By Naz Santiago, DASA Marketing Intern

NC State’s Honors Village is a community of high achieving, highly motivated and academically minded students looking to develop and connect academically, socially and culturally. It’s a community of over 400 students from all four class years, every college, various majors and different backgrounds. This village is a partnership with NC State’s Honors Program and offers students plenty of opportunities to get involved within the community and to connect with their peers. The video below was created prior to the village’s and program’s name change in 2022.

Meet the Residents

Perks and Special Activities

One of the many unique activities and events that this village prepares for its students is the MetaSkill challenge, which integrates and applies the concepts of metacognition and skill acquisition, teaching students how to learn particular skills more effectively. Students commit 20 hours to learning a skill they have always wanted to learn, and those who accept the challenge get to showcase and reflect on their skill development process and get a chance to win a prize.

The village also has a unique collaboration with TRIO Collegiate Programs and Talent Search, where students have the opportunity to teach an honors seminar to high school students from underrepresented groups in the area. They also have a Scholar in Residence who lives on the premises while teaching classes and holding workshops. Other activities that this village offers include regular Scholars Forums, annual trips, exploration opportunities, leadership panels and a monthly movie series.

Students in the village have access to classrooms within the village and University Honors program staff offices as well as Clark Dining Hall.

“The advantages to living in the Honors Village is the community around it,” said Eli Edds, a first-year resident majoring in computer engineering. “NC State is such a big school; coming here and having a close community of people really helps make the school seem a lot smaller.”

The Honors Village is a welcoming community where academics and social life go hand in hand, and its students don’t have to miss out on one or the other. Students are surrounded by their peers who help foster their academic growth, through helping and volunteering to tutor one another. This village also allows for its students to focus on inquiry, interdisciplinary work, scholarly engagement and teamwork.

“I feel like this village has made me a better student by surrounding me with other people who care about their academic integrity as well as validate themselves personally and trying to go beyond what a typical college experience might be,” Said Adah Freeman, a sophomore resident majoring in biology. “Reasons why people should consider joining the Honors Village are to really open up their horizons and broaden their perspectives and interpretations of the world. This village doesn’t shy away from having deep conversations about really important topics and current events, social issues and things like that, and so having people who are willing to have those conversations is so cool.”

How to Join

To join the Honors Village, students must be involved in the University Honors Program at NC State. For new, incoming students, the village applications open up in February and close around mid-April, depending on space availability, and most villages make their decision to admit residents by May. Learn more about the Honors Village and others at https://housing.dasa.ncsu.edu/residential-communities/living-learning-villages/.