a great start to the year. 

Any potential Honors students should consider joining the Honors Floor to automatically be a part of the incredible Honors Program and community on campus.  In the words of current resident, Dakota Bair, “The Honors floor is chill.”