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Above, from left, USM Provost Dr. Gordon Cannon; USM Honors College Dean Dr. Sabine Heinhorst; USM President Dr. Joe Paul; ����԰ President Dr. Stephen Vacik; Honors Institute Dean Tim Krason, and Joy Rhoades, director of the Rankin Campus Honors program.

Transferring from ����԰’ Honors Institute to the University of Southern Mississippi Honors College will be a bit smoother now after the two college presidents signed a memorandum of understanding on Feb. 10.

����԰ students with a GPA of 3.4 or higher will be granted “automatic admission” to the Keystone program in USM’s Honors College.

“I am excited to formalize this relationship,” said ����԰ President Dr. Stephen Vacik. “This allows those students who have been successful in the Honors program to very seamlessly move from one place to another and continue their education while also finding where they fit in. We would love to see more and more of our students continue to transfer.”

USM President Dr. Joe Paul also announced an increase in the Phi Theta Kappa scholarship to $6,000.
“We’ve got a rich tradition of ����԰ scholars transferring to Southern Miss, being highly successful and doing great things in the world. So to solidify this is a joyful day for us,” Dr. Paul said.

Students in the Keystone program must write a thesis to graduate from the Honors College. USM Honors College Dean Dr. Sabine Heinhorst said ����԰ alumni have a history of exceptional thesis projects.
The new partnership “will allow us to recruit ����԰’ best and brightest to our Honors College,” Dr. Heinhorst said.

Tim Krason, dean of ����԰’ Honors Institute, said the Honors College transfer agreement provides “our ����԰ graduates additional academic opportunities when they move on to a senior university. I hope that our current ����԰ students consider this option when they look at USM, and I hope this opportunity helps prospective ����԰ students see the value in coming to ����԰ and investing in our programs here.”

����԰ Honors Institute offers travel abroad opportunities and enhanced courses with outside speakers. “We have, in my opinion, the best Honors program for a community college in the entire state,” Dr. Vacik said. “I think we do a fantastic job when it comes to not just the academics but also the social and the cultural part – offering travel opportunities and interacting with other folks from other places. We really give our students the full experience.”