University Honors Program
Marquette’s University Honors Program is designed for intellectually curious, academically engaged students who want to learn in a close-knit community of their peers at the heart of a vibrant research university. Its broadly based, interdisciplinary curriculum addresses our most pressing contemporary challenges with cutting-edge knowledge and research and the wisdom of centuries of Jesuit values and pedagogy. Our Honors values and learning outcomes emphasize curiosity and open-mindedness, active listening and dialogue, breadth of learning and experience, and a commitment to equity, justice, and human rights.
The UHP offers two ways to participate in Honors: Core Honors, in which students follow an Honors version of the Marquette Core Curriculum throughout their undergraduate career; and Disciplinary Honors, in which students do Honors work in their majors. Students may participate in either program or both. Core Honors is open to incoming first-year students, who apply after being accepted to Marquette; students apply to Disciplinary Honors programs in their sophomore year. For more information on both programs, view our values and learning outcomes, browse our website, or contact us!
Honors News & Events

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Congratulations to the Honors Study Abroad Awards Winners for Spring 2023 programs!
- Elle Engelke
Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy
Katie Darragh Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
Catherine Lehmkuhl Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), Chile
Ashley Castaneda SLU Madrid, Spain
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Honors Undergraduate Research Fair November 3 | 4-5:30 pm | Sensenbrenner Hall Atriums
Featuring research by the 2022 Honors Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship awardees and MU4Gold Research Scholars.
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Honors Freshman Near West Side Trip October 1 | 10 AM
Honors freshmen are invited to get to know Marquette's Near West Side with a bus & walking trip through the neighborhood to learn about Marquette’s involvement with the Near West Side (NWS) Partners!
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Honors graduate Christina Curtis’s study Correlating Barriers to Medication Adherence With Trait Anxiety, Social Stigma, and Peer Support in College Students With Chronic Illness, co-written with Professor Astrida Kaugars, was published in the Fall 2022 Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research. Christina passed away on July 21, 2020 at the age of 23. Christina graduated in May 2020 with bachelor’s degrees in biomedical sciences and psychology. She was a member of both Core Honors and the Honors in Psychology programs. She was also the recipient of the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Award for Outstanding Student and Community Service and a member of Psi Chi: The National Honor Society in Psychology.
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THEO 1001H Classes visit The Church of the Gesu The Fall 2022 Theo 1001H courses of Drs. Dempsey, Henery, Bosserman, and Nussberger were introduced to Marquette's Jesuit identity and the art, history, and architecture of The Church of the Gesu by Dr. Derrick Witherington.
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In Spring 2022, CORE 1929H honors students interviewed prominent Latinx bilingual education activists in the Milwaukee area who changed how bilingual programs are built in the city. With the help of their professors, Sergio Gonzalez and Sonia Barnes, students learned oral history collection skills and what it means to be a contemporary historian. Their interviews and research will be contributed to the Wisconsin Latinx History Collective and the Wisconsin Historical Society. Learn more about the project by listening to the WUWM 89.7 FM coverage of the project.
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HOPR 2956H Classes Explore Milwaukee Honors Engaging the City classes take tours of Milwaukee with community-based historian Adam Carr focusing on civil rights,immigration, the history of its indigenous peoples, and other topics. Pictured is Bryan Rindfleisch's Fall 2021 class explores indigenous Milwaukee.
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In April 2021, Marquette Honors partnered with the MU Center for Peacemaking in hosting Changemakers, an alumni career panel that highlighted alumni career journeys to working for the promotion of peace and justice. Panelists included alumni working in journalism, global nonviolence-related research, and our own Assistant Director, Sofia Ascorbe, who spoke about her previous work in non-profit housing law and civil legal aid advocacy. Watch the panel discussion on YouTube.
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Student News & Accomplishments

Congratulations Class of 2022 Graduates!
Honors celebrated our graduates in a ceremony on Saturday, May 21, 2022. A video of the slideshow featuring student's photos and future plans is available on the Honors Youtube page.
- Congratulations to the 2022 Honors Undergraduate Summer Research Followship Awardees! Student awardees receive $3500 each for research or creative projects to be carried out June-August 2022. Awardees will present their research findings at the Honors Undergraduate Research Fair in Fall 2022!
Elizabeth Andrzejewski |
Dhruuva Shroff |
Zach Bukowski |
Noah Smith |
David Chrisbaum |
Tommy Treacy |
Macnessa Fidlin |
Blake Trembath |
Lizzy Ibitoye |
Stephanie Waldshmidt |
Max Mantych |
Will Wightkin |
Maryn Schaefbauer |
Liz Wiltgen |
Divyank Sharma |
John Zehman |
Congratulations to the Honors Study Abroad Award Winners for Summer and Fall 2022 programs!
Fiona Kelly-Miller, The American College of Greece, Fall 2022
Zoey Laipple, The American College of Greece, Fall 2022
Emma Strick, Literature, History, and Culture of Ireland, Summer 2022

Congrats to Honors Junior David Chrisbaum and Honors Sophomore Joanna Gao, who presented their research Power of Partnernships: An Engaged Approach for Advancing Health and Wellbeing of the Near West Side Neighborhood at the 2022 Big East Research Symposium!
Congratulations to Honors Sophomore Isabel Bonebrake on winning a Milwaukee Press Club Journalistic Excellence Awards for Best Still Photographs/Photo award through her work as the Marquette Wire’s Executive Photo Editor.
Honors Senior Maaz Ahmed was accepted into the Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Program’s 2022 cohort. The program is dedicated to supporting BIPOC theatremakers. Each scholarship recipient is awarded a financial grant of $8,000, mentorship through five online seminars, and an all-expenses-paid New York City excursion. Congratulations Maaz!
Honors Senior Jessie Gomez presented her research Severity Measures in Dental Lesions at the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropology. Her research abstract was also published in Volume 177, Issue S73 of the American Journal of Biological Anthropology.
Congratulations to Honors Freshman Drew Donahoe, who was awarded the Opus Dean’s Award to Outstanding First Year Students in the Opus College of Engineering.
In March, Honors Freshman Abby Brack presented the research poster Psychological, Social and Demographic Predictors of Womanist Identity Development at the Association for Women in Psychology conference as a co-author.

The Marquette University Boxing Club, founded and led by Honors Junior Pouya Mirzaei, won best new club of the year by the MUSG. Congrats, Pouya!
Congratulations to Honors students Erin Nugent, Amanda Pastrick, and Laryn Zvokel on winning the Spring 2022 Honors Study Abroad Awards. Amanda and Laryn will both be attending King’s College in London, England and Erin will be attending the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Congratulations also go to Maddie Clark and Selah Alft who were also awarded study abroad funds, but their study abroad programs have been cancelled.
Honors Sophomore Leen Mortada was featured in the November 29, 2021 episode of the “Our Roots Say That We’re Sisters” podcast series, a platform that gives BIPOC women of Marquette a space to be heard. Listen to the podcast on the Our Roots Say That We're Sisters webpage.
Honors Undergraduate Research Symposium
Congratulations to the 2021 Honors Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship awardees and MU4Gold Research Scholars who presented their research at the Honors Undergraduate Research Symposium on November 11, 2021! Find out more about the researchers and their projects on the Honors Research Symposium webpage.
Congratulations to Honors Freshman Marshall Kopacki on winning the Rare Artist Competition, an art contest for people with rare chronic conditions organized by the Every Life Foundation. Marshall's artwork, Boys are Girls are Bugs, will be displayed at Capitol Hill, and a donation will be made in his name to the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation. Find out more about the contest and read Marshall's artist statement on the Rare Artist Competition webpage.
Honors Senior Lexi Harwick presented at the MU Center for Peacemaking's Soup with Substance event on October 27, 2021 to share her summer research "Domestic Violence Shelters and Outreach in Non-Urban Locations" as a summer peacemaking fellowship recipient. A recording of the event can be watched on Youtube.

Honors Action Research Team presents at the 2021 Assessment Insitute
Congratulations to the Honors Action Research Team who offered a workshop at the international Assessment Institute, on Oct. 26, 2021, called "The Value of Student Partnership in Designing Program Outcomes and an Assessment Plan," following two years of work by the team. Kudos to honors students Kate Gustafson (PSYC 2021), Andrew Hirsh (EDUC 2021), Biluge Ntabala (POSC 2022), and Ashley Sanchez (BISC 2023)!
Honors Sophomore Litzy Ponce was included as a guest in the Center for Peacemaking's Soup with Substance series on September 22, 2021 to reflect on her peacemaking internship with the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America. A recording of the event can be viewed on the Center for Peacemaking's Youtube channel.
Archived Student News