Self-Designed Experiences

Self-designed experiences must consist of at least 75 hours of work. Time spent in a UC class cannot count towards the 75 hour requirement.

While many students independently conceive of their self-designed experience, some would like extra support from their honors advisor to brainstorm ideas for their experiences, prospective project advisors, opportunities to share your learning, or other questions.

Whether you have an experience in mind or you're starting from scratch, we encourage you to start thinking about what you hope to learn. Honors advisors or potential experience advisors are fantastic people to help you consider options, additional ideas, and resources. They can assist you as you draw on your passions, skills, and goals to shape your personalized learning experience.

The proposal is a required component of self-designed experiences. Please use the standard proposal form. Please maintain the format of the proposal as a Word document. It's important when we provide you feedback.

There is additional information to be aware of if you plan to develop a self-designed experience with international travel. Please reference the material on our International Travel resources.

Proposals must be submitted to the database and approved BEFORE a project begins. The deadline to submit proposals to the database is 11:59pm on the 5th of every month. 

You may submit a proposal to the database at any time; there is no need to wait until a deadline to submit. However, the Honors Proposal Review committee may not review until after the 5th deadline.

Your proposal will be reviewed by the Honors Proposal Review committee. Your advisor will contact you by the 20th of the same month with the committee's approval to start the experience or a request for revisions. If revisions are required, you must submit your revised proposal no later than the 5th of the following month. Your advisor may request an earlier date depending on your experience start date. See below for instructions on submitting a proposal revision.

Important note: Advisors will not consider proposals for experiences that have already passed. The value of a self-designed experience is realized when you can plan ahead and participate in the on-going reflection. There may be instances where there is less than a month to submit your proposal before your experience would start. You should communicate this to your honors advisor as soon as possible. 

If revisions are required, you will follow the steps as outlined below. Revisions should be submitted as soon as they are completed, but no later than the 5th of the following month.

1. Log into the UHP Database
2. Navigate to Self-Designed Experiences
3. Click on the title of your experience
4. Download the proposal with the notes for revisions
5. Complete revisions and rename your document
6. Submit the revised proposal as an additional document within the same experience title (Do Not Create a new proposal if you are submitting a revision)
7. The committee will review and ideally approve after revisions have submitted.

Use the mentor you have selected to discuss your challenges, goals, and accomplishments throughout the experience.

Goals can change as you begin working on your experience. During your reflection, take time to revisit and make changes to your goals.

Ahead or Behind of schedule? Make changes to your goals or add new ones based on your progress!

Actively reflect throughout the experience

The ongoing reflection section of the proposal should lay out a plan for reflecting throughout the experience. The active reflection should begin at the project start date and continue through the project end date.

Submit the self-designed experience reflection to Honors database

Purpose: Reflect upon your experience and articulate your learning and the impact of the experience. Note: This is not the same as your experience showcase.  

Audience: You (and your honors advisor).

Format: An alternative form or written reflection. Suggested lengths of reflection to reach sufficient depth and breadth:

• Video: 3-5 minutes.
• Slideshow: 10-12 slides, including explanations of visuals.
  
• Written: 600 words.

Guidelines: Use the following prompts to guide your reflection:

• An overview of your experience and what you learned as you progressed towards your goals, including if any goals changed.
  
• The impact of the experience on you and your definition of Global Citizen Scholar.
  
• Your plan to take your learning into future classroom, career and/or personal experiences.

Timeline: Submit your reflection to the UHP database within 1 month of the conclusion of the self-designed experience. If you are submitting a file other than a Word doc, please email it to your honors advisor.

Directions: In the UHP Database, navigate to Self-Designed Experiences and click on the title of your experience. In the Reflection box, upload your Word document then Submit.

Showcase your experience on your learning portfolio

Purpose: To concisely share your honors experience with your learning portfolio. Note: This should not be the same as your self-designed experience reflection.

Audience: Anyone you share your learning portfolio link with or anyone who finds your learning portfolio through a public search (e.g. potential employers, graduate schools, faculty, staff, and family members).

Guidelines: Showcasing the experience in your learning portfolio consists of two elements:

1. A concise summary of the experience– explain what the experience involved, what you learned, and how it has impacted you;
2. A sample of work from your experience and/or something that exemplifies your learning. Within your showcase, explain why you chose this sample.

Format: A concise written reflection (~200 words) or an alternative form of reflection and a sample of your work (e.g. paper, photograph, blog entries).

Timeline: Post your experience showcase to your learning portfolio within one month of the conclusion of the experience.