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Hello Honors students! If you're reading this blog post, WE (Lady Elizabeth and Natalia -- both SCU '24) can only assume you’re a junior or senior working on your senior thesis project. Good luck...!!! Really, though -- we bet you’ll do just fine 😁!  Trust us: the process is hard but totally doable. We are Senior Honors students currently going through the process and figured why not create a helpful “how to” post for all the Arts and Science peeps. But who knows, these tips might also help Engineering and Business students! Before getting into the tips, here are some things Natalia and I wish we had known before starting our project:
That’s right. This project is a handful and requires not only discipline but great guidance. Without further ado let’s share what we've learned from our own experiences.  Tip 1: Start figuring out your thesis focus and mentor/reader sooner rather than later The order of which comes first doesn’t matter. You just need to pick a thesis focus and reader/mentor by the end of spring your Junior year. For readers, you can choose any professor you would feel comfortable meeting with for writing advice, but when it comes to picking a mentor, it’s a little trickier. It’s best to pick a mentor in the field most related to your area of interest. Your mentor doesn’t have to be a professor who is an absolute expert about your narrowed down topic, but they should have enough background knowledge on the general focus to help you get started. For example, Lady Elizabeth knew she wanted to focus her honors senior thesis on the American prison system, so she intentionally picked a mentor whose curriculum focused on mass incarceration. That way, her mentor would be able to suggest credible sources, books, and documentaries for her to look into as she narrowed down her topic. Meanwhile, Natalia had been working on a research project with mentors from the English department that she had chosen previously. Because of her busy senior-year schedule, she decided to use this project for her Honors Thesis too. In fact, with that in mind, we also recommend that if you have another project you're completing throughout the year in your respective major program, you can see if it could count as your Honors Thesis. This way you might already have your mentor picked out and just need to figure out a reader!  Tip 2: Pick a topic that you’re interested in Your topic does not have to be related to your major – this could be the chance for you to explore an interest in a different discipline or something that has been of interest to you. But please pick a focus that interests you, whether it’s major-related or not because this is a 9-month journey! That's why, despite being a psychology major, Lady Elizabeth chose a topic aligned with sociology and ethnic studies; it was more interesting to her. Natalia chose a topic related to her English major -- one that was an area of interest that she did not get to fully explore during her undergraduate classes.  Tip 3: Schedule multiple meetings with your mentor & reader Please keep in contact with your mentor, as they are a resource to help guide you through your project. Having multiple sessions with your mentor and reader can ensure you stay on track. You can also get more guidance on how you wish to structure your paper (if that’s something you want). Plus this builds a good rapport between your mentor/reader and yourself. Natalia met with her mentor almost weekly to help keep herself accountable and on track. This is a great way to ensure that your project does not feel like too much work at the end of your senior year! Tip 4: Create a timeline – this will be your lifeline This is crucial as the project is more than likely independent, so creating a timeline can be another way of holding yourself accountable. You can use the Google Sheets template (here) to help you set deadlines. Google Calendar is also a great way to help set deadlines. The Assignment Tracker image is a snapshot of Lady Elizabeth's mode of tracking her progress. It was helpful for her to write out when everything needed to be done and mark it off as she went. Whereas for Natalia it was helpful to use Google Calendar and set aside time to work on her project. Tip 5: Visit The HUB! Coming to The HUB can be helpful at any point in your thesis. During the brainstorming stage, speaking with a writing partner can help you talk about your ideas out loud, to create a plan for the road ahead, to gain inspiration, to make ideas more specific, etc. Once you have a draft (partial or full) a writing partner can also provide feedback regarding editing, analysis, grammar, structure/organization, etc. The HUB is a resource that can provide you with any kind of writing help you may need! As of Spring 2024, the HUB Writing Center had 10 writing partners in the Honors program: Faith Fitzpatrick, Jordan Scott, Katy Wolff, Lady Elizabeth Roy, Lindsey Kendall, Lucia Heese, Maddie Vitanza, Natalia Cantu, Rhiannon Briggs, and Thomas Matthew. And they use The HUB too! For example, Lady Elizabeth (who had been a writing partner for the past three years) still uses the writing center occasionally because it's a great resource. For the Honors Senior Thesis project, Lady Elizabeth met with Natalia (the other author of this blog post) to help her further work out the mental blocks she experienced while working on this paper. We hope that this was helpful as you progress on your SCU Honors journey. Happy writing! About the AuthorsLady Elizabeth and Natalia are seniors at Santa Clara University. Lady Elizabeth is a psychology major who has been working at the HUB since Fall 2021. Natalia, an English major with a minor in biology, has been working at the HUB since Fall 2022.
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