Interdisciplinary Programs

Fostering Education in the Liberal Arts Tradition, Innovating, and Integrating Assets Within A Major Research University Introduction to the Interdisciplinary Programs of the Pennoni Honors College

In the Pennoni Honors College we have created a home for truly interdisciplinary, inter-collegiate academic programs, enriching the idea of the Honors College by using it as an agent to help transform the University.  Situated centrally in the university’s administrative structure, it combines a thriving Honors Program with other academic initiatives designed to serve the entire campus and which benefit from access to the Honors community.

Here we created Drexel’s first university-wide, peer-mentored writing program supported by a rigorous graduation requirement. Committed to developing excellent discipline-based exposition, the Program also fosters a culture of writing on campus through readings by visiting poets and novelists, workshops, and forums.  We’ve developed The Smart Set from Drexel University, a new, fully interactive on-line journal of culture, science, medicine, technology, and the arts: TheSmartSet.com.  Honors students are involved with every aspect of production for this Internet publication.  The journal has now spawned a series of televised cultural affairs programs—The Drexel InterView—featuring both prominent Philadelphians and accomplished visitors to our city and hosted by Distinguished Professor of English, novelist, and cultural critic Paula Marantz Cohen.  It appears regularly on PBS channel 35 (WYBE).

To help students understand the contributions of diverse disciplines to accumulated human knowledge, we’ve instituted the Drexel Great Works Symposium: team-taught, multidimensional courses focusing on major human constructs from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.  Subjects have included the Atomic Bomb, the Internet, the Underground Railroad, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and Liberty itself, the Bhaghavad Gita, the Automobile, Musical Theater, and Oil.  Faculty from across campus teach in it, and students describe their experiences of these courses as enormously enriching.

We’ve enhanced opportunities for all undergraduates to engage in research by using web technology and building upon the university’s expanding commitment to research.  Each year we also select a large group of incoming Honors students to participate in the STAR Program—Students Tackling Advanced Research and Creative Work --pairing students with a faculty researcher or practicing professional during their freshman year; we then sponsor their commitment to full-time research on campus during the summer following freshman year.  STAR alums mentor beginning researchers, thus fostering connections among undergraduates engaged in research at all levels of their careers.

We’ve created a Center for Civic Engagement to connect campus with community.  While our outreach benefits the community, our primary goal is to educate Drexel students by involving them experientially in local schools, community agencies, and government.  Providing service learning opportunities for all students enrolled in UNIV 101 and for those in more advanced courses, we partner with a wide range of community institutions, bringing the University’s expertise and talents to bear on social problems while also aiding faculty and students who seek to learn through service.

The Pennoni Honors College innovated Drexel’s Cultural Passport Program: since fall, 2005, every Drexel freshman, and entering medical, law, and graduate student has received a Cultural Passport, offering free admission to some 30 area cultural sites.  A Cultural Passport website announces tickets to available performances at most of the regions theaters and halls—and allows students to obtain and print out their own E-Tickets for available events.

The Pennoni Honors College is also working to enhance our range of study abroad opportunities, and to create seamless study-abroad-co-op abroad programs and modular mini-courses with a significant abroad experience embedded within them.  The Office of International Programs and Fellowships also administers international fellowships for all Drexel students. Here students will find dedicated professionals who can advise and mentor fellowship applicants.

Our diverse accomplishments have earned national recognition: In 2002 the National Collegiate Honors Council honored Drexel with its prestigious Presidential Leadership Award.  This Award recognizes the University’s commitment to building a multi-dimensional, successful Honors community.  The Pennoni Honors College: Forging new directions in higher education by integrating University assets imaginatively; creating the culture and community of a liberal arts college for academically talented students within a major comprehensive research university.  For more information about any of our programs, please click on the links that follow.