“Teaching Honors classes is a particularly rewarding way of pursuing the undergraduate side of what we do as faculty,” says Dan Kapust, incoming faculty director of the L&S Honors Program and Judith Hicks Stiehm Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science. This summer Kapust moves into this position as Jenny Saffran, Mary Herman Rubinstein Professor of Psychology, wraps up her three-year term as leader of the program.
“The real joy is working with the [Honors] students,” Kapust says. “They're just great students. They're interesting, they're responsible, they're creative. I have students from Honors sections from years ago who still keep in touch … it's lovely to see how they're flourishing in these amazing things they're doing.”
The L&S Honors Program coordinates and supports the instructors, courses, research opportunities, grants, special lectures and social events that provide selected L&S undergraduate students with ways to get even more out of their college learning and experiences.
The majority of L&S Honors students apply to the Honors Program when they are originally admitted into the College of Letters & Science, starting with Honors classes in their first year. As faculty director, Kapust will continue Saffran’s focus on ensuring that Honors students have the range of Honors classes, research mentorship and special academic events available to them in a wide range of L&S subjects to meet student interest and the requirements of the Honors in the Liberal Arts and Honors in the Major degree tracks. Kapust’s previous experience chairing the L&S Curriculum Committee and as a member of the L&S Academic Planning Council gives him the insight needed to assist departments with shaping their class offerings for high-achieving Honors students.
Kapust most recently served as the Director of the Integrated Liberal Studies Program, where courses are deeply connected to the Letters & Science principles of interdisciplinary learning.
“We've been fortunate across the L&S divisions and at the top to have deans who really believe in the liberal arts and speak to it. I think that the structure of the L&S curriculum fosters it through both depth and breadth requirements. And advisors are fantastic at this,” says Kapust. “Students love cross-disciplinary exploration. Honors students have a lot of active agency in their own education, and they'll be responsible for putting into practice some of these connections they're getting. The students take that to heart. And so, as individuals, the Honor students really seem to enjoy and to grasp the multifaceted nature of making sense of their world.”
Under the guidance of Saffran, the Honors Program staff has improved the admissions process into the program to identify students who may benefit the most from the breadth opportunities in Honors in the Liberal Arts. Saffran notes that in recent years more students are graduating with Honors, and more students are receiving Honors funding to support their research projects, study abroad programs and conference attendance. And, like Kapust, she is energized by L&S undergraduate students in the program.
“The enthusiasm these students bring to everything they do is infectious, and as an educator, there is nothing better than working with students who are so engaged in their campus lives,” Saffran says.
As she steps away from Honors leadership, she will renew her focus on Honors teaching and mentoring, teaching two Honors courses (including a Fall 2024 First-Year Interest Group) and mentoring two senior Honors theses during the 2024–25 academic year.