Dear Friends of the Honors College:                                                              To Donate: www.msuaf.org/give-honors

 

As we reflect on the past year in the Honors College, we are filled with gratitude for the extraordinary students who have elected to attend the Honors College at Montana State University. The word is out, so to speak: our freshman class in Honors this fall numbered a record 450 students and we received nearly 900 applications for the 23 Presidential Scholarships our university offers. The Honors College currently numbers 1,600 students, representing all the academic colleges at Montana State. These humble and hardworking students truly inspire me each and every day. They give me hope.

We are grateful for the institutional support we have received from our President and Provost to provide our students with the necessary Honors courses to fulfill their Honors Baccalaureate degree requirements. We offer Honors Chemistry, Calculus, Physics, Music, Economics, Biology, Psychology, Sociology, Earth Sciences; as well as a wonderful array of interdisciplinary Honors seminars, bookending our students’ freshman and senior years at MSU. Hike and Read, Great Expeditions, Ski and Read, Smithsonian Internships and the “Honors Presents” lecture series add tremendous depth and breadth to our students’ undergraduate experience. 

We were recognized by Publicuniversityhonors.com as a “notable producer “ of scholarship winners. This year, Honors students received four Goldwater, Truman, Udall and four Fulbright scholarships. With 74 such scholars  MSU is among the top producers of Goldwater scholarships in the nation: the premier award for students pursuing research careers in Math, Science and Engineering For every year of the past ten years, Honors students were named national finalists for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, including three scholars: Katy Hansen, Joseph Thiel and Josh Carter.

This past January, we moved into our new office and classroom space, on the third floor of Asbjornson Hall. We are deeply grateful to Norm Asbjornson for his support of the Honors College at Montana State, and also to the Cameron Family, Nancy, along with her brother and sister-in-law David and Cameron, for establishing the Cameron Presidential Scholarship Program. We were able to award 3 additional freshmen such awards, along with 7-8 awards for current students. These awards, have made an enormous difference to our students.

Our greatest need remains student scholarships. I have learned, that high ability and high need are not mutually exclusive terms. Please consider a gift to an Honors fund of your choice, which will go directly to deserving students.

We have been entrusted with much: nothing less than supporting our future leaders with the education they need to ensure the future of our nation and world.  

Please support our students, and by doing so, the thousands that they in turn will impact through their work.  

Please visit the Foundation's website at www.msuaf.org/give-honors to make your contribution or you may send a check.  In the notes portion of your check, write “Honors College.”   Once your donation is received at the Foundation, you will receive a charitable tax acknowledgment letter. 

You can mail your donation to:

MSU Foundation  
1501 South 11th Avenue 
Bozeman, Montana 59717-2750

Thank you for your consideration in donating to the Honors College here at MSU.


Dr. Ilse-Mari Lee, Dean
Honors College