NEXUS One is the first Honors NEXUS Experience that all UHP students will complete, in most cases during fall of the first year in the program. For students entering the program fall 2018 or later, NEXUS One is a requirement for graduation with Latin Honors. It also gives a sense of the spirit of our other Honors NEXUS Experiences.
NEXUS One is not a course, nor does it have a defined final product to be submitted and/or evaluated. Rather, this program aims not only to foster conversation and a sense of shared experience between students across the University, but also to lay the groundwork for the entirety of their undergraduate career. Specifically, we hope that NEXUS One gives the students a sense of awareness about their own identity, values, and goals; that it creates a context for thinking about interdisciplinary connections; that it facilitates access to research; that it primes students to develop a thesis idea germane to their professional and personal goals; and that it grounds them in a sense of the places—both local and global— and times—past, present, and future—that will shape them as lifelong learners. Topics include:
- self-identity, values, and developmental goals
- what it means to be part of a large research University
- orientation to academic integrity in research
- orientation to the greater Twin Cities community and to community-engaged learning