Ten of Ten, Would Recommend

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience. I sit on the Honors College Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, my alma mater, where I participated in the Business and University Honors Programs from 2004 through 2008. My first draft of this essay was written before listening to a current honors student describe how University Honors is impacting their life. In that moment, I quickly realized that what they were saying was precisely how I felt as a student, so I threw my first draft out the window (which is typical for me as I’m often throwing produce out our kitchen window to feed the wildlife), and started over. I was reminded of the three values that have matured within me over time that were undeniably planted and/or watered heavily by the honors program I participated in as an undergraduate: critical thinking, citizenship, and exploration