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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

BBN Tackles Plastic expands to all UK residence halls

BBN Tackles Plastic, a UK Recycling initiative aimed at reducing campus plastic waste through the collection of plastic bags, has expanded into all University of Kentucky residence halls this fall. The collected plastic bags are donated to Sustainability Future Leaders, an on-campus student organization, where members transform the bags into sleeping mats which are distributed to Lexington’s unhoused population through a partnership with The Hope Center. Honors student Misa DeVries is the director of Sustainability Future Leaders.

The Thrifty Cat event helps nearly 500 attendees reuse residence hall essentials

University of Kentucky students reduced waste during Big Blue Move-In by participating in Thrifty’s Pop-Up, a free thrifting event. Residence hall essentials collected during the 2026 spring semester move-out were made available to students during the event hosted at the Cats Den in the Gatton Student Center. More than 490 attendees participated with 93% of collected items redistributed. “College is such an expensive time for many students, but The Thrifty Cat offers free clothes, residence hall essentials, and a fun and free activity to do with friends,” said Ella Young, a sophomore majoring in marketing in the Gatton College of Business and Economics and also a student in Lewis Honors College.

Making every opportunity count: Ian Mattingly’s UK Invests story

For Lewis Honors College freshman Ian Mattingly, investing isn’t just about today. It’s about building toward the future. Mattingly, of Versailles, Kentucky, came to the University of Kentucky with some experience saving and investing. But through UK Invests, he is gaining firsthand experience managing an investment account of his own and learning more about investment strategies he can carry with him long after college.

Breakfast with Buss!

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Honors After Hours: High Stakes in Sports Betting

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Lewis Scholars Lounge

420 Hilltop Ave, Lexington, KY

Education Abroad Panel

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Lewis Scholars Lounge

420 Hilltop Ave, Lexington, KY

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