Skip to main
University-wide Navigation

Overview

The University of Kentucky Lewis Honors College provides an enhanced course of instruction for outstanding, highly motivated students from all programs of study. Honors education is, at its heart, a liberal arts education that, coupled with the resources available at the major research land-grant University of Kentucky, make Lewis Honors College a unique experience. Regardless of major, the fundamental goal of Honors education is to provide all students with a broad, critical intellectual base from which they can then engage more deeply and thoughtfully in their chosen fields while prioritizing their health and well-being.

The mission of the Lewis Honors College is to better the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the world by helping students to explore their purpose, develop intellectually, and lead with integrity.

Honors students, made up of people with different backgrounds and experiences, are innovative, intellectually engaged, and interested in creative thought. They are expected to be citizens of their University and their world and to possess an inquisitive attitude toward a wide range of ideas and intellectual concepts.

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.

Gaines Center now accepting fellowship applications

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities is now accepting applications for the 2026-28 cohort of Gaines Fellows, one of the university’s most prestigious undergraduate opportunities for academic enrichment, leadership and community engagement.

Patagonia’s chief storyteller comes to campus Nov. 6

This week, the University of Kentucky will host Vincent Stanley, Patagonia’s director of philosophy and resident fellow at the Yale Center for Business and Environment, 12:30-1:45 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, in the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall.

Ideas That Matter: Nonprofit Innovation

-

Lewis Scholars Lounge

420 Hilltop Ave, Lexington, KY

Donuts and Fruit with the Dean

-

Lewis Scholars Lounge

420 Hilltop Ave, Lexington, KY

UK College of Medicine Tour and Discussion

-

UK College of Medicine

780 Rose St MN 150, Lexington, KY 40506

Blue Outline Checkerboard

T.W. Lewis

Thomas W. Lewis is a seventh-generation Kentuckian who grew up in Lexington. He graduated from Bryan Station High School in 1967 and the University of Kentucky in 1971 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He received his Master’s in Business Administration in 1973 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Tom began his career in real estate development. After 18 years with four different companies and building upon those experiences, he started his own home building business in 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona. T. W. Lewis Company built approximately 250 homes per year from 1991 through 2011 and received many awards during this period, including America’s Best Builder in 1998 and the National Housing Quality Gold Award in 2009. 

In 2001, Tom and his wife, Jan, formed T.W. Lewis Foundation to support higher education, children and families in need, youth education and a variety of community nonprofit organizations. In 2015, in order to give back to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Tom and Jan made a generous gift to the University of Kentucky to establish the Lewis Honors College. 

Mr. Lewis’ vision for the Lewis Honors College is to provide a world-class Honors experience that is known for the success of its students, the quality of its faculty and curriculum, the respect of its peers and the economic and social progress of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

Tom Lewis