Prospective Students

Albion College's Honors Program

Albion College's Honors Program provides an exciting and unique variety of academic experiences for highly motivated and talented students. The Program's mix of small discussion-based classes, independent research, academic rigor, and personal attention provides Honors students with special challenges and opportunities for growth. Many of the College's finest teachers and scholars regularly contribute to the Program's curriculum.

The Program provides honors students with opportunities to participate in museum and theatre excursions, our Honors Student Council, various campus symposia, the hosting of distinguished campus visitors and a variety of other social and intellectual activities.

The Honors Program at Albion was founded in 1976 and in August of 2004 it was renamed The Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program. The Honors Program is located in the historic Observatory building and contains a seminar room for honors classes, the Honors coordinator's office, as well as meeting, lounge/library, computing and study areas for honors students and their guests. 

Thank you for your interest in the Honors Program. Most students apply and are admitted to the Brown Honors Program in their senior year of high school. We invite you to come to campus and be a "Student for a Day" sit in on classes, meet with professors, coaches, lunch with students, have your Honors Interview - schedule your special day today! You may begin the process of applying to the Program through our online application. If you would like to learn more about the program just click on the link and sign up for a  -  Virtual Honors Information Session.

EVENTS FOR FALL 2022 - 

   Come be a "Albion College Honors Student" for day - schedule with Renee or Martha from Admissions
   Game Nights - September & October
   1st Year Retreat - Saturday, September, 11th
    Ice Cream Social - Monday, September 2th
   Trivial Pursuit Students vs. Professors - September 27th
    Tie Dye Party - October 9th    
    Haunted House & Ice Cream Trip - October 21st
    Pumpkin Painting, Carving, Decorating Party - October 24
    Escape Room - November 14th
    Broadway Play at the Fisher Theatre - Hadestown - December 5th
    More events are being planned throughtout the semester - Any and all suggestions are welcome!
   Honors Face Book Page - Join us today!

Here Are a Few of the Events That Honors Students had the Option to Attend last school year

SPRING 2022

• Come be a "Albion College Honors Student" for day - schedule with Renee
  3rd Annual Film Festival - Bohm Theater, Sunday, February 22 - Noon
  
• Murder Mystery Dinner Train
  Ice Skating
  K-Wings Hockey Game
  Escape Room Trip 
  Netflix Comedy Night 
  Movie & Game Nights
  Elkin Isaac / Honors Convocation - Thursday, April 22
  Study Dessert - Thursday, April 30 @ 8:00pm
  Honors Face Book Page - Join us today!

RESEARCH PROJECTS OUR CURRENT STUDENTS ARE WORKING ON NOW

Marcelle Collares ’23 - My project is focused on how to teach and apply the ludic (also known as playful) method of education. During the last 10 weeks, I have been reading important books and articles about this method and planning a way to apply it to a Social Studies 6th-grade class at Mar Lee Middle School taught by Professor Chris Henke. I have also watched movies and shows in which this method is used, and had structured conversations with educators.   My goals were to understand the ludic method of education and the reasons to apply this method instead of the traditional one, write a rationale to explain the ludic method and how it can be implemented, develop a curriculum project for the social studies classes.

Sam Semerau ’22 - I am currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Pleiad, writing my thesis using my own archival research, and president of the American Association of University Women (AAUW)

Noah Flint ’23 – I am currently interning with Albion's director of planning and building. I have been able to get to do some networking, learn more about the day-to-day functions of city government, and I will soon be helping rewrite the Guide to Development. 

Meghan Krawczyk ’22 – I am majoring in political science, minor in educational studies and psychology and have a concentration through the Ford Institute, as well as being part of Honors! I have been lucky enough to participate in research through the Student Research Partner Program and FURSCA. I am currently writing my thesis about civic engagement, empathy, and trust in institutions in college students. I am applying to graduate school at this time and hope to get admitted to a masters program in higher education. I have just recently set up an internship with the TRIO SSS Program on campus to spread resources and support to all students. I am a TRIO SSS Peer Mentor and have been highly involved on campus through varying leadership positions. One is that I am currently the president of C.O.R.E. which is a student organization for those interested in education. Opportunities are abundant on this campus when you make connections! 

Madison Brilley ’25 - I am currently helping start up our first Pre-Veterinary Medicine Club.  Through this club pre-vet students or prospective pre-vet students can learn what veterinary medicine is by club shadowing, workshops, and more! 

Haley Mcquown ‘22 – The research for my honors thesis has me conducting an assessment of the mental health needs of young Albion adults in low income housing communities through a children’s reading program.

Saige Jost ’22 - Over the summer I worked with my advisor Dr. Lee-Cullin to conduct a biogeochemical experiment through Albion's undergraduate research program. This great opportunity gave me the research to write my honors thesis - The evaluation of the storm event export of dissolved organic carbon from an urban environment to the Kalamazoo River. I just presented this as a poster at a Geology conference in Portland, Oregon and am going to present this at our Elkin Isaac Symposium.

Emily Abramczyk ’23 - My Summer FURSCA project, I started analyzing how ping pong proved to be an important catalyst in establishing relations between the U.S. and China during a time when the two countries had no formal diplomatic relations with each other and attempts by Chinese and American leaders to use traditional, high level political channels to try to establish talks with each other kept resulting in failure. Although some may argue that sports play a divisive role in international interactions due to highly competitive attitudes intensifying rivalries, through my research, I argue that ping pong diplomacy was beneficial to fostering positive U.S.-China relations, both politically and culturally, as the 1972 ping pong exchange intertwined political and athletic competition in order to elevate sports to a level of diplomacy. I wanted to demonstrate that sports competitions create mutual empathy between two groups of people and ease political tensions through people to people interactions, which in turn leads to the greater impact of two governments establishing political relations on the basis of friendship. Therefore, ping pong diplomacy created specifically sports based international contacts between the U.S. and China, and in doing so, sparked diplomatic conversations about global partnerships, efforts to bridge cultural differences, and the importance of athletic empathy as a central element in U.S.-China relations that transcended traditional political negotiations." 

Fadwa Kamari ’23 - I'm working on a directed evolution research project with Dr. Streu, Rayna E, and Irene C. We're trying to find an antibody for the Nipah virus, which the World Health Organization listed as one of the top ten most deadly viruses. 

WHERE A FEW OF OUR 2021GRADUATES ARE HEADED

Working for Dana Incorporated as a Financial Analyst

PhD program at Penn State University in I/O Psychology

I plan on joining the work force now

Masters at University of Detroit-Mercy for clinical mental health counseling

I will be attending medical school at Central Michigan University.

Attending Michigan State University for a Master's in Social Work, specializing in addiction treatment and veterinary social work.

I’ll be attending grad school at Western, and am currently working at SAFEPlace, a domestic violence shelter.

I plan to go to graduate school for genetic counseling. If I don't get in this cycle work for a year and re apply.

I plan on working during my gap year while studying for the LSat before going to Law School

gap year working at the U of M hopefully!!

Will be attending MSU for a Masters in Social Work, specializing in addiction therapy and animal therapy

I start working for Ernst and Young LLP in their tax division in La Jolla, CA starting January 2021 until then I plan on studying and passing the CPA exams

I’m doing a service year with City Year DC

I will be taking a gap year. During that time, I hope to work as an English tutor or participate in internships for relevant career skills such as copywriting, editing, etc. I will also be pursuing the possibility of publication in journals relevant to my discipline and academic interests, whether they be peer-reviewed open journals, journals dedicated to undergraduate research, journals of literary criticism, etc. After that, I hope to pursue graduate degrees in English Literature, Education, or Advertising/Technical Writing.

Peace Corps

Attending The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

Next semester I will be attending a Marine Science Masters program through San Francisco State University's Estuary and Ocean Science Center known as RIPTIDES (Research Intensive Pedagogical Training of InterDisciplinary Estuarine Scientists). I will be studying the great white shark population at the Farallon Islands off the coast of California and looking into the effects of tourism and chumming.

Law school at Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law

See what other research projects our students have worked on

Glasgow University Program

The Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program is proud to announce an off-campus research and study opportunity at Glasgow University in Scotland. Click on the accompanying Glasgow PowerPoint for an introduction to this program. You will find an exciting honors course on the Scottish Enlightenment, and courses ranging from Anthropology and Art History to Chemistry and Physics. Students enrolled in the Glasgow program will be taking difficult form 3 and 4 classes.

Our Glasgow program is intended for upperclass honors students who receive the highest recommendation from Albion faculty and who also have the support of the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program director. Learn more on our Current Students page.

Here are a couple of emails from two of our current students that have studied there:

Lindsay Weiss
I've been at the University of Glasgow for a little over a month now, and I just wanted to write to thank Albion Honors for making the Principia Consortium program available to myself and other honors students. I couldn't have chosen a better way to spend my semester! I love living in Glasgow, and my Scottish Enlightenment class offers a great taste of Scottish history and culture. It's a really valuable class that I'm grateful to have the opportunity to take. We've gone on two field trips as a class, and I've met some great people.

In addition, the University of Glasgow offers a lot of day trips and weekend trips geared towards international students so that they can experience the best of Scotland. During orientation week, I had the option to go on a trip to Edinburgh, which was fantastic - though not quite as wonderful as Glasgow! Last weekend, I went on a trip with a friend of mine to Dundee, Stonehaven, and Aberdeen. At Stonehaven, we stopped at Dunnotar Castle, which is surrounded by absolutely stunning scenery that's unlike anything I've ever seen back in Michigan.

Best of all, however, is the sense of independence I've gained and the knowledge that the world is so much bigger than I previously realized. I remember thinking that students who had studied abroad were exaggerating when they raved that the experience will "change your life." It does. I love the freedom to walk the City Centre if I'm in the mood for browsing the shops, plan day trips with my friends, and go beyond what I'm comfortable with. I've tried haggis, Irn Bru, and shortbread. The little differences - chip-and-pin machines, slang, the Glasgow rain - take a short bit of getting used to, but they made me realize that some elements of my day-to-day life that I take for granted are, in fact, distinctly American. My mind has become more open.

All in all, if a student has the chance, they should most definitely study abroad. This has been one of the best experiences of my college career.

Andrew Zimmer 
Thanks to the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program at Albion, I had the incredible opportunity to go abroad- in scenic Scotland, nonetheless! Having spent more than 3 months here I must say it's been more than an unforgettable experience; and it's only getting better- my trip across Europe starts with this semester's end on May 7th! In my time here I've made friends with locals, fellow American travelers, and other University students from all around the world. Once a week all the international students get together with the International Society for food, fun, and a night out on the town. Only at this time are students from all over the world together in one place and spending time with one another; it's not uncommon to talk globally about political differences or questions regarding one another's culture at large- a lot of playful finger-pointing at such events is welcomed. There are few instances in a person's life where one can feel so globally connected with such a culturally diverse group of people. I can't help but think that these are some of the memories that I will forever cherish in my heart. I can't wait to return to Albion, but I certainly am grateful for the opportunity of having such an experience.