Honors Mentors

Mentoring honors students

The Media School has three honors cohorts: Ernie Pyle Scholars for students in the journalism degree, Media Scholars for students in the media, game design, and cinematic arts degrees, and the Academic Honors Program (AHP) Scholars for high-achieving students across the entire school. Serving as a faculty mentor for these programs gives you the opportunity to work closely with an exclusive cohort of top-performing students, building a unique relationship with them and tracking their progress from incoming freshmen or matriculated sophomores to graduating seniors.

Ernie Pyle Scholars and Media Scholars

Each incoming cohort of Ernie Pyle Scholars and Media Scholars honors students has a faculty mentor who teaches them two honors classes, travels with them domestically and internationally, and mentors them throughout their four-year IU career. The compensation for mentoring these cohorts is the six-week Summer in London program, where faculty members get their own private apartment to live in London with the students, with travel costs paid, a per diem awarded to help defray in-country living costs, and a salary.

Academic Honors Program

Each cohort of Academic Honors Program students has a faculty mentor who helps select the students and then mentors them during the spring of their sophomore year through their senior year. There are no teaching or travel responsibilities related to this mentorship, but these faculty members are compensated through their research account for their work with the AHP students.

Expectations

As a faculty mentor, you work closely with the honors director to help administer the program and supervise your cohort of students. Your specific schedule of responsibilities includes the following:

Freshman year

Attend the freshman honors kick-off meeting and dinner during orientation week (typically the Wednesday or Thursday evening prior to the first day of classes).
Teach your cohort their freshman honors seminar (H110 or H111) at the beginning of fall semester. This is a one-credit, eight-week course that meets for 75 minutes, typically on a Tuesday or Thursday evening. The course builds the relationships between the students and with their faculty mentor. The class curriculum is highly flexible and at your discretion — many faculty design the course around an introduction to college life and a review of various campus facilities and resources. There is not an overload payment to faculty for this brief course — instead, compensation is the six weeks in London program immediately after sophomore year, as highlighted below.
Travel to New York City during spring break as field assistant with the cohort one year ahead of yours. Trip runs Monday-Friday of spring break week.

Sophomore year

Maintain a relationship with your cohort, checking in with them occasionally and helping make sure they are meeting honors requirements for graduation.
Lead your cohort’s trip to New York over spring break. It is mandatory for your cohort of students to participate in this trip. You will be assisted by the faculty mentor of the cohort one year behind yours, just as you have assisted the trip during your previous year.
Travel with your cohort to London for the six-week Summer in London program, which begins the weekend immediately after finals week. During your time in London, you will live in your own furnished apartment in the same building as the students. You receive both a salary and living expenses stipend, as well as roundtrip travel costs between U.S.-U.K. In London, you will provide or attend educational activities two days a week and help oversee students’ internships. You need to stay in London the entire six-week period, including weekends, so you are available to students and can respond quickly in case of emergency. However, after the program concludes, you are free to travel (i.e., you do not accompany students up & back between U.S.-U.K).

Junior year

Maintain relationship with your cohort, checking in with them occasionally and helping make sure they are meeting honors requirements for graduation.
Potentially help escort a one-night trip to Chicago with your cohort, typically in February.

Senior year

Maintain relationship with your cohort, checking in with them occasionally and helping make sure they are meeting honors requirements for graduation.
Teach honors capstone class for your cohort during spring semester of their senior year. This is a three-credit class that counts as part of your regular course load for the semester — it replaces another class you would usually teach in the spring and is not an overload. The curriculum is flexible and is typically either a research paper or other type of creative project. (Ernie Pyle students often need a research paper option in this course to meet research requirements in the journalism major.) Note that you might also have student(s) in your cohort who will need to do this class as a fall semester independent study under your supervision if they are not on campus in the spring semester or are graduating early.

As a faculty mentor, you work closely with the honors director to help administer the program and supervise your cohort of students. Your specific schedule of responsibilities includes the following:

Sophomore year:

Assist the honors director with screening applications for the AHP during February/March of the students’ sophomore year
Help organize and attend a welcome reception for the incoming cohort of students in April

Junior year:

Organize and host a casual meeting with your cohort once each semester
Provide ongoing mentoring to your cohort throughout the year

Senior year:

Evaluate student application essays for the “Career Exploration Scholarship Fund” in fall of senior year
Organize and host a casual meeting with your cohort once each semester
Provide ongoing mentoring to your cohort throughout the year

Compensation:

Because Academic Honors Program faculty mentors don’t get to attend Summer in London, they are instead compensated for their work through contributions to their research account as follows: $1,500 during their cohort’s sophomore year, $3,000 during their cohort’s junior year, and $3,000 during their cohort’s senior year.

Ernie Pyle Scholars requirements

Media Scholars requirements

Academic Honors Program requirements

Questions?

Contact Bonnie Layton, director of the honors program.

Honors Mentors

Mentoring honors students

Ernie Pyle Scholars and Media Scholars

Academic Honors Program

Expectations

Ernie Pyle Scholars and Media Scholars mentors

Freshman year

Sophomore year

Junior year

Senior year

Academic Honors Program mentors

Sophomore year:

Junior year:

Senior year:

Compensation:

Questions?

Media School intranet resources and social media channels