Prospective Students

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. You may begin the process of applying to the Program through our online application.

**HERE IS WHAT SOME OF OUR HONORS STUDENTS ARE WORKING ON:**

Kasia Szczerbinski 13’ –
I was a legislative intern with State Representative Andrea LaFontaine (32nd District.) While I worked with her, the Representative passed her first bill, and I was able to meet and talk to the Governor.

Salaina Catalano 14’ –
I am interning in Senator Carl Levin's office in Washington, D.C. , In the fall I am going to be working on a Directed Study with Dr. Pheley about Franklin D. Roosevelt and the advent of federal healthcare policy. It will be the foundation of my senior Honors thesis. I am hoping to get FURSCA funding to travel to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York to do work with primary documents for the project.

Amanda Douglas 13’ –
I am interning at my local 4H office this summer. I plan to gain experience and contacts within the work of therapeutic horseback riding. I will write a thesis about all the different aspects of therapeutic horseback riding, from programs providing the opportunity of riding to people with disabilities to the physical benefits and the emotional benefits.

Haley Plasman 13’ –
I will be conducting a FURSCA funded environmental survey of Rice Creek. I will be taking samples of macroinvertebrates in the creek and using them to analyze the overall water quality and health of the stream. I plan to write my Honors Thesis using the data I collect from this survey.

Jacob Engel 14’ –
Games of chance have been part of culture for many groups of people for over thousands of years. The game of craps was created originally as an Old English game called hazard. Later, French gamblers slightly altered the game and brought it to New Orleans where it began to develop into the popular game played around the world today. The purpose of this research is to create a slight variation to the original craps by introducing eight-sided dice in order to gain a better knowledge of the practical applications of mathematics and computer science, and to possibly produce a patent.

Megan Poirier 13’ –
I have spent this last semester studying abroad in Paris, France! For the first half of the semester I took courses all in French. My courses were about French Art, Architecture, Theater, Film, and Music! My program took me on excursions in the city discovering the culture in the food, the movies, and the people. The second half of my program gave me an internship working in a Parisian art gallery, where I worked on translations, writing commentaries on artworks, and updating the websites and different social media sites.

Chelsea Copi 13’ –
This past winter and the winter before I traveled to Honduras for a week with a group of Albion students to set up and run medical brigades, which offer free medical care to the surrounding communities. This summer, I will be working in Spain for 7 weeks with Cliff Harris doing Chemistry research at the University of Granada. I plan to write my thesis based on this research.

Laura VerHulst 14’ –
I am working on a mathematical model of the new NFL overtime rule. The National Football League's overtime rules recently changed from the sudden death rule that has been in use since 1974. The problem with the sudden death rule was that gave the team with the first overtime possession a significantly higher probability of winning the game. We use a Markov chain to analyze the likelihood that the team to receive the ball first in overtime wins the game. We then compare our results with the probabilities from the sudden death rule as well as the first to six rule.

Stephanie Sanders 15’ –
I am currently researching nanoparticles and their use in catalysis under Dr. Kevin Metz. I am taking over/continuing the work of Lyndsey Renyolds, as she is graduating this year. Michael Dix and I will be traveling with Dr. Metz to Dublin this summer to work with his collaborator, Paula Colavita. While there, we will be making carbon microspheres to put nanoparticles on. And hopefully, be able to bring those techniques back to Albion.

Arianna Leonardi 15’ –
This summer I will be working in a Microbiology Lab at Virginia Tech from May to August. I'm really excited and cannot wait to see what I will be doing and how I will be assisting the researchers.

Ione Kellerhals 13’ –
My current project involves research into quantum physics. This project will allow me to develop enough scientific literacy in quantum theory that I can create a credible fictionalized physics experiment around which to build several key elements in the science fiction novel I am currently completing. The project involves extensive reading, regular consultation with a practicing physicist (Aaron Miller), and writing, in consultation with a publishing fiction writer (Danit Brown). The end result will be a series of chapter leaders depicting an ongoing experiment. These leaders will make the novel more entertaining, easier to read, and bridge the gap between scientific theory and the main storyline.

Sara Jongeward 14’ –
This summer I am interning for the editorial section of the Detroit Free Press and plan on pursuing creative projects in poetry and drawing. This winter I was a Sleight Leadership Fellow and participated in a workshop focusing on the future of Detroit.

Christina Hallam 14’ –
I am preparing for a trip to India to study at a Buddhist Monastery. I will be studying meditation techniques alongside Buddhist theology. I plan to come back and write a senior thesis about this trip concerning how Buddhist meditation can be applied to Christian prayer.

Kate Sexton 13’ –
This summer I will be away from campus to a beautiful island in Lake Michigan: Beaver Island. I will be studying the progression and interaction of various ethnic groups of Beaver Island over the past 200 years. These groups have experienced times of both cooperation and conflict during their cohabitation on the small, isolated island. I will look at the local Odawa tribe, French trappers, a splinter sect of Mormons, Irish fisher-folk, and a Russian doctor, among others. This diverse history has led to a contemporary community proud of its ethnic heritage and traditions. By living on the island and studying the artifacts and records of their lives, I plan to compile enough information to write an honors thesis and share what I have learned about this fascinating community and their history.

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.