Honors Orientation

All first year Honors students begin with a week-long Orientation, which is designed and executed by current Honors students. First year students move into their dorms a week early, giving them the chance to get settled into their dorms before classes begin.

Orientation has proven time and again to be a valuable tool for Honors students, successfully easing each student's transition from high school to college. Additionally, most students have such a great time at orientation that they sign up to volunteer at the following orientation as a team leader, Honors Student Union member, or just an early event planner. Again, orientation is a required activity for all incoming freshmen, but it is often considered to be one of the greatest advantages of becoming an Honors student at UNF. During the week students get a feel for what Honors is about through various activities and team building events.

All classes participate in the following

Service Learning Project

Orientation introduces students to Service Learning, one of the foundations of the Honors Program. In the past students have worked with local agencies such as HabiJax, our local branch of Habitat for Humanity, The Bridge of Northeast Florida, a local after–school program for at–risk youth, and “River house” a local community drop in center. The actual service has ranged from painting, landscaping, and setting up a basketball court to reading with and mentoring children. Our students always work along side the individuals who their service impacts, which allow our students the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of local community issues. This year student will participate in READesign™. Honors is collaborating with the Heart of America Foundation ® and WAWS FOX 30 to bring this project to Jacksonville. Honors students will spend an entire day ”making over” 3 local elementary school libraries and promoting literacy by reading with children and their parents. This experience combined with current events literature and reflective discussion will allow students to explore literacy as a community issue. Students will discover the impact a library has on providing accessibility to and motivation for literacy.

Experiential Learning Event

Orientation introduces the incoming freshmen to the concept of experiential learning. This year students explored downtown Jacksonville for their experiential learning segment of Honors Orientation. Students were given the opportunity to investigate the business, homeless and residential cultures that readily coexist in this area of the city. From this experience, they were able to capture the diversity that survives within the human population. These intense experiences help to prepare Honors students for the challenges and profound discussions that will take place in their Honors classes.

High Ropes and Low Ropes

The highlight of Orientation is a day full of physical and mental challenges at the local YMCA Challenge Course. This challenge course is a physical representation of the obstacles that Honors students will be overcoming throughout the course of the program. At this site, students become acquainted and begin to trust one another through a series of trust–building activities. These activities conclude in the ultimate trust activity, climbing the 50–foot challenge tower with only a rope, a harness, and the student's faith in his or her peers.

“Orientation is an opportunity for incoming freshmen to learn not only about the Honors Program, but about themselves. Through various activities, the students experience all aspects of Honors learning environments. The students learn to challenge themselves physically and emotionally. For me, Orientation was one of the highlights of the Honors Program because I was able to see how unique this program is from conventional university programs. I realized how much I was going to learn and grow from this experience.” Alison Oberne, Honors Alumni.