In one of her freshman classes in the UC Davis Integrated Studies Program, student Helen Cunningham (now a third-year student) participated in a discussion with Vietnam veteran Chuck Lewis, who talked about his experiences in the war. (Debbie Aldridge/UC Davis archive photo)
Integrated Studies
Integrated Studies is a residential honors program that began in 1969, making it the oldest living-learning community in the UC system. Regents' scholars and other high-achieving incoming freshmen are invited to live in the program's residence hall, Miller Hall, and take honors classes and seminars during their first year. Students often take introductory courses together and study together as well.
Participants must take one honors course per quarter during their first year. They may choose from such classes as "Storytelling, The History of the End of the World," and "Playing Shakespeare," a course in which students actually perform one of the Bard's plays for the public.
Integrated Studies moved to a new building in 2003, allowing it to increase participation by 50 percent to 114 students. The program is also expanding beyond the first year. Participation in freshman classes and seminars will remain mandatory, but students now have the option to continue taking honors seminars during their next three years.
‘It's such a good experience to do a thesis when you can't do one through your own department because of GPA or because the department doesn't have its own honors program.’
Sharon Luong, Class of 2006
Integrated Studies also offered a thesis program for the first time last year. The program is modeled after departmental senior honors thesis programs within the College of Letters and Science, except Integrated Studies students begin their project their junior year. The head start allows students to complete a two-year research project.
A handful of students began a thesis last year, including senior biochemistry and molecular biology major Harjot Maan. Maan, the program's head tutor this year, can now apply to medical school with one more year of research experience than many of his competitors.
"It put me ahead of the game," Maan said of the thesis experience.
The program provides faculty mentors who can help students find a professor to work under and give them independent advice throughout the project. And because students begin the Integrated Studies thesis their junior year, they have the option to participate in their own department's honors program during their senior year.
For some students, like Sharon Luong, the thesis gives them an opportunity they would not otherwise get. Luong, who graduated in 2006 with a plant science degree, did not quite have the 3.5 GPA required to participate in her departmental honors program. Even so, she was able to do a senior thesis through Integrated Studies.
"It's such a good experience to do a thesis when you can't do one through your own department because of GPA or because the department doesn't have its own honors program," said Luong, a plant sciences major who graduated last spring.