SJCC gives students the chance to enhance skills and add to resume

For students looking to take their education to the next level, San Jose City College offers a unique opportunity within the honors program.

The honors program is for exceptional students who enjoy an intellectual challenge and have shown distinct dedication and purpose in their studies, according to the honors program brochure.

“It is a way for students to achieve an honors program experience at a school that doesn’t have separate honors classes,” said Sean Abel, dean of social science and humanities.

The program was designed to motivate participation in academic discussion with small groups of peers and faculty, according to the brochure.

“You could have five students in a class, all in the honors program, and each of them would do a different type of project,” Abel said. “One person might do a service project, one might do a research project; and they could all do different things based on their personal interests.”

History instructor Khalid White worked with a student in an introduction to sociology course this semester.

“She looked at a bunch of different images and she surveyed about 100 people on campus to see how the images we see on TV, magazines, etc. affect our self-esteem,” White said.

White said this is his first time working with a student in the honors program, and he thinks it might have something to do with the fact that not every student knows the program is available to them.

“I never thought in a million years that I would be asked to do this, being on the other side of the table in terms of being a teacher who’s helping students in the honors program,” White said. “It’s gratifying in that regard.”

Abel said the program has been dormant for some time and it differs from the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

“Phi Theta Kappa is an honors society and you gain admission to Phi Theta Kappa based on your passport (qualifications),” Abel said. “This is an honors program where you’re creating an honors project in a specific course so the two are different, but of course not mutually exclusive.”

Students also receive an honors notation on their transcripts and graduation programs, as well as transfer assistance.

“I’m not sure that it creates any quicker transfer, but depending on where they’re going, they can say they took honors experience classes,” Abel said. “It’s a student resume-building experience.”

White said the honors program also adds to the credibility of SJCC.

He said SJCC is serious about student scholarships and serious about providing students with academic rigor, contrary to some of the stereotypes that may be out there.

“I think I have seven active students (in the program) and my goal is to have 200 to 250 active (students), which is still less than 5 percent of our student body,” Abel said.

He said students can apply to be in the honors program at any time during the semester, though there is a specific timeline laid out in the brochure to make it easier for them.

“They can apply to be in the honors program right now,” Abel said, “but they couldn’t start their project until spring semester because it’s not really possible to do over intersession; it’s too short a period of time.”

English instructor Martha Oral said she worked with a student who needed somebody outside of their department to help them with their project.

“The student was Carolann Espino who did the Day of the Dead installation,” Oral said. “For whatever reason the art department couldn’t sponsor her so they needed somebody else to sponsor her.”

Oral said she fully supported the idea of Espino doing a Day of the Dead event this semester because she knows she worked really hard on it last year.

“She set up all the artists; she got people to help her do the altars, the videos, the dance and the music,” Oral said. “She got all these people to do this and it was amazing.”

Students eligible for the honors program must meet specific requirements laid out in the brochure.

“For continuing students, they must have a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher in 12 or more college units and they must be eligible for or have completed English 1A,” Abel said.

After a student is accepted into the program, Abel said the next step is completing an honors program contract with the instructor.

“They create a proposal and fill that out together,” Abel said. “I approve the project, and then I don’t see anything again until the end of the semester.”