Welcome Class of 2013!

"The splendid achievements of the intellect, like the soul, are everlasting."
Sallust, 41 BC

The Honors Program at Sweet Briar is dedicated to enriching the intellectual life of the entire College community. The program is designed to engage all departments and academic disciplines and to provide opportunities for motivated students that emphasize both breadth and depth of study. The program offers recognition to those students who perform academically at an Honors level, but also encourages the participation of all interested students in Honors courses and co-curricular activities.

The program encourages Honors students to challenge themselves and their peers, and it provides experiences designed to stimulate and strengthen students' critical thinking abilities and creative endeavors. In Honors classes, through independent research projects, and at co-curricular activities and events the program provides a venue in which exceptional students can meet, share ideas, and stretch their intellectual boundaries inside and outside the classroom.

Each year the Honors Program selects a theme for thinking across the disciplines. Many words and concepts that we use in formal papers and everyday discourse appear across the disciplines at Sweet Briar. They may seem to have distinct, specialized, disciplinary meanings, and the idea of taking the same concept from biology, for example, and into the realm of music, takes a leap of imagination.

This year, the Sweet Briar Honors Program invites the College community to think about the concepts of Evolution/ Devolution. In lectures, informal presentations and discussions, and in Honors seminars, we will explore ideas brought to mind by the terms Evolution/ Devolution - in literary works, in the natural world, and in social, cultural, and political contexts. Sweet Briar faculty and visiting scholars will give the College community a view of these concepts through the different lenses of the sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Join us in the coming months as we contemplate the ideas of Evolution/ Devolution from a variety of perspectives spanning the liberal arts spectrum.

Questions about the Honors Program may be directed to
Professor Jill Granger (granger@sbc.edu), Honors Program Director and
Julie Hemstreet (jhemstreet@sbc.edu), Honors Program Associate Administrator.