Creativity and Innovation Honors InstituteCultivate your mind to
envision new ideas

In order to be admitted to the Creativity and Innovation Honors Institute, you must:

• Have a 3.5 high school GPA or higher. (Transfer students must have a 3.2 GPA or higher and should not be transferring more than 12 credit hours.)
• Complete the Honors Program Application.

If admitted into the Creativity and Innovation Honors Institute, you will be required to submit a confirmation form to secure your spot in CIHI. If you do not deposit and submit your confirmation form by May 1, your spot will be released for the waitlisted students in order of their waitlist status.

The classes you take as a part of CIHI will be integrated into your main program of study, and many of the requirements, like CU Foundations and Old and New Testament, overlap. The other classes you should expect to take include classes centered on neuroscience, problem-solving and creative techniques.

• IDS-103: CU Foundations I
• IDS-104: CU Foundations II
• REL-130: Old Testament Literature
• REL-236: New Testament Literature
• IDS-140: Honors I
• IDS-141: Honors II
• IDS-240: Honors III
• IDS-241: Honors IV
• IDS-340: Honors V
• IDS-202: Creativity in the Conceptual Age
• IDS-205: Strategies for Innovative Thought and Design
• IDS-312: Science of Human Innovation
• IDS-450: Creative Emergence
• Global Studies Requirement

As an honors student, you can expect to read widely from the great books of world civilization. A five-course reading plan will guide you from books of antiquity to postmodern works. This will help you understand the human experience from a deeper and broader perspective and gain insight into the past in order to influence the future.

CRI-140 Honors I: Antiquity

Readings from Antiquity provides a foundational understanding of mythical and philosophical themes at the root of Western civilization. You’ll examine related topics, current events and ethical issues such as euthanasia, virtues, and oral history using interdisciplinary problem-solving approaches, context lectures, emerging documentation and problem-based learning.

CRI-141 Honors II: Late Antiquity/Early Medieval

Readings from Late Antiquity to Early Medieval follow the full transformation and integration of Christian civilization—good, bad, and otherwise, with a particular interest in the life of the mind and the imagination for the believer. You’ll examine related topics, current events, and ethical issues such as personality, human sexuality, and the problem of evil using interdisciplinary problem-solving approaches, context lectures, and problem-based learning.

CRI-240 Honors III: Renaissance/Enlightenment

Readings from Renaissance to Enlightenment will show the fusion of humanistic ideas and trajectories in science, politics, philosophy and theology. You’ll examine related topics, current events and ethical issues such as culture-making, ecclesiology and family systems using interdisciplinary problem-solving approaches, context lectures and problem-based learning.

CRI-241 Honors IV: Modernity

Readings from Modernity show the displacement of theistic visions by thorough-going revisions of human knowing and acting. You’ll examine related topics, current events and ethical issues such as just war, diplomacy and evolution using interdisciplinary problem-solving approaches, gamification, emerging documentation and problem-based learning.