For the first time in 21 years, there are two directors in charge of the Honors Program. Professor of history Denny Frey will serve as Director, and senior first-year advisor Vikki Turnquist will serve as Assistant Director.
Honors components are projects that students complete over their four years at the university. Students make projects based on their personal interests. Components are still overseen by a faculty or staff member on campus.
Turnquist served as the Interim Director of the program in the fall semester of 2024, while the former Director, Stephanie Athey, took a sabbatical. Athey has since moved on from the university, leaving at the end of the 2025 academic year. Athey had served in the role of the Honors Program Director since 2004.
Frey and Turnquist both share that they are excited to be at the helm of the Honors Program and the ability to work together.
“Vikki has been an amazing resource for [Lasell] for a very long time. I know Vikki well because of peer mentoring, also advising in HEJSS [Humanities, Education, Justice, and Social Sciences]. I’ve never had the chance to really get into the nitty-gritty of a program with Vikki, and that’s one thing that I’m super excited about because Vikki is just amazing,” Frey said.
“Equally important as working with Vikki is that honors students are the best and brightest students at Lasell. So that’s one thing that I love is just how passionate most honors students are about their own intellectual development and their growth.”
Turnquist shares the same sentiment as Frey, “I’ve always admired Denny, so I, as a faculty member, I’m always in support of him, especially his work with the core curriculum. So now working with him on honors is awesome,” Turnquist said.
In terms of overseeing the Honors Program, Turnquist is looking forward to settling into the role full-time.
“One thing I really enjoy about the Honors Program is just it allows me to work with a wide variety of students,” she said.
Turnquist continues, “Whereas in my advising role, I’m often working with students who are on academic probation, so this kind of gives me the other end of the spectrum. [It] allows me to get out of my office and help run events for students and just get people involved.”
The Honors Program is designed with its students in mind and focuses on ‘passion projects’.
“When I’m talking to students about the Honors Program, I’m really trying to sell it as an individualized approach to the program, and that they get out of it what they put into it, and so finding stuff that they’re really interested in studying is going to make those honors components more beneficial for them even after they graduate,” Turnquist added.
Turnquist and Frey want students who will soon undertake projects like these to know that they are in good hands and that they are not meant to add stress on top of their class schedule. In some cases, students can also do them in conjunction with their classes.
The Honors Program has been the victim of many misconceptions, and one is that being part of it only piles on more work for students.
Many incoming freshmen are alarmed when they see they’ve been added to HON101, and the word honors is often discouraging.
“My response to that is that they’re really just discussion-based classes, and they’re an opportunity,” Turnquist added.
HON101 is just a replacement class for the first-year seminar (FYS).
–Nov. 4, 2025–