“There is real desire on the part
of lots of Bucks students to be
academically pushed and challenged,”
said Stephen DoCarmo,
PhD, who oversees Bucks County
Community College’s Honors@
Bucks Program. The program’s
mission is to challenge “high-ability,
intellectually curious students”
through honors coursework
that emphasizes scholarly
research, critical thinking and
experiential learning.
In the spring of 2014, Provost
Annette Conn asked DoCarmo to
captain a team of faculty members
who were studying the possibility
of launching an honors program
at Bucks. DoCarmo, who is a
professor in Bucks’ Department
of Language & Literature, helped
found the program in 2014 and
has since served as the program’s
coordinator.
Honors@Bucks Program
includes students, said DoCarmo,
who “genuinely enjoy school and
want a little extra challenge and
attention from their professors.”
He said that most hard working
students who match that description
are eligible.
DoCarmo also says the program
provides students an opportunity
to be in smaller classes with
“terrific faculty members and
other hardworking, intellectually
curious students.”
Like the Centurion and the Future
Teachers Organization, Honors
at Bucks won Organization of
the Year this year for continuing
to operate even at the peak of the
pandemic.
Through his tenure, DoCarmo
has seen students regularly transfer
to “name-brand” colleges and
universities. “They finish there
with the same degrees they would
have gotten had they been there
all four years,” he said. “Except
they owe radically less when
they’re done.”
The program includes dedicated-
honors sections and “honors
by contract” work in regular
academic sections, as well as
scholarship opportunities and the
opportunity to earn an Honors@
Bucks Associate’s Degree.
Students who earn the Honors@
Bucks Associate’s Degree
can make easy honors-to-honors
transfers to Rider University,
Delaware Valley University, Cedar
Crest College and Gwynedd
Mercy University. DoCarmo says
that even Honors@Bucks students
who aren’t interested in one of
those schools can benefit. They
receive honors coursework on
their Bucks transcripts, which he
says makes them more desirable
to admissions officers at all four-year
colleges and universities.