St. Lawrence University: Ilia Casanova

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Guidelines for SYE Honors Projects and Independent Studies

Honors Projects

Only students who have distinguished themselves with a minimum of a 3.5 average in their major and have maintained at least a 3.0 in their other courses are eligible to propose projects for honors during their senior year.

During the semester preceding the actual execution of the project, candidates must submit a 350-word proposal for the project along with a preliminary bibliography (where applicable) and a timetable indicating the completion of the various stages of the project to the specified section of the Modern Languages Department. All members of the particular section (Spanish, French, German) must approve the project. Multi-language majors will write their proposals in English and they will be presented to representatives from each of the languages in question for approval.

All approved projects bearing the signatures of the designated faculty members and that of the honors candidate will be placed on file in the departmental office. The department will accept only those students as honors candidates who have completed the preliminary work in accordance with the above requirements.

The role of the directing faculty member will be that of mentor from the inception of the project to its completion. She/he will guide the student through the drafting of the original proposal, assist her/him in establishing a timetable and then meet with the student a minimum of one hour per week throughout the semester to discuss and check the progress of the work. At any point during the semester, the director of the project reserves the right to change the designation of the student’s work from honors project to independent study if insufficient progress is being made in terms of the proposed project. The final draft of the student’s honors project will be evaluated by the director and by a faculty committee composed of a minimum of two faculty members of whom one may be from outside the department.

At the end of the semester the honors candidate will give an oral presentation of his project to his faculty committee, other interested faculty and students of the Modern Languages and Literatures Department. The director and the other assisting faculty members will make the final determination of whether or not the student’s work merits “honors” after the oral presentation. The committee will make its decision known to the student at this time.

Independent Studies

All language majors are automatically eligible to do an independent study during their senior year.

During the semester preceding the actual execution of the independent study, the candidate must submit a 150-word statement of goals along with a preliminary bibliography (where applicable) and a timetable indicating the completion of the various stages of the research and the drafting of the text to the specified section of the Modern Languages Department. All members of the appropriate section (Spanish, French, or German) must approve the independent study. Multi-language majors will write their statement of goals in English so that it can be evaluated by a representative from each of the languages in question for approval.

All approved independent studies bearing the signatures of the designated faculty members and that of the student will be placed on file in the departmental office. The department will accept only those students for independent studies who have completed the preliminary work in accordance with the above requirements.

The role of the directing faculty member will be that of mentor from the beginning of the research to the completion of the final draft. She/he will guide the student through the drafting of the statement of goals and the establishment of the timetable and then meet with him/her a minimum of one hour per week throughout the semester to discuss the research and the progress toward its completion. The director of the independent study will determine the final grade, basing her/his evaluation on the final draft(s) of the independent study as well as on the quality of the student’s work throughout the semester.

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