Honors College To Expand To Homestead Campus

Miami Dade College has approved plans to expand its Honors College program to the Homestead Campus.

The exclusive cohort—a rigorous academic learning community whose scholars must maintain a 3.5 GPA—rejects between 40-50% of the students who complete the application to join the program, according to Honors College Dean Eric Hoffman.  

It has hubs at the Wolfson, Kendall, North and Padrón Campuses and serves about 600 freshmen and sophomores through curriculums based on academic excellence, biweekly colloquiums and service-learning components.

“Having an Honors Campus in Homestead fits with the mission of MDC and The Honors College by providing an affordable high-quality education that is accessible to all residents from across Miami-Dade County,” Hoffman said. “Homestead and the surrounding communities have grown substantially over the past decade and an Honors Campus will provide a substantial benefit to the campus, local community and students from the area.”

The last Honors College campus expansion was in 2006 at the Eduardo J. Padrón Campus. The first program began at Wolfson Campus in 2002 and was followed by the North and Kendall campuses a year later.

This fall, Homestead will start offering Honors Extended courses—they will be available for students with at least a 3.5 GPA and are taught through an honors curriculum. The Honors College will also move into the second floor of building F and hire a campus director, faculty and staff.

An inaugural class of 50 honors students will be recruited, selected and seated to receive Honors College courses and activities for the 2022-23 academic year. A full class of 75 honors students will start in the 2023-24 school year.

“We always want to offer options for students, particularly when it comes to providing better programs and wonderful educational opportunities,” said Homestead Campus President Oscar Loynaz.

Students in the program receive the Honors College Fellows Award, which covers all in-state tuition and gives them a stipend for fees and books. They are also eligible to participate in the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria and the Inside Washington Seminar in Washington, D.C. at no cost.

According to the Honors College website, 47% of the program’s students transfer to institutions ranked in the U.S. News and World Report top 100 colleges nationally, 96 % of their scholars graduate from their transfer institutions and 26 of their students have received the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, a $40,000 annual prize that can be used toward tuition, living expenses, books and fees.

Homestead Campus, 500 College Terrace, was founded in September 1990. It served almost 9,700 credit and non-credit students during the 2019-20 academic year. The campus’ signatures programs include the Aig Watson School of Aviation, the School of Advanced Studies and its nursing program. 

“Homestead Campus students will have access to opportunities which originally they did not have,” said Angelo Douillion, the campus’ Student Government Association president, about the Honors College expansion. “It will push students to excel and will also spotlight the greatness of the Homestead Campus.”