The Intercultural Honors Experience is a unique program designed to help students build a solid intercultural foundation, introduce them to interdisciplinary learning, and provide them with opportunities and incentives to study away. The program includes a challenging freshman-year seminar, funding opportunities to study away, and leadership opportunities. 

The college chose the intercultural focus of this new program carefully. In the increasingly global economy and socio-political situation that our students will be entering upon graduation, they need exposure to people from different cultures and different ethnic groups. They need to experience settings in which diversity is the norm rather than the exception. They need exposure to ways of thinking that are different from their own. The best ways to meet these needs are intercultural and international study and living experiences. This program provides both.

Students apply for this competitive honors program in the fall semester. The core element of the program is completed in the spring: students take a seminar which focuses on a topic or issue of global interest.  The 2013-14 seminar, “Rites of Passage," will explore experiences that help people transition through life into new roles in their lives.  This is a four-hour course and satisfies either the Contemporary Issues (LA112) OR the Intercultural requirement.  As part of this course, students present a research paper at a symposium open to the public and are required to organize and complete co-curricular activities.

Previous seminars include:  “Music in Social Protest Around the World” (2012-13); “Educated Guesses: a Global Survey of the Ways We Teach and Learn” (2011-12); “Marriage and Family: A Global, Cultural and Historical Perspective” (2010-11); Latin American Leaders (2009-10); “Exploring the Developing World: The Caribbean” (2008-09); “How the World Views America” (2007-08); "Investigating the Causes and Effects of Poverty in the U.S. and the World" (2006-07); and “Encounter, Conflict & Cultural Survival: The Indigenous Peoples of Latin America” (2005-06).

After completing the core elements of the program and receiving at least a B in the seminar, students will be eligible for scholarships that will help them to study away for a semester. They will be able to choose from a variety of programs in Europe, North America, Central America, Africa, and Asia. All of the selected study-away programs have either a leadership or an international studies focus.

Students are invited to apply to this competitive program during the fall; participation will be limited to 20 students per year. While the program targets freshmen, sophomores and juniors are encouraged to apply. Applicants will be evaluated based on an interview, their academic achievement in high school (for freshmen) and at Franklin College, their community involvement, extra-curricular activities, a reference letter and an exam.