Alumni Spotlight

Honors Alumni continue to do amazing things. Please email us with what you are currently doing to honorsprogram@byu.edu, include your name, year you graduated, major, what you are doing now (family/work/education), and any memories you have regarding your time in the Honors Program. 

An alumnus wrote after the Honors reunion with Dr. Tom Rogers as the keynote speaker (14 November 2011):

...I studied Russian under Dr. Rogers when I was a freshman in 1966, and maintained a great relationship with him throughout my BYU experience. I have followed some of his subsequent accomplishments from afar, and share with him a great love for Russia and the Russian people.

I came to BYU after meeting Dr. Thomas, then director of the Honors Program, who persuaded me that I would find a stimulating intellectual experience there. I was accepted into the Honors Program and so had the privilege of studying under some of the best professors at BYU in a delightful array of general education options that encouraged me to obtain a complete education in a wide range of subjects. The Honors Program challenged me to push back the borders of my academic awareness and interests, to broaden my fields of study, and to thereby prepare the whole person for an abundant life - not necessarily material abundance, but an abundance of wonder and awareness of the world and its people. While many of the details of those Honors classes and seminars have faded, I still retain that great excitement for learning new things that was nurtured at BYU. I will always be grateful for my own experience with the BYU Honors Program.

One alumna recently wrote:

I graduated in Honors English with University Honors in 1993.  I loved the honors program and have thought of it often through the years but especially now, because my daughter hopes to attend B.Y.U. in the fall of 2012.  Some of the first words of advice I will give her will be, "Be sure to do the honors program!"  

I loved the smaller classes, the trip to Arches National Park, and my Colloquium class.  I savored my first reading of Ender's Game in Bruce Jorgensen's class and still remember some of the symbolism he pointed out.  One of the hardest, but more rewarding, experiences for me was writing and defending my honor's thesis on Dorothy Wordsworth.  I really paid a price and was fired upon during my oral defense.  I passed, but had to make significant changes and in all, the process was brutal.  However, because of my grueling honor's thesis defense, I was extra prepared for my master's thesis defense five years later.  I enjoyed the whole process because I had this kind of experience already.  

-I received my B.A. In Honors English with University Honors in 1993 and my M.A. in English with an emphasis in American Literature in 1998.

The following information was received by alumni a few years ago: