Liberal Arts Honors Program
The Liberal Arts Honors Program provides students of high academic ability and initiative a challenging, rigorous, and in-depth core curriculum. The program aspires to develop students as life-long learners with a broad range of intellectual and professional interests. The program also strives to enrich the cultural and co-curricular experiences of students on and off campus.
Students are invited into the program by the Admission Office on the basis of the rigor of their high school courses, class standing, recommendations, and sample essays. Students not invited initially can apply for entrance at the end of the freshmen year by contacting the director. Honors students are required to take a minimum of six courses in the program: four courses in Honors Western Civilization in the freshmen and sophomore years, a capstone Colloquium in the junior or senior year, and at least one additional Honors course. Since Honors courses fulfill core requirements, students enjoy plenty of flexibility to pursue any major or minor at the college.
News and Events
Annual Delasanta Lecture
 Each year in April, the Liberal Arts Honors program holds its Rodney Delasanta Honors Lecture, in honor of Rodney K. Delasanta, Ph.D. '53, program director from 1987-2004. Under his guidance, the program expanded from approximately 25 students to more than 100 students per class year.
Dr. Delasanta, who passed away in 2007, served as a member of the PC faculty since 1961. He was a visiting professor at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, for the 1969-70 academic year and a visiting associate professor at Brown University in 1983. In addition to service as chair of the Department of English and assistant director of the Study Abroad Program at the College, Dr. Delasanta also served as chairman of the Rhodes Scholarship Nominating Committee for Rhode Island. He received the College’s President’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 1999 and The Very Reverend Vincent C. Dore, O.P. Award from the Providence College Alumni Association in 1996.
Lectures
"The Use and Abuse of Dictionaries" by Ammon Shea
April 5, 2011
Ammon Shea talked about the unexpected joys to be found in reading the dictionary for fun and profit, as he describes the year he spent reading the Oxford English Dictionary in its entirety. more "The Achievement of Pope John Paul II" by George Weigel
March 18, 2010
Geroge Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and one of America's leading Catholic intellectuals, discussed the enduring accomplishments of John Paul's papacy (1978-2005). Weigel noted that John Paul II "recast the Office of Peter in the twenty-first century as an office of evangelical witness." more Annual Convocation
The Honors Program sponsors an annual Convocation Dinner for all students, faculty, and alumni of the program. At the Convocation the "Thomson Scholar Award" is given to the student voted by the faculty as the most outstanding student to complete the Honors Development of Western Civilization course sequence. A distinguished alumnus or alumna is also invited to the Convocation to give an address.
2010 Thomson Scholar: Michael A. Wahl '12 and Nathan J. Ricci '12
Distinguished Alumnus: Jane L. Gonsalves '80, a nine-term member of the City Council in New Bedford, Mass.
2009 Thomson Scholar: Yi Cao '11 and Elizabeth Santilli '11
Distinguished Alumnus: James Ludes '93, Ph.D. (Georgetown University), Executive Director of the American Security Project, Washington, DC. 2008 Thomson Scholars: Elizabeth Weber '10
Distinguished Alumnus: Ellen McNulty '97, Founding Partner of Corra Consulting 2007 Thomson Scholar: Joseph Schneider '09
Distinguished Alumnus: John Partridge '61, J.D. (Harvard), Partridge Snow & Hahn Law Offices, Providence, RI 2006 Thomson Scholar: Katherine Mattaini '08
Distinguished Alumnus: Michael Woody ’77, President of International Marketing Advantages, Inc 2005 Thomson Scholars: Deanna Cioppa '07 and Christopher Berard '07
Distinguished Alumnus: Rev. Brian Shanley ‘80, O.P., Ph.D, (Univ. of Toronto), President of Providence College 2004 Thomson Scholar: James Michael Bennet '06
Distinguished Alumnus: Charles J. Goetz '61, Ph.D. (University of Virginia), Joseph M. Hartfield Professor of Law, University of Virginia 2003 Thomson Scholar: David Scholl '05
Distinguished Alumnus: Gerard Mulligan '64, M.A. ( Univ. of North Carolina), Senior Writer, David Letterman Show 2002 Thomson Scholar: Erin Beck '04
Distinguished Alumnus: Peter Conn '64, Ph.D. (Yale), Professor of English, Deputy Provost at the University of Pennsylvania 2001 Thomson Scholar: Neisha McGuckin '03
Distinguished Alumnus: Austin Sarat, '69, Ph.D. (Wisconsin); J.D. (Yale), Professor of Political Science and Jurisprudence at Amherst College 2000 Thomson Scholars: Marianne Grace '02 and James Kabala '02
Distinguished Alumnus: Roy Peter Clark '69, Ph.D. (SUNY at Stony Brook), Poynter Institute of Journalistic Studies, St. Petersburg, FL 1999 Thomson Scholars: Talia Danesi '01 and Brendan Lefebvre '01
Distinguished Alumna: Karen Ignagni '75, CEO and President, National Association of Health Maintenance Organizations 1998 Thomson Scholar: Karen Witiw '00
Distinguished Alumnus: Robert Walsh '64, J.D. (Harvard), Dean, Wake Forest University Law School 1997 Thomson Scholar: Gretchen Murray '99
Distinguished Alumnus: Lindsay Waters '69, Ph.D. (Chicago), Executive Director, Harvard University Press 1996 Thomson Scholar: Timothy Daniel Murray '98
Distinguished Alumnus: John Partridge '61, J.D. (Harvard), Partridge Snow & Hahn Law Offices, Providence, RI 1995 Thomson Scholar: Emily Byers '97
Distinguished Alumnus: Richard Grace '61, Ph.D. (Fordham), Professor of History, Providence College
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