Honors co-curricular experiences
Each honors pathway requires students to complete a minimum of two co-curricular experiences. These experiences are designed to allow students to pursue professional and personal development opportunities. Co-curricular experiences are equivalent in intensity and duration to a standard, three-unit academic course, thus you should expect to devote approximately 40 hours to any activity per semester to earn one experience. These experiences are divided into three separate categories: stand-alone, exploratory, and variable. Listed below are some examples of acceptable experiences.
Stand-alone co-curricular experiences
- Presenting at an honors conference (e.g., Wester Regional Honors Conference, National Collegiate Honors Conference), or an academic conference
- Students may not earn an experience for merely for attending such events; they must present
- Applying for a nationally competitive fellowship or scholarship (e.g., Boren, CLS, Fulbright, Goldwater, Truman, Udall)
- Serving as a Peer Coach/Mentor, a member of the Marketing/Publicity/Outreach team, or in another capacity within the Honors College
- The exact number of experiences associated with these activities will be specified in job descriptions distributed by the Honors College
Exploratory co-curricular experiences
- Exploring University events
- Attend a total of ten events centered around a theme of choice:
- Arts (e.g., attending a play, concert, etc.)
- Humanities (e.g., Thought on Tap)
- STEM (e.g., Women in STEM, STEM career fair)
- Social (e.g., Honors College socials, Joe Crowley Student Union events)
- Cultural/International (e.g., Night of All Nations, USAC presentation)
- Professional Development
- Honors Great Presentations
- Note: Hours must be documented using the “Co-curricular Experience Universal Time Sheet”
- Attend a total of ten events centered around a theme of choice:
- Pre-professional exploration
- Complete all of the activities listed below for a total of 40 hours:
- Volunteering/service within a relevant field AND
- Shadowing a professional in the same relevant field (e.g., doctor, researcher, engineer, CEO, entrepreneur) AND
- Interview with the professional shadowed
- Complete all of the activities listed below for a total of 40 hours:
Variable co-curricular experiences
In order to earn one co-curricular Experience, you must devote a minimum of 40 hours per semester to the activity. (In order to earn two experiences you must devote a minimum of 75 hours per semester to the activity; three experiences require 100 hours; four require 130 hours; five require 160 hours; and six require 190 hours.)
- Community service
- Internships (paid or unpaid)
- Jobs (on or off campus)
- Research (in a faculty-led laboratory, under the supervision of a faculty mentor, or sponsored by an Undergraduate Research award)
- Club involvement (typically at the executive/officer level, students must submit 3-5 achievable goals)
- Note: Hours must be documented using the “Cocurricular Experience Universal Time Sheet”
Reflection essays
All co-curricular experiences must be aligned with one or more honors mission pillars. When you submit the Co-curricular Experience Proposal Form via DocuSign, you will indicate the pillar(s) with which your proposed experience aligns. You MUST retain the original email message from DocuSign in order to be able to submit your completed reflection essay at the end of the semester.
This essay should describe how the experience helped you to develop in the pillar area(s) you selected. Your essay should not merely summarize the work you did, but rather, in a critically reflective manner, describe professional and/or personal development, skills acquired and/or refined, and/or insights gained over the course of the experience. The essay should be two to three double-spaced pages in length submitted by the deadline (which is always 5:00 PM on University Prep Day).
Time sheet
In order to verify hours, you may use the “Cocurricular Experience Universal Time Sheet” provided by the Honors College or use any time sheets provided by the company/organization you are involved with.
GivePulse
In order to keep track of service hours devoted to a University-related event, the Honors College recommends that you use GivePulse. Please be advised that, while you may enter a verifier’s information into GivePulse, the official verification of Cocurricular Experiences only occurs via the DocuSign form.
DocuSign
The honors cocurricular experience proposal process will be completed via DocuSign. With the DocuSign form, the entire process from initial proposal to verification will occur in a single workflow using a single online form. The deadline to begin this process is October 1 for the fall semester and March 1 for the spring semester.
Please email Kety Luna at kluna@unr.edu with any questions.