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By the Numbers

100% Experiential Education Participation

96% First-Year Retention Rate

90% Employment or Graduate/Professional School

Mission in Action

Explore Your Purpose

Honors advisors and the Center for Personal Development counselors partner with students in their exploration of purpose to cultivate well-being, leadership, and career readiness.

Develop Intellectually

Honors at Kentucky has a long and proud history, dating back to 1959, and thousands of students have passed through our program, exploring themselves and the boundaries of thought with outstanding faculty.

Lead With Integrity

Providing leadership development opportunities enables students to fulfill their experiential credit while bolstering lifelong skills to apply as a graduate student or employee.

The Honors classes I took my freshman year exposed me to ideas that I would not have otherwise thought deeply about. The topics we discussed have allowed me to engage with current events and the social sciences more than I would have been able to otherwise.

Asa O'Neal
Asa O'Neal '25
NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, Astronaut Scholar
Asa O'Neal

News and Events

Exceeding interest and enrollment expectations

Purpose. Intellect. Integrity. These are the primary attributes that the second-largest class of incoming first-time first-year students will have the unique opportunity to develop as part of the University of Kentucky Lewis Honors College. Preliminary enrollment numbers indicate that this year’s cohort will be the most distinguished, well-rounded, and academically prepared group of scholars in Lewis Honors College history.

Advancing undergraduate research through the Chellgren Endowed Professorship: Robin Cooper

The Chellgren Endowed Professorship gave Cooper the runway to amplify that spirit of inquiry, transforming his classroom and lab into even more powerful spaces where undergraduates could test ideas, take intellectual risks and share their discoveries on the national stage. One such student is Katie Neglia, a 2025 Chellgren Student Fellow and health sciences major in the Lewis Honors College.

UK launches campus-wide Leadership Development Collaborative for 2025-26

The University of Kentucky Leadership Development Collaborative (LDC) kicked off the academic year by bringing together 37 faculty and staff from 15 colleges and units to explore ways to share leadership initiatives across campus on Sept. 8.

Ideas That Matter: The Future of Earth and AI

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Lewis Scholars Lounge

420 Hilltop Ave, Lexington, KY

Industry Crosswalk: Keeneland Visit

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Keeneland

4201 Versailles Road Lexington, Kentucky 40510

Help Plant a Pollinator Garden

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Lewis Honors College Courtyard

420 Hilltop Avenue

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