Honors JA/SP 2027 Course Catalogue
Take a look at all the Honors Program has to offer this Jan term and Spring!
October 29, 2026
Take a look at all the Honors Program has to offer this Jan term and Spring!
On October 14th, Jon Meacham visited Whitworth at President McQuilken’s 2026 Presidential Leadership Forum, this year hosted at the Fox Theatre. I attended his evening talk at the Fox called, “American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union,” a nod to the title of his most recent book published earlier this year.
Some people go to the lake, some people pick up extra shifts, and some spend hours tanning in the sun. Me? I spend my summer Saturdays attending regional festivals and parades with the Spokane Lilac Festival.
The KSPS PBS micro-internship is focused on their online educational content. PBS has a learning platform called PBS LearningMedia where any station from across the country can upload lessons, videos, and teaching tools for free use by teachers and students. KSPS is one of the stations that contributes material, but they’ve become increasingly aware that the material currently up isn’t as robust as it could be.
On October 14th, Jon Meacham visited Whitworth at President McQuilken’s 2026 Presidential Leadership Forum, this year hosted at the Fox Theatre. I attended his evening talk at the Fox called, “American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union,” a nod to the title of his most recent book published earlier this year.
The KSPS PBS micro-internship is focused on their online educational content. PBS has a learning platform called PBS LearningMedia where any station from across the country can upload lessons, videos, and teaching tools for free use by teachers and students. KSPS is one of the stations that contributes material, but they’ve become increasingly aware that the material currently up isn’t as robust as it could be.
We are proud to announce that micro-internships, mentors, and upcoming professionalization events now have a home on the Whitworth Launch website. This site hosts the applications and internship postings, connecting you directly with the people who want to give you a job.
Fall 26 Speakers Jon Meacham Meghan Sullivan Dr. Robert George Dr. Cornel West October 14th: Jon Meacham “American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of
Some people go to the lake, some people pick up extra shifts, and some spend hours tanning in the sun. Me? I spend my summer Saturdays attending regional festivals and parades with the Spokane Lilac Festival.
The KSPS PBS micro-internship is focused on their online educational content. PBS has a learning platform called PBS LearningMedia where any station from across the country can upload lessons, videos, and teaching tools for free use by teachers and students. KSPS is one of the stations that contributes material, but they’ve become increasingly aware that the material currently up isn’t as robust as it could be.
We are proud to announce that micro-internships, mentors, and upcoming professionalization events now have a home on the Whitworth Launch website. This site hosts the applications and internship postings, connecting you directly with the people who want to give you a job.
Your Planning Guide to 2026 Fall Term Registration!
Victoria (Hyewon) Woo, a freshman majoring in health science and piano performance, is spending her first year at Whitworth surrounded by motivated Honors students.
Hannah Neuberger, a senior majoring in biology, is researching the level of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s) in the Spokane River in her HN 400 class.
Jade Truong, a senior who is majoring in health sciences, is using Honors to connect with the community by hosting an teaching event about personal nutrition and exercise.
For junior Eleanor Jeffers, her undergrad degree has provided an opportunity to explore life questions many of us never even think about.
Read more to learn about what these experiences mean to her!
On the 2026 Honors Hawaii Jan term trip, we had the opportunity to visit the Bishop Museum. The Bishop Museum is located in sunny Honolulu and is the official Museum of Natural and Cultural History of Hawaii. Here we had the joy of exploring several fascinating exhibits, including sections devoted to Hawaiian and Polynesian history, natural science, and even dinosaurs!
Over the course of the 2026 Jan term trip to London I had the privilege of attending nine different stage productions, all very different, but all equally valuable to my experience studying abroad. It was an opportunity I had never had before to be able to go somewhere where dozens of shows of West End quality were all playing at the same time. I bought as many tickets as I reasonably could with my budget and aimed to get the maximum value out of each show I saw. Over the course of the trip, I gained a renewed appreciation for the performance arts and their value, not only to British culture, but society in general.
At the Wahiawā Botanical Gardens, the practice of lei making is taught to visitors, both to carry on the tradition and teach the significance of the weave to visitors, but also to aid in the onerous task of weaving approximately 53,000 lei for Memorial Day. The Wahiawā Botanical Gardens contributes 7,000 natural lei every year to the project. In the hour and a half the Whitworth students were there, we made one hundred woven Ti lei. Hundreds of organizations run similar lei making sessions for the five months leading up to Memorial Day, freezing the lei braids to keep them until May.
On the 5th day of the First Year Honors group’s stay in Hawaii, we visited the Polynesian Cultural Center. After a long, sun drenched day full of information, performances, and beautiful scenery, most of us came away with a deeper understanding of Polynesian culture and the complex traditions preserved in places like the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center).
Kyle Marquez developed a proposal during HN 300 that combines interdisciplinary endeavors and is a foundation for his future work. Read about how the class helped him narrow his goal and develop this project proposal.
Sigma Xi Five new Honors students inducted This semester, five honors students were inducted into the Sigma Xi branch at Whitworth. Sigma Xi is a well-respected National Research Honors Society that supports quantitative research aimed at positively advancing society, according to Dr. Aaron Putzke. The five students added this semester include Eleanor Jeffers, Casey Moddrell, Kendall Sandhop, Corrine Vasiloff, and Ethan Worth. While this organization has traditionally focused on STEM fields, Whitworth has made a goal to include other disciplines with quantitative research. This allows Whitworth’s chapter to be more inclusive with students that are both in
As an English Writing major, I am constantly asked the question, “what are you going to do with your degree?” The answer, as I have discovered during my time in Whitworth’s honors program, is that the possibilities are far more wide-reaching than even I would have guessed as I declared my major in 2019. Eighteen-year-old literature-loving me would not have anticipated using my writing skills to interpret and communicate water law— but that’s exactly what I did throughout the fall of 2021. HN300, or the community-based research honors seminar, is a class that divides honors students into
During the summer 2019 and continuing into the school year, we worked in the developmental biology lab of Dr. Aaron Putzke here at Whitworth University. We worked on a project that was presented at an international conference by Dr. Putzke and that we presented at the regional Murdock College Science Research Conference in November of 2019. Our project has now been accepted to be presented by us at The Allied Genetics Conference in Washington DC in April. Our project has also led to a paper that we contributed to and is being submitted to the G3