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SELF- DESIGNED HONORS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PROJECT PROPOSAL

Proposals are held to high standards. Each of these elements must be included in your proposal and project:
1. Abstract:
Provide a detailed overview of this project so that a reader with no background on this topic would fully understand
your project goals and what you intend to learn. If you are proposing a global studies experience, provide an itinerary.
What does the project entail and why is it personally meaningful?
Describe the extent of your time commitment (planning, executing, and reflecting). Your experience should be
equivalent to a 3-credit hour honors seminar. While the quality of the experience and your ability to meet learning
outcomes are most important, you should engage in at least 75-90 hours of direct contact and/or preparation, research,
and reflection. Describe both the quantity and quality of your time commitment to this experience.
2. Connection to Learning Outcomes within an Honors Thematic Area:
Your project should result in substantial learning through which you make progress towards meeting specific learning
outcomes within the thematic area. You must explicitly choose (i.e., copy and paste) 2-3 honors learning outcomes
associated with the thematic area (see page 2 for the complete list of learning outcomes). List 2-3 honors learning
outcomes that you will make progress towards achieving as a result of your project. Then, explain how your actions
related to the project will help you meet the learning outcomes you identified. Provide specific examples.
3. Connection to Goals and Academic Theories (This is a two-part prompt):
A. Your project must be related to your development (personal, academic, and/or professional goals). How does
this project contribute to your future personal, academic and/or professional goals?
B. You are expected to connect academic theories or readings to your experiential learning work. Your proposal
should identify several theories or readings you plan to explore in your project. Name 2-3 specific theories and/or
readings you will use to prepare or gain background knowledge for your project. Explain how/why you chose your
resources and how they will inform your project. Provide citations, as appropriate. Your self-designed project
advisor(s) can lend their expertise and help you brainstorm relevant resources.
4. Initiative, Independence, and/or Creativity:
Your project must include a unique/independent/creative contribution and some aspect(s) of the project must be selfinitiated. What is your unique contribution to this project? What skills, ideas, or previous experiences do you bring to
the table? How is your involvement unique as compared to other participants? How have you demonstrated initiative?
5. Reflection:
Reflection leads to higher-level conceptual learning and can take many forms (e.g., journals, lab notebooks, blogs,
sketchbooks). Reflection is not merely a summation of activities completed and opinions formed; rather, it should be
thoughtful, integrative, substantive, and well-crafted. Your project must have an active reflective component. How will
you actively reflect on your learning throughout the experience? Describe the format for reflection and what you will
reflect upon (i.e., provide a list of reflection questions).
Additionally, in order for a project to be considered completed:
You must write and submit a reflective essay through the honors database within one month of project
completion (more details available on the UHP website).
You must document the experience in your learning portfolio.
6. Dissemination:
Your experience and learning must be shared with others publically (e.g., presentations to student groups, poster
display, websites, published papers/articles, video compilations, scrapbooks). With whom and how will you share what
you learned/created with others in a public forum? Why is the specific audience you chosen relevant?
7. Project Advisor(s):
Projects must involve the guidance of a faculty/staff member, mentor, supervisor, or other person with whom you can
develop a base of knowledge. Your project advisor should provide their expertise to assist you with the development
and execution of your project. Who will help you conceptualize this project and provide you with support? Provide the
name, title, contact information, and a statement explaining the expertise of each advisor. Note: This will not be your
honors advisor or another student.
8. Budget:
A budget is not required. To request an honors grant to support this project, provide an itemized budget listing all of
your project-related expenses and evidence to back up your estimates. To request grant funding for unpaid research or
an unpaid internship, please list the total number of hours you will work per week and the total number of weeks. If you
plan to receive funding from other sources, please indicate that in your budget. Grant funding is impacted by the
quality of your proposal.

HONORS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PROJECT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Your project should result in substantial learning through which you make progress towards meeting 2-3 of the learning
outcomes for an Honors Thematic Area. Your proposal must focus on one thematic area; choose one that best fits your goals.
Learning Outcomes for the Community Engagement Theme:
Possesses awareness of purpose of service, including need for reciprocity, understanding of social issues, and ability to see
those issues from multiple perspectives.
Recognizes how public policies and practices, and power and privilege, have an influence on social issues. Explores ways to
alter public policy and/or identify solutions.
Relates, communicates, and works effectively with others towards sustainable social change.
Participates in community and understands own role as citizen of community.
Learning Outcomes for the Creative Arts Theme (adapted from AAC&U Creative Thinking VALUE Rubric):
Acquires or further develops competencies within a particular creative domain.
Possesses ability to define the creative problem; ability to frame and develop a problem statement and appropriate
methodology.
Possess a well-developed awareness of theories and methods in the field.
Demonstrates/takes appropriate risk in successfully completing project (going beyond original parameters of assignment,
introducing new materials and forms, tackling controversial topics, advocating unpopular ideas or solutions, etc.).
Possesses ability to embrace contradictions and integrate alternate, divergent, or contradictory perspectives.
Possesses ability to think innovatively.
Connects, synthesizes, and transforms ideas.
Learning Outcomes for the Global Studies Theme:
Possess global literacy, including knowledge of geography, history, current world issues and similarities and differences
among cultures
Recognize the interdependence of world economies, political systems and the environment
Interact with individuals from different cultures and express a sensitivity, appreciation and respect for the complex range of
experiences of diverse peoples
Participate in a global society and understand the role of a global citizen
Note: If you are planning a self-designed travel experience, you must include a detailed itinerary. You are required to attend a
pre-departure orientation session with UC International Programs if your honors experiential learning project involves
international travel. It is your responsibility to schedule a session with UC International. At minimum, your time abroad should
be at least 1 week. Proposals for experiences with less than 1 week of travel will not be approved.
Additionally, the Student Travel Policy restricts UC sponsored- travel to countries under a U.S. Department of State Travel
Warning. Those who wish to visit a country with a travel warning may download and complete a Travel Exemption Form.
Students traveling without a faculty or staff leader must individually request an exemption. Faculty or staff leading a group of
students must complete a request on behalf of the entire group.
The University Honors Program cannot approve any travel to a country with a US Department of State Travel Warning until
after the a travel exemption is granted by the International Travel Overview Committee. This means that we cannot allow you
to count this travel as an honors experience nor can we give you a grant if the ITOC does not approve travel.
Learning Outcomes for the Leadership Theme:
Possesses knowledge of various leadership theories and identifies with the characteristics of leadership
Identifies the various characteristics of a leader in a given situation/role
Has the ability to relate, communicate and work effectively with peers
Develops a vision of the future and acknowledges the impact of decisions (as applicable to the individual and affiliated
organizations)
Learning Outcomes for the Research Theme:
Ability to frame and develop the research project question or problem.
Possess a well-developed awareness of literature in the field.
Formulate a theory, problem, or hypothesis for the proposed research project that is based on the literature review.
Ability to identify and apply appropriate methodologies to design research study, and collect and analyze data.
Disseminate the research results and knowledge gained.

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Demonstrate awareness of key weakness/limitations of the research and provide guidance on the most important and fruitful
directions for future research on this topic.
Ability to think beyond the just completed research and articulate how your world view has been impacted by the experience.

HONORS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM

Complete this proposal prior to your projects start date and upload it in the UHP Database
(https://webapps.uc.edu/uchonorsstudent). Create a project (Add a new record) in the Tracking Project tab and then
upload your proposal document as an attachment. The deadline for submitting proposals is on the 5th of each month.
While the quality of the proposal is most important, strong proposals are typically 3-4 pages in length (single-spaced).
Please maintain the proposal format.
Basic Information
Full Name:
Jacob Fields
UC Email:
fieldsj5@mail.uc.edu
College:
College of Engineering and Applied Science
Major:
Chemical Engineer
Title of Project: Catching them Up
Thematic Area (choose only one): Community Engagement
Expected Project Start Date: 01/12/15
Expected Project End Date: 06/01/15
Project Information
1. Provide a detailed abstract of your proposed honors experiential learning project.
My self-design project will actually involve me tutoring in two different areas. The first one is through
Bearcat Buddies. For Bearcat Buddies, I will be taken once a week, for an hour and a half to Ethel M. Taylor
Elementary, where I will work with two different second graders in reading. I will sit down with these kids
individually, outside of their classroom setting, and conduct activities with them to further their reading abilities.
For example, I will be helping them learn phonics so they can better sound out words and also teach them how to
better respond to questions from a story they read. I will use these activities and how they perform in them to
figure out where we need to go from there to maximize the students learning and get them caught up. Prior to the
start of the program for spring semester, I will also undergo a training session to ensure that I know all of the
Bearcat Buddies rules and guidelines for tutoring, as well as better ways to teach these kids. The other place I
will be tutoring is at my job, Mathnasium. Here, I work with kids in a group setting, usually around 4 kids at a
time at varying levels of math, and try to help them fill the math gaps that they have. At Mathnasium, the students
are given a binder that is individualized to them so that the kids are not given material they have already mastered.
This way, all the time the kids spend at Mathnasium is beneficial to them. At Mathnasium, a teaching strategy that
is implemented is the Teach and Move On strategy. In this, we as tutors will help a kid with a problem or two,
explain the concept to them, and then let them try some problems by themselves while the tutors go to help other
kids. This way, the kids are learning from the tutors, but are not just being sponges and actually have to figure it
out for themselves. I will usually go on a 5 to 10 minute cycle during which time I rotate between each kid, check
up on them, and clarify any confusion. These shifts for me at Mathnasium run for 4-5 hours and I will work there
2 times a month during the school year, and 2-3 times a week during breaks.
Throughout the course of these two very different tutoring positions, there are a few things that I hope to
gain. Having worked with kids in the past, I know what it feels like to see a kid finally fully understand something
and have that aha moment. I love that feeling of knowing I impacted those students lives, so I want to gain more
of that. I also want to gain by growing closer and forming bonds with the kids I tutor. Being able to have normal
conversation with them and breaking that tutor student barrier is great, because the kids become more open about
their frustrations and where they need help. I also want to gain more patience and understanding through this
process because at times, it is very hard to be patient when a kid is not grasping a concept they have been taught
many times before. I want to be able to better find ways to get on those kids levels and be able to teach them in a
way that, even though it may not quite make sense to do the problem that way to me, makes perfect sense to them.
I want to grow as a person and tutor so that I can take this into my future career. This way, I can better understand
those I work with, even if we may have very different thought processes.

Clearly and thoroughly address how each of the following elements will be exhibited in your work:
2. Connection to Learning Outcomes within the Honors Thematic Area (identified above)
Relates, communicates, and works effectively with others towards sustainable social change.
I will work not only with my students, but also my coworkers and fellow Bearcat Buddies volunteers to help the kids
that we tutor not only get better at the subjects that we are tutoring them in, but also to grow as people. We build
relationships with these kids, and when they talk to us about their lives outside of tutoring, I thoroughly enjoy giving
them advice and listening to what they have to say. As they get better at what we tutor these kids in, they will be better
prepared for the future. These skills that they gain through tutoring could help them in their future lives and change the
outcome of where they would have ended up otherwise.
Participates in community and understands own role as citizen of community.
For me, I have learned through my many different tutoring experiences that I am good at explaining things in a simpler
way and helping other people understand topics they would not understand otherwise. This has helped me realize that
through doing this, my role in the community is to better the education of other kids so that they can work out problems
easier and get better at problem solving. I do not limit myself to one age group. My tutoring runs from 1 st grade through
seniors in high school. This great variation helped me realize that my role in the community is not limited in the least
bit by age. My purpose is to help as many people that I can gain the skills needed to further themselves in society in the
future, no matter how old they are.
3. Connection to Goals and Academic Theories (include reference list, as appropriate)
A. Tutoring has also helped me grow as a person and gain skills that will make my profession a lot
easier, and I am hoping that doing more tutoring will allow me to not only improve those skills even
more, but also to gain even more skills. For example, by working at Mathnasium, I have been able to
gain a lot of patience because a times, it can get very frustrating when a kid is so far behind that I can
not find a way to get them to understand basic concepts. However, I have been able to gain the
patience needed to keep working with them until they finally understand the topic. Another skill I
want to work on that I have gained is my communication skill. I have to learn to find different ways
to communicate the same thing, because not everyone will understand everything the exact same way.
I have also gotten better at communicating with the parents of children when I go to talk to them
about how their child did that day. I hope that in the future this will get even easier and I will get even
better at it. These skills will allow me to better communicate with my future coworkers in different
ways, and to keep my patience with them when we do not see eye to eye.
B. Having already been doing Bearcat Buddies and Mathnasium for a while, there is not much
preparation I need to do right now for the experience. However in the past I had to go through
training at Mathnasium in courses online called Mathnasium 1001, 1002, and 1003. These training
modules allowed me to learn the basics of the Mathnasium method and how to better work with the
children.
4. Initiative, Independence, and/or Creativity
My contribution to this project is my own unique brain. This is because everyone learns in a different way, so showing
kids my unique methods may make problem solving easier for them. I will use the skills that I have learned
throughout my own personal education to try and make the concepts easier on the kids that I tutor.
5. Reflection
I plan to gain the permission of a few parents and my boss to allow me to track the progress of their kids
throughout the course of my experience. Then I will follow their progress and record it into a blog that I will
create, so that others can see the positive effect that these tutoring methods have. I will provide either weekly or
bi-weekly updates on the kids progress, both within tutoring and outside of tutoring, in terms of homework and
quiz grades.

6. Dissemination
I will post the results of my experience in a blog online. I will do this so that others can go online and see how
effective both Bearcat Buddies and Mathnasium actually is. This way, people will be more willing to sign their
kids up for tutoring to either catch them up or get them ahead.

7. Project Advisor(s)
My project advisor will be my boss at Mathnasium, Travis Lionberger. He is the Director of all Cincinnati
Mathnasiums. He can be reached at 937-763-7019. He will provide years of expertise in tutoring and help me
come up with tutoring methods that I have never even thought of before.
8. Budget (if applicable)
No budget required.