Each Fall, the University Honors Program welcomes the incoming first-year class in a required four-day intellectual and social convocation event called Honors Summit. Summit provides our first years with their first taste of what it means to be an LMU Honors student, and includes opportunities to meet the members of their cohort, be mentored by upperclassmen, participate in service activities, engage in intellectual discussions, and more!
What to Expect
Programming for Summit begins early in the evening on the Monday prior to the first day of classes, and continues through noon on Thursday, ending before LMU’s regular orientation activities begin. A more detailed schedule will be emailed to you in mid-August, so please continue to check your Lion email account over the summer.
Plan to arrive on campus on Monday, August 17, 2026. Move in is handled by the Student Housing Office; we will notify you of check-in hours by email (we’ll use your LMU Lion email accounts). In the past, check-in has been open from 9 a.m. – 7 p.m., but we encourage you to start moving in by 1 or 2 p.m. at the latest, so that you’re ready to get together with the community for an informal early dinner early Monday evening (usually at 4 or 4:30 p.m).
Meals will be provided for you as part of Summit beginning with dinner on the Monday, and concluding with breakfast on Thursday. However, if you want to stock your rooms with snacks, there are grocery stores within walking distance.
The location for Summit activities will range from LMU into neighboring Los Angeles communities. Various modes of transportation will be involved including walking, carpools, LMU transit vans, and public transportation. Casual attire is recommended. Please be prepared for moving about in whatever way works best for you—if we can help with accessibility, please let us know. LA weather can vary from morning to evening, especially near the beach, so layers are advised.
As part of Summit, we will have a Day of Service, where groups of students are assigned to designated areas of Los Angeles in order to perform a service for their local community. Previous service placements have included making harm reduction kits with The People Concern, cleaning up the beach with Heal the Bay, doing environmental restoration with the Friends of Ballona Wetlands, and more. More information on this activity will be provided in the Summit Information emails over the summer.
Another thing to look out for is the Honors Summit T-Shirt Competition! We have a tradition of creating cohort-specific Honors t-shirts designed by members of the incoming class. So, we’re asking for all the creative types out there to help by submitting a design for a new Honors t-shirt. After we collect the designs, we’ll ask you all to vote for your favorite designs to select a finalist. This shirt will be given to all first-year Honors students, staff, some faculty, and as gifts during Honors events. Look out for more information about the competition in the informational emails.
Every Honors student is required to attend Honors Summit, and so, if you have any conflict at all or expect not to be able to attend Summit in its entirety, please reach out to our Assistant Director at Alex.Esposito@lmu.edu as soon as possible.
Approximate Timeline
- end of May - Roommate Mix and Mingle
- early June - first Summit info email sent out
- late June - second Summit info email sent with summit details and agenda
- mid-July - T-Shirt Competition Voting sent out
- early August - final Summit info email sent out
- August 24, 2026 - Move In Day
- August 24, 4-6pm - Summit Social
- August 25, 8am - 6pm - Summit Day 1
- August 26, 7am-7pm - Summit Day 2
- August 26, 8pm - 10pm - optional social event
- August 27, 8am - 12pm - Summit Day 3
FAQs
We've addressed some of the most frequently asked questions about Summit below. Have a question that's not on the list? Let us know and we'd be happy to address it.
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Summit is a program for Honors students to begin their integration into the incoming cohort and into the Program itself, so your parents won’t be able to join you for any of the scheduled programming. Plan on being busy with Summit activities from Monday at about 4:00 p.m. until noon on Thursday. While there may be a little time here and there for you to connect with your family members if they’ve traveled to LA with you, they will have to sight-see without you until Summit ends!
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There is no cost to you to attend Summit. Food and transportation for Summit activities will be covered by the University Honors Program. There will be a few excursions over the four days, so you may want to bring some spending money for incidentals.
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Yes! Honors provides early move in for all incoming students in the program so that they can participate in Summit. Sometimes, this is not reflected in the Housing Portal until mid-August, so do not be alarmed if you don’t see it updated early in summer.
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Yes! Summit attendance is required for all incoming Honors students. However, if extenuating circumstances prevent your attendance, please contact our Assistant Director at Alex.Esposito@lmu.edu as soon as possible.
If you have any further questions that are not answered in this FAQ section, please reach out to our Assistant Director, Dr Alex Esposito at Alex.Esposito@lmu.edu.