Caption: Mrs. Santos and Micah Grieve having a meeting to discuss their honors work. [by Isabella Lázaro]
by Isabella Lázaro
São Paulo, Brazil – With the honors sign-up deadline officially in the past, students are “locking in” the preparation and research needed to present a successful Honors Project at the end of the school year through assigned lunch meetings with their teachers and organizing the tasks that need be done between now and the first week of June.
The Honors Program is set up differently at every school. Here at PACA, it is a self-study project offered for some of the core high school classes at PACA. Those students who are willing to challenge themselves, will take a deep-dive into their favorite subjects. It consists of college-level research, with multiple checkpoints along the way. In the meantime, the teacher guides the students for the purpose of helping them keep up with the demanding schedule.
According the page 29 of the PACA student handbook, “The Honors Course Program is designed to challenge capable and motivated students who demonstrate strong academic performance and/or a deep interest in a subject area. Students enrolled in an honors course must complete an additional project and meet all academic and procedural requirements to receive honors credit.”
To be a part of the program, students must first be accepted into their course of choice. To do so they must fill out a form and hand it in before August 30th. However, there is no 100% guarantee that they will be admitted into the honors program. The teachers themselves chose which students to accept into the course.
When they are approved, students must maintain an average grade of 85% in the class, otherwise they will be removed from the program. Students cannot miss any required deadlines, because this also results in being removed.
Being an honors student isn’t for everyone. Some students feel overwhelmed by their workload, so they choose not to join. Still, there are many ways to lighten the load according to Mrs. Mindy Swisher, the PACA school guidance counselor. She recommends students use their teacher as a support.
“I recommend students that are taking Honors to use their teachers as an active resource. This is a serious commitment that is year-long,” Mrs. Swisher.
Students also have the option to drop out before first checkpoint of the second semester without being marked in their transcript. If they miss this window, they can still leave but it will be shown on the transcript as a note of withdrawal, according to the 2026-2027 PACA student handbook on page 30.
At the end of the school year, the student must have written an 1,500+ word essay and give a visual presentation that will be given in front of a panel of judges. At that point, the individual will receive a pass or fail for the entire year of effort. The passing grade will provide a 0.3 GPA boost to their grade by the end of the school year with the word “Honors” being added to the class listed in their transcript.
Some students chose to take multiple honors classes, Catarina Hara says she really enjoys taking the Physics and Bible honors. She chose them because they are two topics that she has great interest in and wants to deepen her knowledge by doing self-research.
“It’s very fun to research and learn more about the topics I love, and having the opportunity to do so independently but still relying a bit on my teachers,” Hara said.
