Taylor-Crocker Honors Program
A program that offers unique opportunities from travel and networking to research and hands -on experiences.
Are you a high-achieving student with strong character and a desire to stretch your imagination? If so, this program is for YOU!
North Carolina Wesleyan University offers a select group of students the opportunity to complement their degree program with a series of challenging and rewarding courses. Freshmen enrolled in the Taylor-Crocker Honors Program take special freshman courses in English and Humanities. Honors Program students then take one honors course each semester during their sophomore and junior years. As seniors, students complete an honors project in some area of interest.
The Honors Program offers students the opportunity to develop a close community of learning and to take courses from some of the best faculty members at the University. Being in the Honors Program does not add to a student’s course load, but it does add variety and depth to her or his college experience. Transcripts of honors graduates include recognition that they completed the Honors Program.
Students take unique courses with other students who are academically motivated and study with outstanding professors. Participation in the program shows that students take a special interest in their education and will receive special recognition from the University. Future employers and graduate schools notice this on the student’s transcript.
The program involves a sequence of courses. For answers to questions about this program or to request an application, please contact the Honors Program Director, Dr. Bill Yankosky at byankosky@ncwc.edu.
Incoming students with a combined score of at least 1170 on the Critical Reading and Mathematics sections of the SAT* (or equivalent ACT* scores) and a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher are invited to apply to the Taylor-Crocker Honors Program.
*The minimum SAT/ACT requirement has been WAIVED for incoming, first-year students due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Program consists of a sequence of courses specially designed for honors students which are taught by outstanding professors. Individuals in the Program take unique courses with other academically talented and motivated students and have the opportunity to take Honors Option courses that provide greater depth of study of a course in the regular curriculum.
First-year honors students enroll in special Honors sections of English in the fall and Humanities in the spring, which carry a total of 6 semester hours (s.h.) of credit. Transfer students or students entering the Program late can waive these courses.
During their sophomore and junior years, honors students complete a total of 12 s.h. of honors courses, typically by enrolling in one 3 s.h. honors course each semester. A variety of honors courses are offered every semester and may come from areas in any of the University’s four schools:
- Business
- Education & Social Sciences
- Humanities
- Mathematics/Science
Professors usually design these unique courses for the students in the Program. Some of the courses can be used to satisfy general education requirements.
During the senior year, Honors Program students design and complete a supervised, interdisciplinary project consisting of a written and oral component which receives 6 s.h. of credit.
In addition to the special first-year honors courses and Honors Project courses, a variety of courses are offered each semester, specifically for sophomore and junior honors students.
Honors Courses taught in the past 5 years
• First Year Honors Course Sequence
– ENG 195 Honors English (Fall) – Lee Templeton (English)
– HUM 203 Mythology (Spring) – Lee Templeton (English)
• American History on Film (Spring 2019) – Jonathan Sarris (History)
• African American Literature (Fall 2022) – Jim Bowers (English)
• Communication and Social Movements (Fall 2020) – Jason Buel (Communications)
• Cryptology (Fall 2019, Fall 2021) – Bill Yankosky (Math)
• Cultures of the Anthropocene (Spring 2021) – Doreen Thierauf (English)
• Data Analysis and Visualization (Spring 2022) – Jackie Lewis (C.I.S.)
• Decision 2020: U.S. Campaigns and Elections (Fall 2020)- Jarrod Kelly (Political Science)
• Icelandic Sagas (Spring 2020, Spring 2022) – Lee Templeton (English)
• Introduction to Biodiversity (Spring 2019) – Erica Kosal (Biology)
• Math and Art (Fall 2018, Fall 2022) – Gail Stafford (Math)
• Nazi Germany (Fall 2019) – Chad Ross (History)
• Positive Psychology (Spring 2023) – Fred Sanborn (Psychology)
• Problem Solving (Fall 2020) – Gail Stafford (Math)
• Reacting to the Past (Spring 2020) – Jonathan Sarris (History)
• Sacred Art (Spring 2019, 2021, 2023) – Andrew Stern (Religious Studies)
• Sensation, Perception and Illusion (Fall 2018) – Kim Martin (Psychology)
• Sustainable Agriculture (Spring 2021) – Daniel Elias (Biology/Environmental Science)
• Weimar Germany or Weimar Amerika? You decide (Fall 201) – Chad Ross (History)
• Women and Religion: Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Spring 2020) – Jung Choi (Religious Studies)
During senior year, Honors Program students design and complete a supervised, interdisciplinary project consisting of a written and oral component. The project gives honors students the unique opportunity to work on an individual basis with a faculty member. A variety of honors projects have been completed over the years and some have even led to publications in academic journals. Several students have presented work related to their honors projects at professional conferences.
Some Honors Projects, and the students who completed them during the past several years, include:
- A Business Improvement Plan for North Carolina Wesleyan University – Kevin Berry
- A Dive Into White-Collar Minds – Rayquan Harris
- Affective Polarization in America: An Analysis of Partisan and Media Factors into Interparty Hatred – Devin Young
- Analysis of Curves Generated by Intersecting Tangent Lines – Katie Tyson
- “And All the People Were Singing”[1]: Finding Remnants of the “Lost Cause” Myth in American Popular Music in the Latter Half of the 20th Century – Joshua Strausser
- Artificial Intelligence’s Role and Impact in Video Games – Zachary Gardner
- Aviation Security: Perceptions in the United States – Sarah Bowyer
- Blooming from the Concrete: Black Girl Stereotypes and the Implicit Biases and Barriers These Girls Face in School – Sidney McCall
- Buying an Industry: How Incentivizing Corporations Affects Local Economies – John Day
- Camp Butner and the Economy of the South – Daniel Washburn
- Can a natural plant product, such as the American beauty berry, repel and alter mosquito behavior? – Beverly Anaele
- Effect of Caffeine on Palladin Regulation and Glioblastoma Cell Invasion – Jawuanna McAllister
- Establishing a Honey Bee Hive on NCWC Campus – Carolynn Davern
- Examining Factors of the Rise of Radical Right-Wing Parties in Western Europe – Jacob Wilson
- Examining the Influence of Sox9 on Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in the Common Snapping Turtle, Chelydra serpentine – Caitlin Brabble
- Examining the Negative Effects of Marine Debris and Nutrient Pollution on Sea Turtle Species – Lucia Davids
- Exploring Vigilantism in Popular Culture and What it Suggests About American Society – Leigh Hales
- Goðar and Goaders: Gender Roles in Medieval Iceland – Josh Perry
- Impact of a Basic Firearm Safety Course on Attitudes toward Gun Ownership and Second Amendment Rights – Vann Brock
- Improving English Language Arts Performance in Fourth Grade – Marie Garmilla
- Keep it Simple and Sad: The Effects of Integrative Complexity and Sentiment on Electoral Success – Andie Batt
- Making Sense of Sensations: Sensory Processing Abnormality Subtypes and Associations with Autistic Spectrum, Schizotypy and Personality Traits in a Nonclinical Sample – Carly Garrard
- Markov Chains and Mathematical Simulations in Python (for both) – Ivan Cockman
- Mass Media and Memory Manipulation – Joseph Lloyd
- My greatest Strength and Weakness: Self-enhancing and Self-criticizing Tendencies in Eastern and Western Culture – Michael Bhujel
- New Industries and Opportunities: A Note on Foreign Direct Investment in the Manufacturing of Coastal North Carolina – Thomas Henderson
- Physical Fitness, Hemodynamic and Affective Responses to Psychosocial Stress in Women – Christina Huber
- Physical Fitness, Physiological and Sleep Responses to Stress in Women – Abby Leonard
- Predicting Probable Prices: Using Python to Estimate Stock Market Movements – Hunter Pharr
- REACHur: “Giving Local Business an Upper Hand – Justin Tankelewicz
- Red Herring: Personality Influences on Food Evaluation – Cody Foley
- Relationship between Physical Fitness and Cognitive Performance in Women – Julia Rebellon
- Restaurant Tipping Based on Server’s Sex and Physical Attractiveness – Jessica Konopka
- Rewriting Shakespeare: Contemporary Rewrites of Underrepresented Female Characters – Kate Butler
- Role Playing and Rule Making: Using the Reacting to the Past Pedagogy to Teach History – Jessica Brabble
- Some Sports Applications of Two Matrix-Based Ranking Methods – Austin King
- The Adulting Project – Madison Keel
- The Correlation between Injury, Goal Orientation, and Athletic Identity of Injured Female Athletes at a Division III College – Ayla Brewer
- The Cosmic Wimpout Dice Game: Probabilities and a Markov Chain Model – Elizabeth Cobb
- The Effect of Names on Female Education and Career Choices – Lisa Pearce
- The Evolution of Law Enforcement Technology and its Impact on Officer Health – Aly Clark
- The Influence of Childhood Poverty on Attachment Styles – Courtney Garofolo
- The Name Game: Perceptions of Names as Possible Determinants of Success in Education – Ariel Wilson
- The Oncogenic Effects of MiR26-a in Glioblastoma Multiforme by Suppression of SOX17 – Monica Salazar Reyes
- The Relationship Between Traumatic Brain Injury and Aggression in College Football Players – Jessica Winslow
- “The truth is, men make terrible pigs”: Giving Voice to Women from Homer’s Odyssey in Twenty-First-Century Rewrites – Mary Reynolds
- This is how it happened: The Effect of Authoritarianism and Mortality Salience on Support for Donald Trump – Diamond Allen
- Understanding Neurobiology and Regeneration of Planaria through Stress and Memory Retention process – Bikash Thapa
- Vampires and Viruses – an Exploration of the Science used in Guillermo del Toro’s “The Strain” – Hannah Ivester
- Water Quality in Golf Course and Man-Made Ponds in the City of Rocky Mount – David White
Students who participate in the Taylor-Crocker Honors Program show that they take a special interest in their education and receive special recognition from the University. Besides challenging and enriching instruction, the Honors Program provides its students with increased opportunities to meet visiting scholars, civic leaders and performing artists; travel to museums, the theater and sites of cultural, historical or scientific importance; and attend or present at conferences. Students have the opportunity to participate in the Dr. James Durant Melton Outdoor Leadership Awards Program, a customized, five-day outdoor leadership program of the North Carolina Outward Bound School in Linville Gorge in the North Carolina mountains. Honors Program students may gather for study or conversation in the Honors Lounge. There is also a student organization on campus, the Student League of Academic Prestige (S.L.A.P.) comprised of the Honors Program students.
Every honors course that students take is marked as such on their transcript. Students who complete the entire program receive special recognition on their degree, at graduation and on their transcript. Graduates of the Program receive a special blue and gold cord to wear at graduation. Students enrolled in the Program also receive a special scholarship starting at $500 each semester and increasing over their time in the Program.
Hear what other students and faculty say about the program...
Tiara Joyner, Honors Program Graduate and Justice Studies & Psychology Double Major
Chynna Laws, Honors Program Graduate and Criminal Justice & Psychology Double Major
Bishal Karanjit, Honors Program Graduate and Computer Information Systems Major
Mikey Case, Honors Program Graduate and Mathematics & Psychology Double Major
Kathleen Penrod, Honors Program Graduate and Environmental Science Major
Gail Stafford, Associate Professor of Mathematics recalling her experience teaching her “Problem Solving” honors course.
Fred Sanborn, Assistant Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Psychology
