Graduating Honors students cap Commencement weekend with celebration and reception

As Commencement weekend wound to a close on the afternoon of Sunday, May 21, more than 50 graduates of the SUNY New Paltz Honors Program came together with family, faculty and friends at a special celebration of their outstanding scholarship.

“It’s been a privilege working with this exceptional cohort of graduating Honors students. They’ve been important ambassadors for our program, reaching out to potential students, offering tours and recounting experiences in the program,” said Honors Program Director Patricia Sullivan. “I can only imagine what the future holds for them.”

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The Honors Program is an option available to New Paltz students who wish to challenge themselves in their pursuit of personal and intellectual development, through participation in interdisciplinary seminars, fulfillment of service and independent study requirements, and dedicated work on capstone thesis presentations.

“As graduating seniors in our Honors Program, you have lived what we often refer to as ‘high-impact learning practices,’ experiences that have been demonstrated to produce deep and lasting learning in students,” said President Donald P. Christian. “Our Honors Program packages experiences like this together to provide educational outcomes that we’re really proud of at SUNY New Paltz, and I hope you share our pride in the work you’ve done and what you’ve achieved.”

This year’s Honors graduates researched and presented theses on topics including the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD; the business impact of marketing in professional basketball; ways of incorporating comic books into elementary curricula; and the interaction between memory and digital technology. Others presented creative projects in media including documentary film, graphic design and children’s book illustration.

The event served as yet another illustration of the Honors Program’s singular ability to help exceptional students reach their full potential at SUNY New Paltz.

“When the Honors Program Admissions Committee meets to review applications, we welcome applicants with the following qualities: creativity, intellectual curiosity, commitment to thinking deeply and broadly about a range of ideas, communication skills, and interdisciplinary orientation,” Sullivan said. “The Honors Program creates a space, intellectual and physical, in which students who have all these qualities are invited to challenge boundaries and move outside their comfort zones.”

More information about the Honors Program is available online.