MEDIA KIT
The Pennoni Honors College, founded as The Honors Program in 1991 and expanded into a College in 2002 with the support of C.R. “Chuck” and Annette Pennoni, serves both a select student body and the University at large. It is a unique site of interdisciplinary creativity and excellence on the Drexel campus. The Honors College encompasses five distinct units that overlap in significant ways: the Honors Program serves selected high-achieving students with coursework and special programming; the Office of Undergraduate Research supports student research across the university and matches students with faculty mentors; the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry offers a changing series of cross-disciplinary courses as well as a program where qualified students can craft their own field of study; the Center for Scholar Development, which prepares students for future career opportunities, graduate school, and/or competitive awardspetitive grants and scholarships; and the Center for Cultural Media offers students involvement with a nationally recognized online journal, The Smart Set, and a nationally distributed television talk show, The Drexel Interview. The Pennoni Honors College also publishes a twice-yearly Pennoni Honors College Magazine with news and features about the College, and hold twicemonthly “Dean’s Teas,” open to all interested Honors students. We also oversee an App Development Lab, made possible by the Chair of our Honors Advisory Board, Greg Bentley, an initiative we hope to integrate more fully into the College. Paula Marantz Cohen Dean, Pennoni Honors College Distinguished Professor of English
Center for Scholar Development
Office of Undergraduate Research
Fellowships Office
STAR Program
Aspire
SuperNova
High School Scholars
Honors Program
Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry
Luminary Program
CustomDesigned Major
The Smart Set
The Symposium
The Drexel InterView
Center for Cultural Media
Table Matters
Honors Program The Honors Program provides top-achieving students from every undergraduate-serving College and School at Drexel University enhanced support, intellectually rigorous learning, and social and cultural opportunities, inside and outside the classroom.
q Total # of Honors Program students as of Fall 2016: 1,724 q # of students enrolled in Honors courses each year: 600 q # of Honors students who graduated in 2016: 335 q # of Honors students who graduated in 2016 with Distinction: 138 q # of Honors students accepted into the program for 2016-17: 160 q # of Honors courses planned for 2016-17: m Colloquia: ~40 m Honors 200: 12 m 1-credit Great Books courses (Great Books, Great Film, Great Art, etc.): 12 m Special Topics: 8 q Launched the Luminary Program, a new initiative for 10 students each year in an intense curricular and co-curricular journey q Launched Taste of Honors event for parents and alumni in March 2016 and the next event will be in Washington, D.C. in October 2016 q Learning Opportunities: Lunch-N-Learns, TED Talks, travel-integrated courses, EntrĂŠe Dinners, workshop series, specialized advising, Honors Living-Learning Community q Leadership Opportunities: Honors Student Advisory Committee, Mentors, Ambassadors, Orientation Leaders q Currently all Honors students are admitted based on a holistic application process q The total breakdowns by College/School of the Honors population: Honors
CoAS
CNHP
CoENG
LeBow
Westphal Goodwin Hosp&SM SchEd
CCI
PHC
Close
BioMed
PH
Total 1,724
353
94
532
222
164
0
14
8
127
20
5
178
7
20.5%
5.9%
30.9%
12.9%
9.5%
0.0%
0.8%
0.9%
7.4%
1.2%
0.3%
10.3%
0.4%
Office of Undergraduate Research
The Office of Undergraduate Research engages students in transformative learning experiences and facilitates faculty-student collaboration in research, scholarly work, or creative projects. q#
of students who participated in the 2016 STAR Program: 176 students completed undergraduate research the summer after their freshman year m ~11% increase from 2015
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q
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2016 STAR Summer Showcase: August 25, 2016 This day-long poster symposium highlighted the work completed by STAR Program Scholars. # of students in the 2015-16 SuperNova program, a continuation of research through to a student’s senior year: 46 126 high-achieving high school students took 2015-16 Drexel college courses through the High School Scholars Program; 46 High School Scholars have matriculated to Drexel since the program began.
Center for Scholar Development The Center for Scholar Development offers an array of activities, workshops, advising, and other opportunities to help students make the most of their Drexel experience and prepare for future career opportunities, graduate school, and/or competitive awards. Located within the Pennoni Honors College, Center for Scholar Development coordinates two programs: Aspire and the Fellowships Office.
Fellowships Office 2014-15 Awards:
q At least 65 students and recent alums earned scholarships/fellowships q Combined value of over $3.3 million q Travel to 29+ countries on 5 continents
Specific 2015-16 honors: q Boren Awards: 4 recipients, 1 Alternate q NSF Graduate Research Fellowship: 4 recipients, 14 Honorable Mentions q Fulbright Student Program: 3 Grantees, 1 Finalist, 1 Alternate q Goldwater Scholarship: 2 recipients, 1 Honorable Mention m Other institutions: MIT: 2, NYU: 1, Carnegie Mellon: 1, CalTech: 1, Temple: 0 q Hollings Scholarship: 2 recipients m Drexel’s first ever q National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG): 2 (1 decl.) m CalTech: 2, Penn: 2, Carnegie Mellon: 1, Temple, NYU, and Pitt had none q DoD Science, Mathematics, & Research for Transformation Scholarship: 2 recipients m Penn, Temple, and NYU had 0 q Udall Scholarship: 1 Honorable Mention q Whitaker International Fellowship: 1 recipient m Carnegie Mellon: 1, Pitt: 1, Penn: 0, Temple: 0, NYU: 0 q Truman Scholarship: 1 Finalist
Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry The Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry offers initiatives that provide students opportunities to develop analytical and creative problem-solving skills. It includes the Custom-Designed Major, enabling students to pursue an individualized course of study, and The Symposium, a yearlong interdisciplinary series examining a major theme.
Houses the Custom-Designed Major (CSDN cohorts are intentionally small to provide an intimate intellectual community offering personalized advising and support) q # of graduating CSDN students in 2016: 8 m expected # of CSDN students in 2017: 11 m growth since program’s inception in 2011: 45% q
2015-16 Symposium theme: Comedy q The Symposium enrollment this year: 100 q Average # of students per class over the last 3 academic years: 27 q
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2016-17 Symposium theme: Water m Instructors include Dr. Lloyd Ackert, Associate Teaching Professor of History; Dr. Shannon Marquez, Associate Professor of Public Health; Dr. Rick McCourt, Professor of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science; Debra Ruben, Associate Professor and Program Director of Interior Design; and Visiting Fellow Dr. Julia Novak Colwell, who recently earned her PhD from the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University
Center for Cultural Media
The Center for Cultural Media creates innovative publishing initiatives and develops new forms of cultural engagement, both for students and audiences beyond Drexel. q TheSmartSet.com
Highest number of monthly unique visitors: 111,000 visitors in August 2016 m 12.3 million pageviews since launch in August 2008 m ~35.6 average unique visitors per month m A worldwide audience: 96% of visitors from outside PA, 36% from outside US m Impressive links from legacy media and notable blogs: The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Paris Review, Arts & Letters Daily, Politico, Real Clear Politics, Digg, BoingBoing, The Morning News, The Shortlist Daily, Jezebel, Cracked, The National Review, American Conservative, Pocket, and ArtsJournal m
q
The Drexel InterView currently airs on more than 400 Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS), American Public Television, public and community access stations, and university/college television stations throughout the U.S. and  Canada; up 55 stations from last year.
Graduation Facts
Educational Highlights
We are involving more senior faculty to engage with the College in a variety of ways, including teaching, Fellowship and Undergraduate Research mentorship, and speaking opportunities at Pennoni events. Works” from the title for clarity; President Fry taught Jane Jacobs’ “Death and Life of Great the series of cross-disciplinary American Cities” as part of new courses that focus on a singular topic will cover water next year. 1-credit Great Works courses offered by the Honors Program We will be using a cohort of four expert faculty from different (on great books, films, works fields to teach the course along of art). The Program also now offers 10 3-credit Honors Collo- with a Visiting Fellow quia each term, including topics The Custom-Designed Major, like “Shakespeare as Philosonow in its 5th year, has accepted phy,” “Terrorism and Torture,” a total of 49 students into the maand “Game of Thrones.” jor with a retention rate of 92%
We have initiated a new, highly selective Luminary Program for 10 Honors students to begin this fall
We have also begun offering
workshops and programming as part of a new Scholar Development Program that will help students prepare for graduate and professional school
We (re)launched The
Symposium, dropping “Great
The Fellowships Office is
working with the App Lab to develop an app to guide students through the Fellowship application process
# of High School Scholars enrolled in 2015-16: 126
# of graduating High
School Scholars matriculating to Drexel since the program began: 46
Research
The Pennoni Honors College continues to grow as a site for undergraduate research opportunities. Current 2016 STAR Students (doing research after their freshman year): 176 Current Rising STAR Students: 10
# of SuperNovas enrolled in 2015-16: 46
Culture
We began publishing PHC Magazine, mailed to more than 4,500 alumni and Drexel faculty and staff
The Drexel InterView has more than 125 episodes and guests in rotation: Season 13 included notable guests actor Wendell Pierce; chess champion Garry Kasparov; Holocaust studies expert Deborah Lipstadt; and film producer William Horberg
TableMatters has had 82,663 views and garnered 1,301
Twitter followers and 1,081 Facebook followers since February
The Smart Set has had over 50,000 unique individual viewers
We have made the requirements for Honors graduation more rigorous. Nonetheless, more students are graduating with Honors with Distinction and engaging in other Honors College initiatives. Total # of Honors students # of Graduating graduating: 335 SuperNovas: 10 w Graduating with Distinction: 138, # of Graduating 15% higher than the last 3 years Custom-Designed w Graduating with Honors: 197 Majors: 8
Recognition
Drexel students & recent alum have been recognized by nationally-competitive award programs: 70 Awards to support study, research, and travel in
the U.S. and eight countries worldwide: worth more than $3.2 million
Highlights include:
w 2 NOAA Hollings Scholarships (125 awarded nationally, Drexel’s 1st ever!) w 1 Udall Scholarship (60 awarded nationally) w 1 Truman Scholarship Finalist (197 selected from 775 students nominated nationally) w 4 Boren Awards Recipients + 1 alternate w 2 Goldwater Scholarships (250 awarded nationally) w 1 Presidential Management Fellowship w 3 Fulbright Student Program Grantees + 1 Alternate and 1 Finalist
Incoming Students
Yield rate for incoming Incoming 2017 freshmen admitted into STAR Students: 52 Honors: 15.5% # of newly accepted Incoming Honors SuperNovas: 19
students percentage of incoming Freshmen class Incoming 2017 Honors (based on 2,200 incoming Program students: 160 students): 7.2%
Events
Our aim is to make the College the center for important ongoing discussion with high-profile events like: “What’s Killing Higher Ed?” panel discussion
Taste of Honors mini-seminars, lunch, and reception for alumni, parents, and friends of Pennoni (the first in a planned series of substantive events—the next, a pre-election exploration of issues and historical background, to be held in October in Washington, D.C.) Smart Set Forum: Free Speech on the College Campus (a student panel and keynotes, including nationally known author and cultural critic Camille Paglia Millennial Feminism panel discussion ASK FOR IT: A Panel Discussion on Women & Negotiation
The Symposium Relaunch, with keynote Melissa Lane, Princeton philosophy professor
over the past 30 days resulting in over 75,000 page views. This is a significant step up from last year’s average of 30,000 uniques
Regularly scheduled Lunch ‘N’ Learns & TED Talks
Earlier this year, a link on The Smart Set overwhelmed
Drop-In Hours, Open Houses, Fellowship information sessions, breakfasts for students and faculty engaged in our programs
our server by generating 60,000 attempts to view a story within an hour
Monthly Dean’s Teas
Watch the Pennoni Honors College Slideshow
Downloadable Photos
Connect with Us
Dr. Paula Marantz Cohen Dean, Pennoni Honors College Distinguished Professor of English Drexel University 5016 MacAlister Hall Philadelphia, PA 19104 215-895-1266 www.drexel.edu/pennoni cohenpm@drexel.edu