Digging Deep: Sixth College Launches Innovative Honors Program – University of California San Diego

Re-thinking the Honors Program

At UC San Diego, undergraduate students can participate in honors programs through their college and major’s department. While departmental honors programs are specific to that discipline, college honors programs expose students to experiences that align with the college’s mission. These can include unique research opportunities and extracurricular experiences.

Of the eight undergraduate colleges at UC San Diego, seven offer honors programs. Three of the seven accept students into their program based on grades earned before enrolling at the university. Four colleges, including Sixth, have earned honors programs; they recognize achievements earned while at UC San Diego.

However, the Community-Engaged Honors Program is the only college honors program at UC San Diego that has a structured multi-course progression and does not admit students based on grade point average. Sixth College’s three-course sequence grows a student’s knowledge in community engagement and critical media literacy then culminates in real-world experience. 

The program starts in the winter quarter with students examining the intersection of storytelling, identity and mental health through the lens of fiction. Through experiential opportunities like interviewing others, volunteering, self-reflection and discussion, students’ self-awareness and sense of agency grows. 

The spring quarter course then asks students to explore how popular culture views the environment and shapes environmental change—focusing on the climate crisis—while working with local nonprofit Sage Garden Project-funded programs at multiple San Diego Unified elementary schools. The Sixth College students work in small groups of two or three alongside trained garden and cooking educators in transitional kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms. 

The sequence concludes in a future quarter with an experiential learning opportunity through Sixth College that builds on the students’ previous experiences in the program. 

Application to the program is selective—only a maximum of 25 students committed to positively impacting their community are accepted—and is open to any first- or second-year Sixth College student, regardless of grade point average, enrolled in the college’s opening course. 

The program’s structure celebrates the value of the communities surrounding UC San Diego and focuses on the university’s commitment to collaborating with them. “We want to enhance and support the larger San Diego region through community partnerships,” Geibel said. “Experiences outside of the classroom can be transformational and perspective-changing for our students. Simultaneously, we recognize our privilege as a university and understand the need for higher education to break down those ivory towers.”