With curly, thick hair and a constantly positive, upbeat disposition, Alaska McGann gives the UW Honors program a good name. She is one of 1,000 students in the program who regulary stroll past you on campus.

McGann, a sophomore, enjoys living with other students in the program, citing the appeal of being part of a small group of students dedicated to learning. She lived on the Honors floor in Lander as a freshman and this year came back to live on the floor as an RA.

“It is great being part of a tight-knit community,” McGann said. “I wanted to give back to the Honors community. Our floor is actually considered to be the loudest in the building.”

Freshmen Honors students can elect to live on one of two Honors floors – the eighth floor of Lander or the first floor of McCarty. This allows students new to the UW to experience an easier transition and be part of a group of a few hundred Honors students within a 5,000-person entering class.

While many students join the Honors program for reasons varying from prestige to academic rigor, most students are interested in having smaller class sizes and a more personal approach.

“I really appreciate the smaller settings, and I really like how classes are discussion-based,” McGann said. “In the Honors program, they encourage interactive learning so that it’s not just a teacher that you are learning from, it’s other people in the class. I’ll be in classes with engineers and anthropologists and political-science majors, and there is such a broad mix. It is wonderful, because all of us can relate to the material in the way that we think, because it so interdisciplinary.”

Sharing this sentiment is Marissa Hackett, a senior in the bioengineering department, whose first Honors class changed the course of her entire college career.

“I thought I would pursue mechanical engineering until I took honors physics fall quarter freshman year. It was very challenging, and as a new student, I was intimidated … It made me want to pursue something different.”

Honors students take their core requirements within the Honors program. Rather than taking 75 credits, Honors students take only 45 credits, in smaller classes, usually with 20 to 25 students.

“The classes that students take, the Honors general-education classes, tend to be more interdisciplinary and give students the opportunity to think about different disciplines,” said James Clauss, director of the Honors program.

Clauss highlights the importance of analyzing the myriad of methods and approaches used in different disciplines. This encourages students to be engaged and reflect on how the thinking happens.

McGann fondly recalls an Honors class she took freshman year which exemplifies what makes Honors classes so enriching for students.

“Taso Lagos’ Western civilization class was the first Honors class I’d ever taken,” McGann said. “Lagos didn’t sit down with a lecture plan; he didn’t have topics he had to cover. He would bring up a topic, and he would facilitate thought, learning and discussion – and I think that is what a great professor does.”

Beyond the classroom, Honors students come together for different events and opportunities.

“I feel the Honors community is really tightly knit, and it [has] been great in terms of supporting each other,” said Alex King, a senior in the program. “There is a lot of common experiences that students in the Honors program will share together, whether it’s going to the Honors office at 5 a.m. to get add codes on add-code days, whether it’s doing international study abroad, or doing a service project with other students. The community isn’t just in the classroom, and I think it reaches out to both the local community and on a global scale, [as] well.”

Even though many students like King emphasize the benefits of a tight-knit community Honors programs can offer, the Honors students still attend classes with the rest of the UW population. Being in the special programs does not segregate them from a typical UW experience.

“Honors students aren’t all just grades; they are well-rounded,” McGann said. “A lot of people consider Honors students to be elitist, and you get a mix of both. Some people are really down to earth, mellow; some are the stereotypical study nonstop, grades before social life.”

Students that fulfill the Honors core requirements and receive an Honors designation in at least one major graduate with an Honors designation on their transcripts. As to future endeavors, most Honors students don’t see this designation as a serious advantage.

“Yes, I think it will be helpful, but I don’t think it’s the title that will help me, I think it will be the experience that will help me,” McGann said. “The experience in stretching titles, that sort of interdisciplinary learning. Because no matter what job or field that I go into, it will require more than one way of thinking.”

Reach contributing writer Evelyne Kolker at lifestyles@dailyuw.com.