Info For
Skip to Content
The honors guild poses as a group on a overseas trip.

Honors Guild

The Honors Guild unites students from across campus around intellectual curiosity and a desire to understand the ways culture, ideas, and faith impact the world. Honors students engage with an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary course of study, as well as co-curricular programming that integrate scholarship, critical inquiry, personal praxis, and social action.

Honors Tracks and Curriculum

Honors courses are discussion-based courses that dive into the biggest questions of life. Honors students must complete 18 credit hours of honors courses. Most Honors courses simultaneously fulfill Foundational Core requirements.

Once you are accepted into the Honors Guild, you’ll have the chance to rank your choices for a focused intellectual community: Global Leadership, Faith and the Embodied Life, or Great Conversations. Each track emphasizes transformative learning that will challenge and inspire.

Global Leadership

Serve a world in need by being an ambassador for Christ. Key discussion points will focus on sustainability, cultural humility, and understanding major global trends.

Faith and the Embodied Life

Reshape how you think about self, wholeness, and your view of the abundant life, rooted in faith in Christ.

Great Conversations

Sit at the table with great authors and thinkers around the world and across the centuries. Make connections across disciplines by seeking answers to fundamental questions.

Intentional Academic Community

The Honors Guild has special events to promote friendship among Honors scholars. Traditional events include cookouts, speaker discussions, film viewings, an all-Honors retreat, and trips to the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

J-Term Honors Program Trip

All Honors Scholars will spend their freshman January term on a scholarship-funded international trip with other Honors students. Past trips have taken students to Ireland, Jordan, Israel, South Africa, the Bahamas, and China.

Ockenga Honors Lodge

Honors students can study, do research, relax, and converse with visiting scholars in the Ockenga Honors Lodge, named for 1926 Taylor graduate Harold John Ockenga.

Apply to the Honors Guild

If you are intellectually curious and desire to think deeply on critical questions, we would love for you to apply for the Honors Guild. Applicants are admitted through a competitive and comprehensive selection process assessing academic excellence, collaboration, and curiosity with the goal of selecting a strong cohort each year.

  1. Apply and be accepted to Taylor and submit ACT/SAT or CLT scores.
  2. Apply to the Honors Guild. Applications are no longer being accepted for 2024-2025.
  3. Interview: Qualified applicants will be invited to a group interview on February 19, 2024.

*Interviews will be held on campus. Interviews are required for admittance to the Honors Guild. 

Contact the Honors Guild

Diana Bowman

Program Assistant, Spencer Centre and Honors Guild

View Profile

Honors Guild Leadership

Scott Moeschberger

Professor of Global Studies, Honors Guild Director

  • PhD, Counseling Psychology, Ball State University
  • MA, Counseling Psychology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
  • BS, Psychology Systems, Taylor University
View Profile
Elizabeth Parker

Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Director of Honors

  • PhD, English (Religion and Literature), Baylor University
  • MA, English, Baylor University
  • BA, English, Mississippi College
View Profile
Daniela Gavilanez Thumbnail
Daniela Gavilanez

"My involvement in the Honors Guild has truly enabled me to cultivate the program’s core values of intellectual curiosity, diversity of thought, winsome dialogue, collaborative learning, and discernment. Still, I recognize that I have aspects to develop in these areas, and I eagerly anticipate opportunities for further growth through my continued participation in the Honors program over the next three years."