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The Castle Scholars Honors Program at Manhattanville College seeks to challenge high-achieving students and encourages them to explore new areas of interest beyond the usual intellectual parameters during their entire undergraduate career. This highly selective program limits admission to the top ten percent of each incoming class. Castle Scholars Honors Students benefit from rigorous, intellectually stimulating, interdisciplinary seminars, all of which are taught by our full-time faculty. Castle Scholars can also apply for special funding to complete independent Honors research and creative projects, allowing them to design, implement, and achieve the ambitious goals they set for themselves.
The Castle Scholars Honors Program offers students of exceptional ability a broader and more intensive program of study than the usual college curriculum. It provides motivated students in any major field with challenging, cross-disciplinary courses that encourage their academic and personal growth. Participation in the Castle Scholars Honors Program encourages intellectual exchange among students and faculty and fosters independent initiative in academic and creative realms. Castle Scholars are well prepared for success in graduate and professional schools as well as in the professional world.
Honors seminars are the core of our program. Manhattanville’s most engaging faculty offer innovative and often interdisciplinary seminars that are limited to 15 students, a format that ensures in-depth discussion and exploration of the subject matter. In addition, many of our seminars incorporate experiential learning through trips into New York City and other sites in the tri-state region. These classes provide high-achieving students with the opportunity to explore areas within and outside of their intended major, and all of them fulfill at least one of Manhattanville College’s General Education Requirements.
Our Honors students also learn how to become effective leaders and give back to the Manhattanville community by organizing Human Rights Awareness Day each fall, and the Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Fair each spring. For Castle Scholar Irena Curanovic (class of 2016), organizing Human Rights Awareness Day “provided an opportunity for personal and professional growth. In planning this event with a group of people, I think we all learned leadership skills, teamwork, and how to be better global citizens.”
We also provide funding for selected Castle Scholars to complete ambitious research and creative projects. Recently funded projects include:
- Authenticity in literature – David Nielsen, English
- Testing Leptospira biflexa susceptibility to salt and osmotic stress – Polin Petkova, Biology
- Effects of green tea on preventing Pseudomonas aeruginosa – Mariah Bigaud, Biology
- Anti-biofilm activity of pomegranate extract against the bacteria Staphylococcus epidermidis – Charlene Caoili, Biology
- DEET effectively repels the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, in a novel ex vivo bioassay – Philip Meade, Biology
- Native and European interaction during the Pequot War – Denise Martinchek, History
- Democratic Transitions in Myannmar – Alexis Moore, History, International Studies, and Asian Studies
- Break the First Impression? – Shuzi Meng, Psychology
