Honors Collegium 50

Create your Roadmap

Announcement

We appreciate your interest in HNRS 50. Both sections are currently full. If a seat becomes available, it will be visible on the Schedule of Classes and you will be able to enroll directly.

Enrollment: Departmental Consent. This course is for students participating in the College Scholars program. Priority is given to juniors/seniors. College Honors students may enroll beginning November 19, 2025, space permitting. For enrollment information, e-mail Kara Brown at honorscollegium@college.ucla.edu.

Course Description: Seminar, three hours. Introduction to selected signature approaches to learning (interdisciplinary, experiential, integrative, illustrative), ways of being (inclusivity, self-awareness, curiosity, independence, resilience, generosity, distinctiveness), and habits of doing (collaboration, creativity, innovation). Incorporation of empirical research and writing from different academic disciplines to help students understand rationales behind those approaches and associated applications for undergraduate learning. Students design e-portfolio. Students develop personalized roadmap to guide their academic, personal, and professional growth during their undergraduate careers.

Lauri Mattenson

Lauri Mattenson is a Senior Lecturer with UCLA Writing Programs. As a member of the UCLA Prison Education Program and PEP Faculty Advisory Board, Lauri advocates for prison reform and teaches writing courses for incarcerated adults and students in juvenile halls, work for which she was honored with the 2025 Campus Champion Award. She is a 2025-26 Faculty Fellow for the UCLA Dialogue Across Difference Initiative, and was awarded the 2020 Honors Division Eugen Weber Teaching Award for “a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to learning, promoting healthy intellectual exchange, and dedication to the student experience.” Publications include LA Times and Chronicle of Higher Education, among others.

http://www.laurimattenson.com/

Q & A

What is your home department at UCLA? Writing Programs

How long have you been teaching your HC seminar? Since 2003, and then the course was renamed in 2014. I update the curriculum each year.

What is your favorite part about teaching this HC seminar? It is deeply soul-satisfying to see how students embrace and appreciate this curriculum. It tends to facilitate individual growth and highlight our shared humanity.

What do you find to be the most compelling about the subject matter of this seminar? In school, most of us have learned to feed the mind—and ignore the body. When we integrate the two, we learn differently—and live differently.

What are the learning objectives for this course?

Re-introduce you to selected signature approaches to learning (interdisciplinary, experiential, integrative, illustrative); ways of being (inclusivity, self-awareness, curiosity, independence, resilience, generosity, distinctiveness); and habits of doing (collaboration, creativity, innovation) that characterize the UCLA Honors program.
Incorporate empirical research and writing from different academic disciplines to help you understand both: (1) the rationales behind those core elements and (2) the associated applications for undergraduate learning.
Engage you in designing an e-portfolio.
Facilitate your continued development of a personalized “roadmap” to guide your academic, personal, and professional growth during your undergraduate career.

What’s an e-portfolio?

An e-portfolio provides a visual representation
of you in website form:
What’s your story?
Who are you?
What are your passions, skills, and talents?
What contributions have you or hope to make?
Where are you headed?

Sample E-portfolios

Krish Shah
Wiley Waggoner
Sara Daar
Eric Longo
Kienna Qin
Karen Madamba
Theodora Pui Hing Ng

Student Feedback

Honors Collegium 50: Create your Roadmap

“I enjoyed the opportunity to really reflect on my passions and how they may/may not align with my future career plans. I don’t get the opportunity for that kind of introspection often, especially in a classroom format, where there is a professor supporting me and providing me with a structured way to go about decision-making regarding my career path. I truly felt like I had support every step of the way. I also deeply appreciate the opportunity to foster my interviewing and professional development skills, which are both invaluable skills. Overall I feel that taking this class made me a better professional, student, and person.”

“I have learned to be more introspective, practice self-compassion, write with a voice I actually care about, and remember that my path is the only path that I am on or ever will be on so I should enjoy the ride. Of course, it’s impossible to “master” self-authorship or self co passion or career building over the course of one quarter, but I genuinely believe I am far more prepared to tackle life’s challenges and embrace its joys after a course like this one.”

“I have never had a professor who is so committed to the academic, emotional, and personal wellbeing of all of their students, and that is exactly the type of professor this class necessitates. It was clear that each reading and activity was intentionally curated, all our assignments had a value and meaning behind them, and she made herself incredibly accessible for extra help, meetings, extensions, comments and concerns. Professor Mattenson is also just radiant. Class was always so fun because it echoed with her joyful laugh and eventful anecdotes. She created a uniquely comfortable and vulnerable environment that fostered seamless learning and interaction, and for that I am so grateful.”

“The interviews I completed most definitely swayed my course in life, or at least gave me a greater sense of purpose to my studies and career journey. I liked how she provided options for all of the assignments to curate it to whatever we need to apply it for (such as a self-statement in any format so that it can be sent to schools or internships, rather than specific guidelines for how to structure it). And I liked the atmosphere of love for learning that was curated through this class. It was a gift to take.”