Global Honors Program

Why Study Global Honors at Belmont?

The Belmont University Global Honors Program offers a transformative academic experience designed especially for students who seek a global perspective. What sets Global Honors apart is its commitment to an interdisciplinary curriculum that engages with humanity's most pressing problems. In Belmont Global Honors, you’ll work closely with faculty who are not only experts in their fields but are also deeply committed to supporting your academic, personal and professional growth.

Belmont Global Honors offers unique opportunities to exceptionally talented, motivated undergraduates, including:

Identifying Where Your Passion and Purpose Meet. A flexible core curriculum offers Global Honors students ample opportunities to write, research, lead and serve.
Studying Abroad. In their second year, Honors students deepen their understanding of other perspectives by studying abroad in locations across the globe. By traveling and learning together, Global Honors students forge and sustain connections that extend past the walls of classrooms and beyond their years at Belmont.
Becoming Creators, Leaders and Problem Solvers. Belmont Global Honors courses are taught by talented, dedicated faculty members from across campus. Honors students inspire and challenge one another as they imagine together and collaborate toward shared goals through the unique Honors Scholars' Collaborative.

In the Global Honors Program, you’ll do more than just learn — you’ll thrive in a vibrant community of passionate scholars dedicated to making a meaningful impact in the world. If you’re seeking inspiration, eager to inspire others and driven to create meaningful change, this program is for you.

What makes Global Honors unique?

Two students collaborate on a project in a classroom. One student, wearing glasses and a brown jacket, is focused on his laptop covered with colorful stickers, while the other looks thoughtfully at the screen. The environment suggests a quiet study or research session.

Problem Solving and Creativity

Global Honors recognizes that critical work occurs in the library, in the studio, in the laboratory and beyond. Throughout our curriculum, we encourage all Global Honors students to learn about the Sustainable Development Goals, a collaborative global effort to encourage peace and prosperity for all. You’ll write, speak and research in nearly all of your Global Honors Honors courses. Your Belmont Global Honors experience will culminate in the Honors Scholars' Collaborative, two courses that will shepherd you through the stages of proposal, planning, project management, presentation and deep reflection.

Students pose for selfie while on a hike while studying abroad.

Living, Learning and Studying Abroad

In the spring semester of the second year, Belmont Global Honors students study abroad in locations throughout the world. Having this experience early on in your undergraduate career allows you to develop strong communal bonds with one another around a common international experience. This distinctive study abroad experience for students in Belmont Global Honors provides opportunities to reflect on your global perspectives and experiences as you continue in your major. This experience costs no more than what you pay to study and live on Belmont's campus.

A student, dressed in a formal sweater vest, tie, and glasses, smiles during a conversation. His calm and pleasant demeanor suggests an engaging interaction in an academic or professional setting.

Leadership

Belmont Global Honors is committed to preparing and empowering honors students with a toolbox of leadership skills and experiences in and out of the classroom. Leadership is part of every Belmont Global Honors student’s experience — through courses, study abroad, experiential and service learning in the Nashville community, campus engagement and a centralized leadership hub in the Belmont Office of Leadership Development (BOLD).

Global Honors Curriculum

The interdisciplinary Honors Core curriculum emphasizes creative scholarship, service, leadership development and global experiences. You will collaborate on research, team and creative projects. Our key program features include a writing and research enriched curriculum, a semester abroad and intentional leadership development for every student.

Signature and Foundations courses are uniquely honors courses in emphasis, consistent seminar delivery and intensively focused content.

The Honors Core replaces the BELL Core (Belmont's General Education requirements). Honors students must still satisfy the requirements specified by their major.

Global Honors Signature Courses

HON 1110 (3 Hours): Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar (An Honorable Life) is a broadly themed, writing intensive introductory course designed to increase the recognition, appreciation and capacity to use multiple ways of justifying or defending claims to knowledge and answering eternal questions through study of the humanities such as art, literature, philosophy and history. Students will learn about different kinds of knowledge claims, how to construct knowledge and how to evaluate and answer the most difficult questions that have always plagued humankind. The seminar format of the course will prepare honors students to engage fully in the similarly formatted Honors Foundation sequence courses.
HON 1120 (3 Hours): Engaging the Bible and Culture Seminar is a survey of the Judeo-Christian canon of scripture from the history of the Hebrew people through the growth of the New Testament church movement. The primary goal of this course is to increase a student's understanding of the Bible's relationship to culture through the exploration of patterns and themes within the biblical material.

Through the use of reading, discussion, research and on-campus events, Engaging the Bible and Culture will ask questions about faith, reason and culture.
HON 2950 (3 hours): Honors Global Writing Workshop is taken in conjunction with a study abroad experience, this course develops student mastery of written rhetoric and basic research skills by prompting engagement with and analysis of places, peoples, languages and cultures different from those of the United States. Through experience, observation, reflection, research and writing, students will not only increase their knowledge of the world around them but also learn to approach their own culture as an outsider. In this course, students also learn about Belmont's unique Lumos Travel Award.

Global Honors Foundations Courses

HON 1130 (3 hours): Honors Oral Communication Seminar challenges students to refine their ability to construct and deliver effective messages, both informative and persuasive. The course emphasizes critical analysis of oral messages and research sources, leadership communication and the global/cultural context of public communication.
HON 1140 (3 hours): Honors Social Science Seminar focuses on a topic or theme based in a social science discipline in a manner that engages students in interdisciplinary thinking, which values diversity and global awareness, fosters creativity and critical thinking and develops their skills as writers, researchers and leaders. Specific topic and course title will vary with each offering.
HON 1150 (3 hours): Honors Wellness Seminar focuses on a wellness-based topic or theme in a manner that engages students in interdisciplinary thinking, which values diversity and global awareness, fosters creativity and critical thinking and develops their skills as writers, researchers and leaders. Specific topic and course title will vary with each offering.
HON 2120 (3 hours): Honors Humanities Seminar focuses on a humanities-based topic or theme in a manner that engages students in interdisciplinary thinking, which values diversity and global awareness, fosters creativity and critical thinking and develops their skills as writers, researchers and leaders. Specific topic and course title will vary with each offering.
HON 2130 (3 hours): Honors Fine Arts Seminar focuses on a fine arts-related topic or theme in a manner that engages students in interdisciplinary thinking, which values diversity and global awareness, fosters creativity, critical thinking and aesthetic perspective and develops their skills as writers, researchers, creators and leaders. Specific topic and course title will vary with each offering.
HON 2340 (3 hours): Honors Mathematical Inquiry Seminar is an examination of the techniques of critical reasoning utilizing mathematical paradigms, with emphasis on the development of the art of such reasoning.

Living and Learning Community Abroad

In the spring semester of the second year, Belmont Global Honors students study abroad in cohorts at one of Belmont's partner institutions throughout the world. Having this experience early on in your undergraduate career allows you to develop strong communal bonds with one another around a common international experience. You will travel with a cohort of 20-25 fellow Belmont Global Honors students to one of our partner institutions around the world.

Funding of Study Abroad Semester

As a Belmont Global Honors student, your study abroad experience will never cost more than what you would pay to study and live on Belmont’s campus for a semester. Expenses for the study abroad semester are billed by Belmont, not the international partner school, so whatever financial aid you receive will still be applied toward the cost of studying abroad.

What You Will Study

You will take 12-16 hours of coursework while abroad, depending upon your major.

You will enroll in one Belmont course (3 hours) during the semester abroad: Honors Global Writing Workshop (3 hours).
You will also enroll in 2 to 4 other courses (9 to 12 hours) offered by the partner institution, which will vary in credit hours and will be determined based on your unique academic needs. Ideally, these courses are a mix of courses meeting core requirements, as well as major and minor requirements.

Belmont Global Honors curriculum culminates in the Honors Scholars' Collaborative, two courses structured to support Belmont Global Honors students in the completion of their Honors project, from planning through execution.

HON 3510 (3 Hours) Honors Project Planning and Preparation: This course will build on skills developed in HON 2950 by applying those skills to the specific disciplinary research contexts of their individual Honors projects. Utilizing team-based, problem-solving learning strategies coupled with individual research and application, students will produce a project prospectus, including a literature review and timeline for their paper or product. In preparation for producing the literature review and prospectus for their projects, students will be introduced to important topics such as time and project management, project funding, targeted primary and secondary research, leadership, advocacy and the importance of being able to communicate project value to external stakeholders.
HON 3520 (3 Hours): Honors Project Research and Execution: In this course, students will execute the plan laid out in their prospectus, supported by class activities intended to increase those skills necessary for the completion of their projects. Specific sections of this course will be designed to implement a variety of research and production methodologies; students in majors which require extensive senior projects will be encouraged to use their honors project to extend the reach of those projects by providing the time for further and deeper research and/or production.

Global Honors Signature Course

HON 3130 (3 Hours): Honors Religion and Culture is an interdisciplinary, problem-based, topical seminar that features a particular problem or issue and includes an experiential learning component. Using a substantial number of readings, primarily from one discipline, but also from two or three other complementary disciplines that relate to the problem under exploration, the course examines what might it look like to be both a responsible citizen of this nation and this world and a curious truth-seeker or person of faith. The course explores how our political leanings and our faith commitments mutually inform one another, as well as ways such commitments have taken shape and produced both conflict and harmony in the course of our nation's history.
HON 4500 (3 Hours): Honors Senior Symposium: Students will present their projects first to their honors cohort as well as honors faculty, inviting question and critique, and later to the Belmont community as a whole; in connection with completing and presenting their projects, students will reflect on their project in the broader context of their honors education, especially ways in which it fostered in them a global ethical perspective, aesthetic appreciation, and skills as researchers, scholars, artists, advocates and leaders.

Global Honors Foundations Course

HON 3340 (4 Hours): Honors Scientific Inquiry Seminar is an examination of the techniques of critical reasoning utilizing scientific paradigms, with emphasis on the development of the art of such reasoning. The course includes an experiential lab component.

Paris Berrian

Class of 2023

Biochemistry & Microbiology | Global Honors

"I chose Belmont because it was the only institution I applied to that had a close community of students and faculty that would benefit me as I pursue my degree. I knew I would cherish the relationships I made with other students and my professors here, and I didn’t want my college experience to be devoid of connections with other students."

Isaac Wetzel

Class of 2024

Emerging Media | Global Honors

"With the Honors Program, I knew I would be surrounded by like-minded peers and professors who not only shared my interests and academic goals, but also cared about my success. It's all about community for me, and that is what I saw at Belmont when I visited."

Read Issac's Story

Marlies Otteman

Class of 2023

Global Leadership Studies | Global Honors

"I love how Honors has an extremely interdisciplinary approach to all of its signature courses. I feel like I am really learning to think for myself and mold my own ideas and opinions rather than just learning material to pass tests."

Justin Leal

Class of 2023

Nursing | Global Honors

"It was always a decision of mine to engage in challenging curriculum that made me think critically about issues. I have always been in honors classes, and I wanted to continue that trajectory by joining Belmont Global Honors. I felt like I would become a more well-rounded individual and broaden my horizon if I engaged in classes that had other people from different majors. I wanted to find a community that explored my interest in learning."

Apply to the Global Honors Program

Admission to Belmont Global Honors is reviewed holistically, considering factors such as high school GPA, curriculum taken within the context of what is offered at the student's high school, essay, resume of activities, and the brief statement outline below that you are asked to submit when you apply to Belmont Global Honors. If you choose to apply to Belmont with test scores, those will be considered by Belmont Global Honors as well.

While there is no exact formula that guarantees an invitation to join Belmont Global Honors, the Admissions Committee invites all freshmen applicants with a GPA of 3.5 or higher to apply to Belmont Global Honors.

Belmont Global Honors is designed to be a four-year experience beginning in the first semester of a student’s freshman year at Belmont. Transfer students who are interested in Belmont Global Honors should contact our office for more information on admissions pathways.

Dec. 1 is the deadline to be considered for Belmont Global Honors as well as Belmont’s most competitive merit scholarship programs. Submit your COMPLETED application to Belmont University by the Dec. 1 priority deadline to be considered for Belmont Global Honors. Please contact your admissions counselor for questions regarding merit scholarships.

May 1 is the deadline to accept your seat in Belmont Global Honors.

Apply to Belmont through the Belmont Application, Common Application or Apply Coalition with SCIOR.
Start Your Application
Select the option indicating you would like to apply to Belmont Global Honors. You will then be asked to write a response of 500-750 words and submit as part of your application. Choose from one of the prompts below:
- Consider the five following individual identity descriptors: creator, doer, explorer, change agent, seeker. Choose one of these five descriptors that best encapsulates your core identity. Provide 2-3 concrete examples of how the descriptor you chose reflects your identity. How might this core identity translate into action as a scholar-global citizen at Belmont University? And how do you hope to develop your core identity during college? OR
- Reflect on a recent transformative learning experience. The learning experience can be something directly related to the classes you have taken or to experiences you’ve had outside the classroom. The experience does not need to be academic in nature, but it should demonstrate how you were transformed in the process. OR
- Belmont’s Global Honors Program is a community of students who hunger for knowledge. What’s a topic you haven’t had an opportunity to learn about in high school that you are excited to learn about in college? Why do you yearn to know more about this particular topic?
Watch for communication regarding your application. Decisions will be communicated on a rolling basis with all decisions communicated by early February.
Reserve your seat in Belmont Global Honors using the QR Code on your acceptance letter. You do not have to pay an enrollment deposit to reserve your seat.

Belmont’s Honors Program is a highly selective program. Successful applicants demonstrate exceptional academic performance as well as participation in co-curricular and community activities.

Campus Visit

The absolute best way to get a feel for our beautiful campus is to come see us in person. More information about scheduling a campus visit can be found here.

When you register for the campus visit, you will select and choose an academic information session based on your intended major. If you would also like to learn more about Belmont Global Honors during your campus visit, you will be able to schedule a Belmont Global Honors information session on a Monday or Friday campus visit.

Preview Day

Preview Day is an all-day, high-energy event for prospective undergraduate freshmen that you can think of as an "open house" for the University. It covers everything from academics to student life, including a specific Belmont Global Honors session. Preview Days are also your chance to visit Belmont on a weekend. Learn more here and register for an upcoming Preview Day!