The Daily Gamecock

Capstone and Honors programs provide outlet, perks for students at USC

Honors and Capstone are on two completely different sides of campus, but are similar in their motivations. The two organizations came together for Y'all Ball on Friday to celebrate their achievements and hard work at Top of Carolina. 

“Y’all Ball is the biggest event of the year for Honors and for Capstone, and it’s a joint event,” said Ward Jolles, first-year geography and broadcast journalism student and president of Honors Hall Government. “We’ve been working on it all year planning and how we're putting everything together.” 

The Capstone and Honors hall governments worked through the Residence Hall Association in order to get funding for Y’all Ball. The two governments have been planning for months on how to create a great event for both halls.

“We work really well together in RHA,” Jolles said. “We have a very close relationship, so we wanted to continue that relationship and the tradition that has been built over the past few years.” 

Even though the Capstone and Honors College students in RHA work well together and have a close relationship, the same cannot necessarily be said for the rest of the Capstone Scholars and Honors College students. Although the programs are similar, many students never cross paths.

“The thing that separates them is really not much,” Honors College dean Steve Lynn said. “The students who get in the Honors College have the average higher test scores than Capstone students. I think Capstone students, from what I can tell, thrive, and they are pretty successful transferring into the Honors College, the ones who want to.” 

Test scores differentiate Capstone and Honors students from their classmates. The average freshman enrolled in fall 2017 had an ACT score of 27.3 while Capstone had an average of 29.7 and Honors had a 32.5. 

“Almost the first 450 to 500 kids at USC are Honors College, the next 1,000 to 1,300 or 1,400 are Capstone Scholars,” Capstone faculty principal Patrick Hickey said. 

Capstone has 1,105 students and 579 students are enrolled in the Honors College, and both receive personalized attention and exclusive programming.

For the Capstone Program, those perks include unique access to faculty and events that no other student will experience at USC. This is accomplished through the Capstone Consultations and events such as Hot Cookie Friday and Capstone Maymester programs.

“A Capstone Scholar is expected to do more than the average student,” Alicia Symons, a second-year history student, said. “We're expected to be more involved ... in exchange we’re given access to events and a community that’s really valuable.” 

Of the 1,684 students in both programs, 300 students RSVP'd for Y'all Ball, of which about 250 attended. They came in and out throughout the night, as Top of Carolina could only hold 200 people at once. 

"We were actually worried before the event that we were going to hit capacity at Top of Carolina and have to start turning people away," Jolles said. "But thank goodness that did not happen."

Symons has taken advantage of several Capstone program offerings, including its exclusive study abroad opportunities. 

“I went on the Maymester in Ireland that was through Capstone,” Symons said. “Through that, I met other Capstone Scholars with similar interests to me. We were all of different majors and had different things to offer. We pretty much just went because we were interested in learning new things and experiencing new things.” 

Honors College programming is different in that it includes a required 45 honors credits in addition to community events — both large and small. 

“Some things are big events such as the Freshman Flotilla which occurs at the beginning of the freshman year where the students float down the river, and then there are small events where we'll get tickets to a Shakespeare play on campus and advertise in the newsletter first come, first serve free tickets,” Lynn said. 

Jolles named Y'all Ball to be one of the biggest events of the year for both programs, and emphasized the great atmosphere. 

"It was great. Everyone seemed to be getting along really well," Jolles said. "Everybody had a great time dancing and whatnot."

Both the Honors College and the Capstone students have residence and classroom facilities dedicated to students in the programs, although Honors' are on a larger scale. 

“We have classrooms right downstairs that we have a lot of classes in that are in all majors,” Honors and first-year electrical engineering student Price Agnew said. “There’s always workshops going on to find out more about opportunities for internships or study abroad or anything you want.” 

However, despite the similarities in the programs, students do receive different perks. For example, Capstone only has specific sections and teachers for University 101 whereas Honors students have organization-specific teachers, classrooms and courses along with early registration.

“We do have priority registration for classes. That’s very nice. We get like an extra week,” Agnew said. “Prioritized registration’s a big thing because you'll know right away whether or not you’re going to be in a class, and you don’t nearly have to worry as much about what section you’re going to be in.” 

Another perk for both of these programs was the gift the first 100 Y'all Ball attendees received at the door.

"We also gave out 100 hats, and all of them were gone within the first 20 minutes," Jolles said. "They had the word 'y'all' written on the front of them."

This difference in the two programs does cause some resentment for students who believe that a higher test score should not give one group of students so many more perks, especially when both Honors and Capstone students are meant to be academically minded.

“One downside I would say is that I don’t get access to more classes, really. In terms of my academic progress, I would say it’s similar to an average student,” Symons said.

The relevance and benefits of Capstone have been debated by professors and students alike, but regardless of what program a USC student is in, maximizing college experiences when it comes to service, leadership, academics, study abroad and research will help every student post-graduation.

“If you minimize the things you do on campus while you're here for four years, you’re not going to have a lot of opportunities when it comes to jobs or grad school or whatever,” Hickey said. “If you expand the number of things you do ... When you graduate ideally and you have all of that, that’s going to give you choices.” 

Organizers hope Y'all Ball was a chance for two groups on campus to come together for just one night to have fun and meet like-minded people.

“Hopefully since there are close to 150 Capstone people who are invited and 150 or so Honors invited to the same event and it will be a dance, it will be a nice way to contribute to some bonding and spread some new friendships among the two residence halls,” Jolles said. “A lot of people in Honors don’t know a lot of people in Capstone. We’re hoping this will maybe further that relationship.”


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