Bunker Hill Community College

Honors Program

The BHCC Commonwealth Honors Program:
An Invitation to Excellence

The Commonwealth Honors Program offers students the opportunity to study and learn in an academically challenging and enriching learning environment. Students benefit from a learning community with small class sizes, teacher-to-student mentoring, team-taught interdisciplinary courses and access to an Honors Center. Commonwealth Honors students have many opportunities to do research, participate in the statewide undergraduate conference, present their work and/or publish their writings in the Honors journal, Kaleidoscope. Commonwealth Honors Program students receive special recognition at graduation and Honors designation on their transcripts. The Commonwealth Honors Program is affiliated with the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) and The Northeast Regional NCHC.

Honors Coursework
Honors work is an additional component of a traditional course in which a Commonwealth Honors Program student works with the course professor to design enriching personalized experiences that earn Honors credit. Examples might be special research in a chemistry or psychology course, an art portfolio or an analysis of an authors works. Honors components may also include local internships at such places as the Museum of Science and/or Service Learning Experiences.

The Honors Seminar is an interdisciplinary three-credit course that focuses each semester on a selected theme. Students explore the semester theme from the perspectives of the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. Students study with fellow honors students from different degree concentrations and programs and develop research skills through individual and group projects.
Recent topics included “The Middle East,” “Prospects and Possibilities of a New Millennium,” “Denial of Diversity - Genocide in the Twentieth Century” and “Boston as a Center of Creativity - Past, Present and Future.” Honors courses are research-oriented, subject-specific courses that are open only to Commonwealth Honors Program students. These courses provide Commonwealth Honors Program students with the opportunity to study a subject in depth and to develop research skills.

Admissions and Program Requirements
Students may be eligible for this program immediately out of high school, after studying at Bunker Hill Community College or studying at another college. To apply to the program, complete an application form available from the Enrollment Services Center and provide two letters of reference.
To be eligible to apply to the Commonwealth Honors Program, students must satisfy at least one of the following criteria:

• Be a current BHCC student and have earned at least 12 credits.
• Be a recent high school graduate with a minimum B+ average.
• Be a transfer student from another college with a minimum 3.50 cumulative GPA. and at least 12 earned credits.
Be a transfer student who has satisfactorily completed work in another college Honors program.

To fulfill the requirement to graduate as a Commonwealth Honors Program Scholar, students must:

• Meet all requirements for your associate degree program;
• Earn a minimum 3.50 cumulative GPA at BHCC;
• Complete at least three courses that include an Honors component;
• Complete the Honors Seminar in which you are required to develop an Honors project and present the results of your research at the Honors Seminar Presentation Program.

Scholarships
The College awards two scholarships to eligible Commonwealth Honors Program students - one to a returning student, and one to a graduating student. Visiting Scholarships page for more information.
For more information about the Commonwealth Honors Program, contact the program co-directors at 617-228-2296, 617-228-3249 or the Enrollment Services Center.