Los Rios Community College District honors students admitted to UC Davis next month are invited to apply to the UC Davis University Honors Program as part of an effort to establish an honors-to-honors pathway for transfer students and expand access to more California community college students.

Kate Andrup Stephensen, director of the UC Davis University Honors Program, or UHP, said the application process opens the program to transfer students who seek an honors program environment. Typically, each spring about 100 transfer students admitted to UC Davis are selected for UHP based on their UC applications. Through this pilot project, UHP will invite current Los Rios honors program students admitted to UC Davis to apply to the program, thus creating a more direct pathway into an honors education at UC Davis.   

“We seek to make the University Honors Program representative of California,” Andrup Stephensen said. “We want to create a more transparent and inclusive pathway for students into honors education at UC Davis.”

College and university honors programs are often described as a  “university within a university” and provide a small community of scholars with enriched curriculum and select faculty. Many honors programs provide other benefits such as dedicated residence facilities, honors staff, priority registration and honors notations on transcripts.

“At UC Davis, we call UHP the best of both worlds,” Andrup Stephensen said. “We offer the experience of a small college with the opportunities of a world-class research university.”

Additionally, UHP offers a unique transfer-student experience that supports the transition from community college to four-year institution. 

“This partnership between Los Rios Community College District and UC Davis opens doors to academic excellence and creates a seamless pathway for diverse, high-achieving students to thrive at UC Davis and beyond, fostering the next generation of scholars and professionals,” said Jamey Nye, deputy chancellor for Los Rios Community College District. 

Nye said the agreement came after honors leaders from both institutions worked to enhance transfer opportunities for honors programs.

Rick Schubert, chair and coordinator of the Consumnes River College Honors Program and a UC Davis doctoral alum, said he sees the pilot as an important step toward supporting equitable outcomes of California’s postsecondary education system.

“We ensure that future generations of scholars and professionals better reflect the diversity of our state,” he said. “I’m pleased to work with Kate Andrup Stephensen to establish this honors-to-honors pathway for the benefit of not only our Consumnes River College Honors Program students, but for all Los Rios honors program students.”

Andrup Stephensen said the University Honors Program seeks to move from a structure viewed as selective or exclusive to one that offers multiple pathways into honors education at UC Davis. 

“Today’s UHP students are tomorrow’s leaders,” she said. “We seek students who want to cultivate intellectual humility, value academic curiosity, become agents of positive social change, and further inclusive excellence. I hope we will expand this to honors students from all California community colleges.”

The initiative to improve the transfer pathway into the UC Davis honors program launched several years ago, Andrup Stephensen said.

“I am grateful to continue this partnership with the Los Rios honors programs leadership that my predecessors, Dave Furlow, former UHP faculty director and Eddy Ruiz, associate director, started several years ago,” she said. “It is humbling and gratifying to carry on the work they began in service of inclusive excellence in UC Davis honors education.”

UHP is part of UC Davis Undergraduate Education, which comprises special academic programs and services that foster diverse, innovative and transformation experiences for all UC Davis undergraduate students.