Information Systems Professor Carolyn Matheus Takes Over Honors

The newly-appointed Honors Program director on her goals for the Program and what the position means to her.

Carolyn Matheus, Marist associate professor of information systems and newly appointed Honors Program Director. Source: Carolyn Matheus

“To be the Honors director, of course you need to have leadership skills; but you also need to enjoy being on the ground with students, having relationships with them and wanting to help guide and care for their growth at Marist,” Dr. Carolyn Matheus said. “The position kind of just suited me.”

The Honors Program at Marist College is an academic community for students across all majors to participate in challenging interdisciplinary courses and conduct one-on-one student-faculty research projects. Directors of the Honors Program are selected to serve a three-year term with the responsibility of supporting the students in developing both their scholastic and leadership skills. With a career at Marist as an information systems professor that spans over a decade, Dr. Carolyn Matheus was recently appointed to the position.

Striving to bring a strong sense of leadership, vision, and enthusiasm to the program, Matheus is determined to focus her efforts on building connections with students — from the day they arrive to the day they graduate. 

“For me, Honors director represents the fullest expression of what it means to be a faculty member at Marist,” Dr. James Snyder said, who previously held the position for over five years. “The director is tasked with mentoring students, and providing opportunities for them to grow and learn both in and outside of the classroom. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a better Honors Director [than Matheus].” 

Student-faculty research is the most significant draw for students to get involved in the program. Matheus has centered her focus on this type of research throughout her entire teaching career. “I’ve been doing faculty-student research since my second year teaching here. I had one student who came in and was interested in research, and then I just got into a groove with it,” she said. Last semester alone, she completed 14 individual research projects with students, both in the Honors Program and within her discipline.

“I spend way more time working on research with students, travelling to conferences and presenting our work than I do teaching,” Matheus said. “That’s been the biggest part of what I do for the past five years.” 

A desire to foster education, scholarship and success of students is at the core of the position. Teaching has always been Matheus’s calling, but for her, interacting closely with students is more important than just lecturing in a classroom. “Everybody who’s in the Honors Program is really motivated to do well and to achieve and to be successful. They want to do research, and they want to come to the classes,” she said. “I was just excited to get more involved.”

As an alumna, Matheus was a Marist student with the same drive as the ones she now mentors. During her undergraduate studies, Matheus condensed her five-year psychology master’s degree program into four years. The program was truly a six-year program originally condensed into five. After Marist, she completed a business-focused PhD at SUNY Albany by conducting research on technology. Now, she spends her free time reading World War II historical fiction and designing houses (two of which she has now completed, one on a mountain in California). 

In addition to the day-to-day oversight of the program, Matheus has a vision for the future. “She looked into every corner of the program, and she made precise recommendations about the directions in which we could take it,” Snyder said. “I have never seen someone so prepared for the position.” 

Matheus plans on creating a peer-to-peer network that connects underclassmen with upperclassmen, and upperclassmen with alumni. She is also participating in the Marist College Diversity Leadership Institute (MCDLI), launched this past June, to firmly implement diversity and inclusion initiatives into the Honors Mission. “They’re there, but I don’t want them to just be there in words, I want them to be actions,” Matheus said. 

While this position is an opportunity to encourage and foster students in their academic careers, it’s a new, educational experience for Matheus, too. “I look at it as a learning experience in getting to know Marist more deeply. I’m learning a lot.”