The IVC Honors Program is dedicated to helping students engage in meaningful, faculty-mentored research while at IVC. The Honors Program works to help students learn how to conduct scholarly research and present their work at local and regional undergraduate research conferences.
To apply to research conferences, students must have IVC as their college of record, work with an IVC faculty mentor to define their research question and conduct their research at IVC, and submit a research abstract to the conference website and/or Honors Program Coordinator describing their proposed or completed research project. The primary annual conferences supported by the IVC Honors Program include the following:
- The IVC/Saddleback Student Research Symposium: held each fall semester on the alternating sister campuses
- The HTCC Community College Honors Research Conference: held in spring at UC Riverside
- The Bay Honors Symposium: held in late spring alternately at Stanford and UC Berkeley; only current Honors Program members may participate
All of these conferences are multidisciplinary; students are welcome to present research in any area. Each fall and spring semester, the Honors Program hosts several workshops and information sessions regarding research and research conferences. For more information, contact the Honors Program at honorsprogram@ivc.edu.
Faculty mentors, as disciplinary experts, provide guidance to student researchers. They can help students focus their research question, direct students to relevant research materials, polish their research abstract, and/or prepare their presentation. IVC faculty may email honorsprogram@ivc.edu with any questions about the role of the faculty mentor.
Note: The Honors Program sponsors student attendance at the conferences above. Other opportunities are available through IVC departments and clubs. For example, members of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (PTK), Psi Beta Honor Society, and the Applied Science and Engineering Club (ASEC) attend research events throughout the year. Please contact those organizations for further information.