From the Office of the Provost
Episode 10: Expanding Student Success at the David C. Frederick Honors College
[INTRO MUSIC]
Joseph McCarthy: Hello and welcome to “From the Office of the Provost,” a podcast that highlights exciting activities and initiatives in the Office of the Provost or University-wide that bolster and enhance our collective vision for growth and transformation.
I'm your host, Provost Joe McCarthy, and today I'm joined by Nicola Foote, the Dean of the Frederick Honors College.
Nicola joined the Honors College in 2021, helping to close a transformative naming gift from Pitt’s first Rhodes Scholar, David Frederick, that led to the renaming of the college as the as the David C. Frederick Honors College in 2022. Under her leadership, the Honors College has seen student enrollment increase by more than 600% and received formal recognition as one of the top honors colleges in the nation in 2024.
Among other accomplishments, Nicola has overseen the establishment of several new units within the Honors College, including Honors Advising and the Office of National Scholarships Advising and Post-Graduation Success; firsts in Pitt’s student awards success, such as our first ever Mitchell and Soros Scholars; the creation of the Electus Faculty Fellows program; and the establishment of the David C Frederick Honors College at Pitt-Greensburg.
We'll explore a couple of those in our discussion today. Welcome, Nicola.
Nicola Foote: Thank you so much. It's a real pleasure to be here.
McCarthy: So, what some of our listeners might not know is that the Honors College was founded back in 1987, making it one of the oldest in the nation. And recently the college was ranked number 11 in the nation. As I mentioned in the intro, Nicola, what's been your vision for honors education here at Pitt?
Foote: Yeah. Thank you. I truly believe in the potential of honors education. I see it as the most incredible innovation in American higher education in general. And as you mentioned, we are one of the founders and innovators of that idea. Our founding dean, G. Alec Stewart, was one of the people who actually popularized the concept of honors education nationwide. So, so what I wanted to do was really maximize that, that possibility, make sure that we're offering the very best educational opportunities for the most talented undergraduates in the nation, and make that accessible to students from the widest range of backgrounds.
And so what we've been doing is building on the success of our legacy programs. Frederick Honors has extraordinary strengths in undergraduate research, so we've worked to scale those even further, and philanthropic support has been critical to that. Both the David Frederick gift and also a gift from honors philanthropist John Martinson, who has funded the scaling of our research and global engagement programs. So, for the first time, we've been able to create collaborative team-based research projects that are housed in the Honors College and that students can apply to directly. We've been able to scale some of our legacy summer fellowships like the Brackenridge, the Creative Arts Fellowship, and make them available to even more students.
And then we've also been able to launch new programs that really ensure we are on the cutting edge of those educational opportunities. So, for example, social innovation, an approach that allows students to identify real-world problems and find solutions to them. To give you an example of that, we'll have students launching the CivWiz app, which is in an effort to reimagine civic education for the digital age through an app that allows individuals to quiz themselves and learn about civic, civic history and content.
We've also expanded our strengths in community engaged learning, added new internship opportunities in the global learning space. We've built on the incredible opportunity of our, of our site in Wyoming and launched a new archaeology program. And then we've also launched a new program with Oxford University, again, leaning into David Frederick's status as office Rhodes Scholar. Through his support, we will be taking a group of students to University College, Oxford, this summer where they will get to meet with potential Rhodes and Marshall faculty mentors before they even apply.
And then we've really been thinking about that question of making sure all talented and aspirational students can benefit. So that's both making really transparent how you apply in to honors and making sure those pathways are really clear; ensuring that all students have an honest advisor that they can meet with so they can progress through the experience really, really well; finding new ways to connect with the very best faculty here at Pitt through the launch of our Electus Faculty Fellows program; bringing in experts from the community that allow students to gain mentorship from leaders in different fields, so we have a diplomat-in-residence, a writer-in-residence, an artist-in-residence; expanding our space; expanding to the regional campuses; and just thinking about what else might be barriers.
So even small things like we're based on the 36th floor of the Cathedral of Learning. It takes a long time to get down to the ground floor and buy snacks, so we provide snacks in our space, in our kitchen on 35 so that students can study up there and maximize that success.
So we're really proud of what we've been doing. And as you noted with that recent national ranking, it really highlights the success we're having and how we're carrying forward those legacies of our founding dean of an individualized approach to student success and doing that at scale.
McCarthy: Outstanding thanks for sharing that. There's certainly a lot going on. Speaking of the founding dean, something that actually has made, I think Pitt Honors a bit unique was Alec’s focus on accessibility of an honors education. Can you talk to me a bit about how students get involved in the Honors programs here at Pitt?
Foote: Absolutely. So yeah, the signature hallmark of honors education at Pitt is that it's inclusive, right? We don't just ring fence; here are the students who were singled out as being the best academically when they applied to Pitt. We provide lots and lots of pathways into the Honors College for those whose ambitions grow and change throughout their college experience.
So we have now an Honors Joint Degree Program that works with every single undergraduate degree here at the University of Pittsburgh. Students can even add double and triple majors into that. They can add endless certificates. It works for them. And they can apply to that at the same time that they apply to Pitt, or they can apply at the end of every semester. There's an open application process that we review.
We also offer an honors distinction, and that's a little bit less in terms of the total academic credits that students do within honors, but they’re still full members of the honors community. They have access to all of our support services, all of our scholarships and programs. And they can simply declare the distinction. They tell us, ‘I would like to be part of this.’ As long as they have a 3.0 GPA. So at any point during their honors education, as long as it's before that final semester, they can declare that.
And then we still have the BPhil degree, which I am so proud of. It really is the most prestigious qualification available to undergraduates. We're one of a handful of institutions anywhere in the world — and to give you a sense of the company that we're in, Oxford is one of those other few that have a BPhil. And students apply separately for that. That's typically something they apply for in their junior year and they spend a full year completing a really high-level research project. We typically say that many doctoral theses and they defend those like a doctoral defense. We provide external examiners that form part of that defense committee. So it's extremely rigorous and and meaningful.
The other thing I really want to highlight is all the work that we do to support belonging within the Honors College. And it's important to us that no matter when students come into the Honors College and which of the credentials that they're pursuing, they feel that they're a part of the Frederick community. So we do a lot of work through our advising office, where, by the way, our director is a prize-winning director, just recognized for her work in advising excellence. And we have orientation programs. We have a big one for all the new first-years, but we also do smaller ones for those who join at different times. We have a big annual welcome-back picnic. We do events like Dean's Discoveries, where I take the students out and about to events in the city. We just went to a jazz concert at Manchester Bidwell. But they get to spend time with each other, meet honors leadership. And then we do some really fun co-curricular programs as well, like our annual Frederick Bowl, which is a a flag football tournament that happens the weekend before the Super Bowl. Students win a trophy where their names engraved, and it's on display on 35.
So, these are some of the ways that we really try and promote identity and belonging in the Honors College and ensure that all students who are pursuing our honors credentials are included.
McCarthy: I will mention for our listeners something that you and I have talked about before, which is that I've really been impressed and and pleased with how strongly students affiliate with the Honors College. I've met students that are on their way to joining the Pittsburgh community and they don't tell me that they're going to be a student in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences or the Swanson School of Engineering. They tell me I'm going to be in the Frederick Honors College. And so students really do, in fact, connect very strongly and deeply. And it's been reflected, frankly, in our outstanding retention rates.
Foote: We have sector-leading retention and completion rates. Our numbers and astronomically good, so thank you.
McCarthy: So speaking of those wonderful students, within the Honors College, the Office of National Scholarships and Post-Graduation Success supports those students in applying for prestigious and competitive scholarships, including the Rhodes, Marshall, Gilman, Voyager, and others. It's been, in fact, named the top producer in several of those national scholarship areas, including the Fulbright for a number of years and recently the Boren. How are these scholarships transformative for our students?
Foote: They are absolutely life changing for our students, and I'll give you a handful of examples. Alex Firestine, for example, was our first ever Mitchell winner, and that's often called the Rhodes of Ireland. They go off for two years to Ireland. So Alex's story is so compelling because while he has been in Ireland at the University of Galway, completing his master's degree, he has also created a start-up, and Alex was a business student who won a lot of recognition for, for his work in this space. And he's raised $65 million for his start-up through the sort of network that he's, that he's been creating as a Mitchell Scholar.
And Alex is now, I think he must be going down in history as the most decorated Pitt student of all time because he's now a double first for Pitt. In addition to being our first Mitchell winner, he was recently named our first ever Luce Scholar, so he will get a fully funded full year in Asia to learn about business and leadership opportunities in Asia.
Another student I think who really epitomizes what's so life-changing about these awards is Richard Fang, who was one of our Goldwater Scholars a couple of years ago. And he was also a finalist for the Rhodes, which is a huge accomplishment in itself, right? But Richard literally had 32 offers to med schools. He applied broadly, interviewed all over the place, and every single one offered him a place. They were competing. There was a competition frenzy for Richard. So it really highlights the skills that students attain, right? His extraordinary interview skills and application skills that he'd honed through that process that launched him to the next stage.
And then finally, Anna Li. You mentioned that we had our first Soros winner. That was Anna. And the Soros is $90,000. So, it's a life-changing amount of money in itself. And Anna won that award because of a biomedical innovation that she had invented and and was commercializing. And with that support from the Soros Fellowship, she was so successful with that launch that she was recently named our first winner of the Hult Prize, which is often called the Nobel Prize for students. So, an astonishing success.
And I really want to highlight that it is such an accomplishment for Pitt that we do have these successes in this area, and it's not just individual students. Our yield rates are astonishing. We have the highest yield rate in the nation for the Fulbright. Only Yale comes anywhere close to us. Even Harvard, other Ivy schools, we’re ahead of because our students are so brilliant and we are able to provide them incredible support through this process.
McCarthy: Truly amazing. Thanks for sharing that. I want to change gears for a minute and and stop this very exciting conversation about the impact that the Frederick Honors College has had here on the Pittsburgh campus and instead talk a little bit more broadly.
Something that I personally was very invested in accomplishing and that I'm really thrilled that you were able to see to the finish line is engaging at Pitt-Greensburg with honors. Pitt-Greensburg initiated an honors program for the first time in 2020, and that was building on a really fantastic history that they have with engaged learning that they started in the Academic Village program that they established back in 1999. But this past fall, the Frederick Honors College was officially established at Pitt-Greensburg. Can you tell us a little bit more about that expansion?
Foote: Yeah, it's been so exciting to be part of this. And I think it really reflects that, that goal of making honors education as accessible as possible to the widest range of students. So at Greensburg, as you noted, there had been this launch of an honors program. So there was a really incredible foundation already in place that we were able to build on. An enormous enthusiasm from the faculty. We often talk about the Fab 4, the sort of leadership group of faculty led by Frank Wilson, who's now interim associate dean for Frederick at Greensburg.
And so, but I think another real piece of the catalyst was the Plan for Pitt and the focus on student success and also enrollment growth at the regionals, and we see these pieces coming together in this collaboration. So, we had a really beautiful launch event last September. But I think what's most exciting has been seeing the success of the students we've already seen. Our first Gilman winner from Frederick at Greensburg. We've had students from Greensburg participating in the Brackenridge Fellowship and other summer programs.
And what it means to be Frederick at Greensburg, as opposed to the honors program, is that all of the scholarships and research and global programs that we talked about earlier are fully open to the Greensburg students. And we provide transportation between the campuses. So, in honor of Women’s History Month, we had our annual Women's Leadership Tea, and we shuttled students from Greensburg and they came in their fascinators and were able to have tea with students here at Pittsburgh and listen to an address from our artist-in-residence.
So, both academically and co-curricularly, we've been able to provide that space for collaboration and really expanding into disciplinary learning opportunities that are available to students at Greensburg and continue to expand that extraordinary intellectual community and mentorship that exists at the campus.
McCarthy: So, you mentioned the Fab 4. Can you talk a little bit more about how that partnership impacts faculty on that campus?
Foote: Yeah, we've seen enormous excitement from the faculty. So what it's allowing is for enhanced networking across the campuses. Greensburg actually has extraordinary strengths in team teaching, and this is something they've been working on for several years under the leadership of President Gregerson. And so, now what we're trying to think through is how do we do team teaching across the campuses with faculty here at the Pittsburgh campus and faculty at Greensburg collaborating? We're working on enhancing our technology capacity to really do that at scale. And I think for faculty it also gives them more opportunity for really individualized mentorship with students.
At Greensburg, we’re doing a lot of what we call cross-listed courses, where faculty teach a regular course in the regular way that they would, but they also allow that to be open for honors credit. And then with those honors students that are in their course, they work with them on additional projects. And I think we've seen a lot of excitement for that, both from the students and the faculty.
So, this is something that we really do hope to expand to the other regional campuses. There's a working group of faculty at both Bradford and Johnstown currently. We've had visits where our leadership team has gone to those campuses where we're working to host them here at the Pittsburgh campus. So yeah, I think we're really excited about that next stage and and the way that that will create additional learning and engagement opportunities for the students and for the faculty in both, in all of our locations at the University of Pittsburgh.
McCarthy: It's really clear that that we're only scratching the surface here. There's a lot more to learn about the impact of the Frederick Honors College on the Pittsburgh campus, across the whole University. How can people learn more and get connected and stay up to date?
Foote: Yeah, absolutely. So I'd encourage people to go on our website. Which is frederickhonors.pitt.edu. Also, we have some really great social media channels, our Instagram page, LinkedIn, Facebook. You can e-mail us at honors@pitt.edu and please feel free to email me directly at nfoote@pitt.edu. Always excited to partner and ideas share with others.
McCarthy: Well, and I know that certainly a lot of our visitors press 36 on the elevator when they first come into the Cathedral. So Nicola, thank you so much for joining me today and sharing the great work that you and your team are doing at Frederick.
And as always, thank you listeners for tuning in. I'm Provost Joe McCarthy and this has been “From the Office of the Provost.”
[OUTRO MUSIC]