George F. Whitworth Honors Program

Honors Life at Whitworth

Recent:

Kaitlyn Hawker

With the legalization of gay marriage in 2015, legal queer families entered the societal view. However, normalization cannot happen without positive visibility, which usually comes in the form of representation in the media society consumes. Queer characters in movies, tv shows, and adult books have appeared for decades, sometimes even centuries, but limiting queer representation to adult-only content does more harm than good. It teaches children and the culture at large that queer stories are explicit, shameful, and not appropriate.

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April 27, 2026

Andrew Doughty

This project had two facets: one was working with the Books to Prisoners organization to put on a book drive. Through this drive we collected over 200 books which will be mailed to prisoners across the country as well as a grant for 500$ from the Sigma Tau Delta Honor society as a part of the Chapter service project to provide them with new shelving, postage, and specifically requested books. This meets a physical demand: access to the books prisoners want to read.
The other aspect of this project was volunteering in the Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Spokane where I was able to work with high school students in their English classes through creative writing workshops. I was able to connect with individual students who come from a variety of situations and use the tools I’ve learned about creative writing to help them to process and create though creative writing of their own.

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April 24, 2026

Adrian Petrillo

Growing up, I attended a Japanese immersion school, so I have been learning the language since I was a child. However, upon graduation without any more opportunity for classroom education, I had to turn to self-education to further my learning. This is where I discovered there was a severe lack of convenient language acquisition assistance tools for the Japanese language, and the ones that did exist were all hosted in different locations. That is the motivation for this project, where I aimed to create an all-in-one location for Japanese language learning tools to assist those partaking in self-study.

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April 24, 2026

SIRC 2026

The Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference (SIRC) is a conference sponsored by Whitworth and Gonzaga University for undergraduate students across Spokane to present their research and creative works.

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April 24, 2026

Upcoming Opprotunities:

Little Women

Come see Whitworth’s production of Little Women March 7th/8th, 14th/15th at 7:30pm, doors at 7:00pm, or March 16th at 2:30pm, doors at 2:00pm

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February 27, 2025

Serving Spokane

SIRC is a conference sponsored by Whitworth and Gonzaga University for undergraduate students across Spokane to present their research and creative works.

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February 21, 2025

Internships:

On-Campus Spotlights:

Fall 2024 Wrap Up

This semester, the Honors Program and its students were hard at work promoting our message of thriving in the world as it is and developing it as it should be.

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December 13, 2024

Fall 2024 Showcase

Come admire Honors student research, final projects, and creative works in the HUB MPR from 5:30-7:00PM on Monday December 9th.

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December 6, 2024

Study Abroad:

A Day in the Life: Jan Term in Italy

During Jan Term 2023, a group of freshmen Honors students took a trip to Italy. Part of the trip was a day spent in the Academia followed by watching a game of football (soccer). Read about the experience written by two of the students on the trip.

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February 24, 2023

Research:

Carlynn Casperson

Observing patterns within the current healthcare system sparked the foundation of this project. While many rural communities possess strong local support networks, these systems are not substitutes for trained healthcare professionals and are limited in the level of care they can provide. As a student preparing to enter a field directly connected to rural healthcare delivery in Southeast Alaska, I felt compelled to deepen my understanding of these challenges. By doing so, I hope to return home as an entry-level OT better equipped to contribute meaningfully to ongoing efforts to improve care.

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April 24, 2026

AJ Talley, Celeste Depew, Elijah Chapman, Nate Moody

Trilights is an interactive video game that focuses on character and storytelling, aiming to present a new synthesis between the literary and the ludomechanical (game-playing). As an interdisciplinary project, Trilights allows a further exploration of the possibilities of creative writing, acoustic arts, artistic expression, and well-designed programming.

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April 23, 2026

Noran Khalil

My honors project addresses this gap by developing a sign language translator application, functioning similarly to Google Translate. The app features a keyboard that displays ASL signs as images, allowing users to either select signs directly to communicate in sign language or type words normally and have them translated into the corresponding signs. This application is built with one goal in mind: to ensure that every person, regardless of hearing ability, can communicate effectively and with dignity.

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April 23, 2026

Gwendolyn Brantner

My project investigates the third place problem, a topic which has recently gained traction online in gen z communities as we try to gain some adult social life once leaving school. Third places are defined as space outside of home (1st place) and work/school (2nd place) in which individuals spend a large portion of time socializing and connecting with their community. The traditional sense of the phrase requires that third place be free to access, easy to access, and full of opportunities for social connection with those both similar and opposite to you. This topic has always interested me and I am a strong advocate for people having fulfilling social lives outside of family and outside of obligation. Considering my future career path, I focused my project on third places and youth, specifically. My project begins by investigating the reasons for the decline in third spaces in the 21st century due to cultural shifts, technological developments, and even legal constraints. Then, I present why the lack of these spaces is detrimental, particularly to youth populations ages 12-17, when it is so easy to disappear into online spaces instead. My research concludes by offering up some examples of ideal solutions for youth populations and their guardians, considering accessibility and safety concerns that many guardians have about sending children to third places. With proper support and engagement the youth programs and non-profits which offer third space solutions could be the key to maintaining the social health of younger generations despite the many barriers to finding community.

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April 23, 2026