Courses

Honors 101

This course is an introduction to Honors, which consists of a series of weekly modules on the Honors curriculum and how to excel in the Honors College. Students explore opportunities, Experiences, and resources as they relate to their personal, academic, and professional goals. This is a 0 SCH course. Honors 101 is required in the first semester of joining Honors is and at no cost.

CITYMSTER: City Solutions

This interdisciplinary seminar delves into a wide range of social and behavioral science topics, critically examining the root causes of social issues. In this hands-on course, students will engage in service learning and community service projects that lead to significant service initiatives. These projects will explore our roles in the Active Citizen Continuum and are expected to demonstrate substantial skill and effort, aiming to create a measurable and impactful social change beyond mere volunteerism.

HON Sem: Migration & Human Dev

This course will examine the relationship between international migration and human development. With a foreign-born population of almost 50 million, the United States is the country with the largest immigrant population in the world. Recent political events have brought a great deal of anti-immigrant rhetoric and attention to the negative impacts of immigration on the quality of life in this country. At the end of this course, the student will be knowledgeable of the historical context of U.S. immigration, understand the importance of human development as a concept and policy tool, and critically review empirical studies on the impact of immigration on the welfare of U.S. society. Students will learn from readings, lectures, documentaries, and class discussions.

HON Sem: Natl Parks

Global Research Pathways: The German Experience

Pipeline to Research in Germany is a five-week summer study abroad program for UTSA undergraduate students interested in STEM, research, and global learning. The program includes international travel to Germany (June 6–17) and pre- and post-travel coursework that prepares students for the experience. Students visit leading research institutions such as TU Darmstadt, Heidelberg University, and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, where they interact with faculty and explore active research environments. Cultural activities, including visits to historic sites like Heidelberg Castle, provide meaningful immersion. The program helps students build research interests, global awareness, and preparation for future opportunities such as DAAD RISE, Fulbright Germany, and graduate study.

CITYMSTER: City Skills

City Skills is the internship component of Citymester. Placements are based on student career interests with current partners. Through the internships, students and community partners work together to strengthen our local businesses and institutions. https://honors.UT San Antonio.edu/programs/UT San Antonio-citymester/

Honors Intellectual Achievement and Research

This unique program invites you to compare the impacts associated with food, clothing, and energy use in the U.S and Europe with fellow students in experiential larning projects designed to help the world achieve UNESCO sustainability goals.

HonEngLvg: Cost Rica

Meet a red-eyed tree frog, a blue morpho butterfly, and a blooming a bird of paradise. Learn and practice sustainable farming and yoga in the tropical rainforest! Our ten-day international experience (August 11-20) gives students the opportunity to learn and practice intentional and sustainable living on a working agro-ecological ranch on Lake Arenal, Costa Rica. Our destination is Rancho Margot: www.ranchomargot.com, where students will be hands-on with the biodiversity of the rainforest, renewable energy systems in practice, and mind-body experiential learning. The goal of the course is to immerse students in different approaches of what it means to live intentionally and sustainably in local and global communities. We will return to San Antonio just in time for the start of Fall classes, reconvening for the first Saturday afternoon each month of the semester to explore sustainability, mindfulness, and other kinds of intentional living in San Antonio. These afternoons have taken us to events, organizations, and places like Siclovia, Compassionate San Antonio, Confluence park, Gardopia Gardens, and Yoga in the Park. Subsidy by Honors College and the Alvarez International Study Fund means that the program cost of just $500 is inclusive of air fare, in-country travel, lodging, and meals.

Global Sustainability: One Molecule at a Time

This unique program invites you to compare the impacts associated with food, clothing, and energy use in the U.S and Europe with fellow students in experiential larning projects designed to help the world achieve UNESCO sustainability goals.

CITYMSTER: San Antonio Seminar

Explore San Antonio and new urbanism is new and exciting ways. Learn directly from city leaders in various industries, critically examine some of the major issues facing the region, and explore several of the area’s most engaging sites. Become San Antonio savvy; learn the area, network with local officials, and develop urban living skills. See: https://honors.UT San Antonio.edu/programs/UT San Antonio-citymester/

HON AIS: Global Community

While all Academic Introduction and Strategies courses seek to orient first-year colleges students to university life and their fields of study, this course goes further by examining academic debates surrounding the consequences of globalization, from culture, to the economy, to global politics, and ending with a look at enduring global challenges, such as climate change. Far from being of purely academic interest, globalization is a key part of the political, economic, and social struggles that determine what kind of world we live in, and this course serves as a starting point for understanding these challenges.

Academic Intro & Strategies

Academic Intro & Strategies

Korean Culture Through Film(H)

How Internet is changing Lang.

Never before has language changed at such a dizzying pace than in the age of the internet, with new slang and jargon emerging each day alongside innovative uses of punctuation and emojis. The feverish speed of this change provides a fascinating laboratory for the study of language variation, which will serve as the focus of this class. Throughout the semester, students will analyze the patterns that govern linguistic forms on the internet and compare online language to the way we speak and behave irl. By the end of the class, students are able to explain general principles and terms related to language variation and change online and irl; analyze the relationship among variation, social factors (class, race, gender, region, etc.), and stance; connect scholarship on variation and change to society, popular culture, and their own life; and demonstrate expertise in an area of personal interest related to internet language.

Practical Ital: Lang & Culture 

German Daily Culture 1 

Experiential learning component: To experience the holiday topic first-hand, students would attend Wurstfest in New Braunfels (November) and a traditional German Christmas market in Fredericksburg (December). Alternatively, students can conduct interviews with people currently living in Germany about course topics (holidays, clothing, housing, and housework) and incorporate their findings into class presentations.

The Human Story 

The Human Story: History, Politics, Philosophy, and More" features faculty across COLFA sharing how their disciplines analyze stories and storytelling. Available to COLFA Honors Program students only. If you are a COLFA major, email andrew.chapman2@utsa.edu for details.

Principles of Accounting I 

Introductory Microeconomics

Honors 101

This course is an introduction to Honors, which consists of a series of weekly modules on the Honors curriculum and how to excel in the Honors College. Students explore opportunities, Experiences, and resources as they relate to their personal, academic, and professional goals. This is a 0 SCH course. Honors 101 is required in the first semester of joining Honors is and at no cost.

Honors 101

This course is an introduction to Honors, which consists of a series of weekly modules on the Honors curriculum and how to excel in the Honors College. Students explore opportunities, Experiences, and resources as they relate to their personal, academic, and professional goals. This is a 0 SCH course. Honors 101 is required in the first semester of joining Honors is and at no cost.

Honors 101

This course is an introduction to Honors, which consists of a series of weekly modules on the Honors curriculum and how to excel in the Honors College. Students explore opportunities, Experiences, and resources as they relate to their personal, academic, and professional goals. This is a 0 SCH course. Honors 101 is required in the first semester of joining Honors is and at no cost.

Honors 101

This course is an introduction to Honors, which consists of a series of weekly modules on the Honors curriculum and how to excel in the Honors College. Students explore opportunities, Experiences, and resources as they relate to their personal, academic, and professional goals. This is a 0 SCH course. Honors 101 is required in the first semester of joining Honors is and at no cost.

Special Scholars Seminar F'26

Civic Ethos

A weekly, one-hour course that covers different approaches, philosophies and ethics to civic engagement. This course introduces the primary ethos of the UTSA Honors College curriculum. Classes in the A section are offered during the first 8 weeks of the semester while B section classes are offered in the second 8 weeks. This is a 1 SCH course. This course counts as the Civic Ethos requirement in the Honors College curriculum.

Civic Ethos

A weekly, one-hour course that covers different approaches, philosophies and ethics to civic engagement. This course introduces the primary ethos of the UTSA Honors College curriculum. Classes in the A section are offered during the first 8 weeks of the semester while B section classes are offered in the second 8 weeks. This is a 1 SCH course. This course counts as the Civic Ethos requirement in the Honors College curriculum.

Civic Ethos

A weekly, one-hour course that covers different approaches, philosophies and ethics to civic engagement. This course introduces the primary ethos of the UTSA Honors College curriculum. Classes in the A section are offered during the first 8 weeks of the semester while B section classes are offered in the second 8 weeks. This is a 1 SCH course. This course counts as the Civic Ethos requirement in the Honors College curriculum.

Calculus for the Biosciences

Employers today want students who can do far more than just master classroom material. Imagine enrolling in a Calculus course and leave with a portfolio of interdisciplinary skills and experiences. Not only will you gain a solid foundation in mathematics, but you will also learn how to apply technology in practical ways, such as building professional webpages using tools like Adobe Express. Alongside technical growth, you will develop crucial soft skills, including effective communication, collaboration with peers, and the ability to present ideas clearly.

Elementary Russian I

Freshman Composition II

Freshman Composition II

Bus Model Optimization

Found Bus Career Readiness

Found Bus Career Readiness

Migration Democ. & Am Exper.

From a variety of perspectives, this course will analyze the foundational principles of democracy and its intersection with migration, citizenship, and belonging. Students will explore these concepts by analyzing the origin of democracy and migration patterns throughout World and American History. This seminar will explore the themes of freedom and citizenship in ancient, early modern, and contemporary texts, including ancient Greek writings, 17th and 18th century texts in the Anglo-American tradition, and 19th and 20th century texts that bring the issues of earlier works into contemporary American context. Students will then apply this knowledge as they evaluate current policies and their relationship to government, freedom, and democracy.

Global Perspective in Community Art  

Research Rooted in Place

Socially Sustainable Public Spaces

In Socially Sustainable Public Spaces adapts an interdisciplinary lens to explore the creation of socially-sustainable urban public spaces around the globe. We begin by questioning whether the concern for the social sustainability of cities is anything new. Through a critical historical and contemporary review of the ways in which the concept of social sustainability has been developed and practiced in international contexts, we identify and appreciate various relations to making socially-sustainable cities and community-powered public spaces. We experience public spaces first hand – in San Antonio, San Marcos, and Austin. Relying on our own lived-experiences and the theoretical framework learned in this class, together, we explore, examine, and evaluate the fundamental elements that bring such places to life and equip people to fuel lasting change.

Great Demographic Shift.

Power, Identity, & Naming

Have you ever wondered how and why parents decide on particular names? Do you know the story behind your own name? Selecting a name for a child represents an important symbolic and cultural decision. Naming babies is a social practice that occurs regardless of parents’ class, ethnic, racial, gender, and religious background, or where they live in the world. However, how names are chosen, and the meaning of names are deeply informed by social and cultural norms. Names also have consequences. As social labels, names serve as identity markers that influence how their bearers are perceived and treated. In this course, we will explore core topics in sociology - power, culture, gender, class, race/ethnicity, family, politics, and inequality – through the lens of naming.

HON Sem: Peace & Justice

How can peace and justice be most effectively pursued both personally and communally? Is peace primarily the absence of conflict or something more? To what extent is justice a process, an outcome, or an objective standard? By studying approaches to conflict transformation, restorative justice, and transformative justice, students will explore models for pursuing peace and justice in situations of conflict and in the aftermath of severe harms. Students will participate in a learning exchange with students at Dominguez State Jail as part of the UTSA Philosophy and Literature Circle. This course counts as an Interdisciplinary Seminar Experience in the Honors College curriculum.

Grimdark

Biomedical Ethics

HonSem: Medical Gross Anatomy

Imagine caressing a human femur in your hand and examining the delicate bony prominences where human flesh once anchored a human being’s movements. Gross Anatomy examines the form and function of the human body at a macroscopic level. This course offers a uniquely immersive opportunity for students to appreciate the human body, replete with state-of-the-art technologies, including virtual reality that offers a fascinating 3D perspective of the human body’s anatomical architecture. The gross anatomy lessons will be buttressed with guest practicing physicians who will assess the anatomical skill level of the students, nephrology nurses, who will humanize the growing chronic kidney disease epidemic, which will reinforce the lessons in renal anatomy, mortuary science professionals, that will present a unique embalming perspective that will highlight the different tissues of the human body, and medical ethicists that will discuss the timeless value of the altruistic acts of those who have donated their bodies for the furtherance of medical knowledge to truly appreciate the meaning of the words Mortui Vivos Docent. Enrollment requires faculty approval. Email Dr. Hernandez (hector.hernandez@utsa.edu) to request approval

Paradigm shifts in modern science

Have you ever wondered about the nature of consciousness? Exactly what is it? Is it something only humans possess? Or do all living beings have it? Perhaps just some? Maybe you believe your dog is just a ‘little conscious’. (After all, he knows what you’re thinking). If this is true then maybe consciousness is a sort of graded phenomenon, as on a continuum rather than all-or-none. Whatever it is and whoever has it, there remains the mystery as to how it arises. Western biology assumes that consciousness is an emergent property arising from a sufficiently evolved central nervous system. It ‘resides’ in your brain. Matter gives rise to mind. But this is not at all a foregone conclusion in much of the rest of the world which holds quite the contrary view, that consciousness is primary. That is, consciousness exists prior to the material world. In this view, consciousness is the ground state from which all matter arises. Even within Western science, such an idea was debated following the bizzare observations made from within a newly developed physics of the quantum realm. In fact, this debate persists. Such questions and ideas are explored in this course. While it will not offer up many definitive answers, it promises to be an exciting journey into this ultimate of mysteries.

HonSem:Intro To Clinical Med

Mankind has endured human diseases for thousands of year. However, the past 100 years have brought on an explosion in our understanding of the mechanisms of human diseases fostered by revolutionary techniques such as molecular biology, clinical imaging, and gene therapy, and we have found many new ways to treat them. This honors course is designed as an introduction for students interested in human health into the world of clinical medicine and the pathology of important human diseases. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about basic pathological mechanisms of human diseases at the level of the cells, organs, and organ systems, and how to recognize these diseases and current treatments. Requirements for this course are a sharp mind, compassion, and willingness for active participation. It may just happen that after this course you may want to become a health care worker or a clinical researcher.

Making The Leap

Students develop a career portfolio, do a Group Mock Interview, attend career events, and complete informational interviews with professionals in their field. A portion of the course would be devoted to skill building for success once they've been hired: research, writing, communications, workplace conflict resolution, etc. I would likely develop a community based research option for the experiential component.

HONIntAch:StorytellingForLife

We are utterly shaped by the stories we hear, and the stories we tell. It has been said that while there have been great societies that did not use the wheel, there have been no societies that did not tell stories. During the semester we will explore stories at UTSA from students, faculty and staff as way to study the human experience, cultivate empathy, actualize identity, preserve history, provide social testimony, encourage social responsibility, and generate knowledge through engaging and sharing narrative. Special emphasis will be given to cultivating the skills of interviewing, transcription, script writing/creative writing, editing, and storytelling in the oral tradition. The final project for this course will be live performances of the students’ original creative work, engaging with a local elementary school. No prior experience necessary.

Observing the Hill Country’s Ancient Past  

Orality and Literacy: Creating Mind, Identity and Voice That Communicates in Global World

This course involves application of theory that can be used to build persuasive communication. The class will prepare students for talk and writing that will influence many fields of study—business majors, economics, medical, law, architecture, and the arts and humanities, too. Class sessions will include practical information that can be used in experiential learning during class time and on the job. It will make you competitive in the work world. Questions to be addressed: How is talk different than writing a message? When should you use one over the other? What changes when one moves from speaking to writing information? What are the potential effects on an audience? What are the benefits of multi-modal communication? Visual (with gestures and art) Verbal (oral presentation), Written (on Computer)? Do different communities use these modes differently and how can one adapt to a new community? How does one analyze and interpret AI in your field? Each student will have an opportunity to practice and examine the oral and written by way of a field of interest. A course like this has not been offered before. Seize the opportunity! nature of Oral and Written Language Development, research studies that support their claims and evidence for their assumptions and propositions. This course offers a unique apprenticeship experience, where students actively engage in research, record observations, and present their findings both orally and in writing. By bridging theory and practice, students will develop a deeper understanding of the role of language in shaping knowledge, identity, and communication across disciplines.

HonCultExpl: Sex,Gender & Repr

What is culture? Who "belongs" in U.S. culture? Who does not? How do you know? In No Shame, students will examine how cultural attitudes toward sex, gender and race are made visible through advertisement, comic books, television and film, and other mediums. We will also investigate how those manifestations create and affirm social expectations of behavior and identity and how groups outside of those expectations historically create cultures of their own. Topics include, but are not limited to consent, Hip-Hop, ideas of God, the "Cult of Domesticity", Drag, and intersections in between.

HonEngLvg:Day of the Dead

Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is not Halloween. It’s a lavish multi-day celebration of remembrance to honor loved ones who have passed. This course will use the study of Dia de Los Muertos/Dia de Muertos to explore cultural and psychological themes of grieving and remembrance customs as well as the commodification and commercialization of tradition. Interactive course materials include videos, movies, online courses and readings, site visits, guest speakers, and a class creation of an exhibit for the university and San Antonio community. This course does not have prerequisites, and is open to all majors.

Born to Run: The Science, Art, and Practice of Running 26.2

Study of the art, history, and science of long distance running while engaging with the UTSA and San Antonio Running community as we prepare to run together the 2026 San Antonio Marathon.

Politics and Policies of San Antonio and South Texas

Fermentation Chemistry: From Wine to Pizza

Introduction to Nonprofit Agencies

0 of 10 Honors, 34 of 55 Total

Effective Messaging Pub Hlth 

Reviews the basic concepts of public health- specific communication, including technical and professional writing and how to leverage the use of mass media and other emerging technologies. Students in this course will define public health, analye messaging failures, explore branding, engage in social media messaging, present and defend public health messages, and learn from media experts. Students will leverage tools like ChatGPT for message refinement, R Studio for data visualization, and Notebook LM for AI-driven content creation.

Mexican American Foodways

This course will introduce students to the study of Mexican American foodways through theoretical concepts and methodologies in Chicanx Studies, Latinx Studies, Indigenous Studies, and Food Studies. Readings, lectures, films, group discussions, archival research, active class participation, and cultural events are central features of this couse.

Intro:Org Theory, Behav & Mgmt 

Intro:Org Theory, Behav & Mgmt

Essntl Skills Public Service

Power, Identity, & Naming

Have you ever wondered how and why parents decide on particular names? Do you know the story behind your own name? Selecting a name for a child represents an important symbolic and cultural decision. Naming babies is a social practice that occurs regardless of parents’ class, ethnic, racial, gender, and religious background, or where they live in the world. However, how names are chosen, and the meaning of names are deeply informed by social and cultural norms. Names also have consequences. As social labels, names serve as identity markers that influence how their bearers are perceived and treated. In this course, we will explore core topics in sociology - power, culture, gender, class, race/ethnicity, family, politics, and inequality – through the lens of naming.

Great Demographic Shift

Cook.Eat.Write.Repeat. (HON)

Why spend time watching cooking shows when you can create your own cooking experiences? "Cook. Eat. Write. Repeat." (WRC 4123) provides the setting for you and your fellow chefs (read: classmates) to plan the menu, kitchen-test the recipes in the UTSA Rec Center Demo Kitchen, and then write, design, and produce a customized cookbook. And then there's the 15 minutes of fame as you star in your own cooking segment hosted by The Paisano's YouTube channel. You may not be able to create culinary masterpieces, but you'll create a semester of memorable cooking and writing experiences. Bon appetit! This course counts as a Skill Development Experience.