Lewis Honors College

Plan Your Visit Class of 2030 Information

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.

Savannah King with her Honors Thesis Showcase poster

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.

Jacqueline Coleman, Christian Brady, Laura Bryan, Conner Brumley

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 '25

NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, Astronaut Scholar

Maddie Duff waving with other graduating students walking

Why Honors?

Honors Residential Experience

Tamika Tompoulidis with student during EXPO

Center for Personal Development

Internship, Research, Education Abroad, Service-Learning Opportunities

Dr. Kenton Sena with HON 152 students outdoors

Dedicated Honors Faculty

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News and Events

Students launch UK’s 3rd edition of undergrad research journal

By Haven L. Patrick

May 22, 2026

Undergraduate students at the University of Kentucky who participate in research under the guidance of faculty mentors have the opportunity to publish and broadly share the outcomes of their work and collaborative experiences. The third edition of Aperture Journal of Undergraduate Research (AJUR) is now available and highlights the projects of 15 student-professor partnerships.

Could a dementia drug help treat alcohol withdrawal? UK researchers explore possibility

By Hillary Smith

May 21, 2026

A new study from researchers at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging is exploring whether a drug originally developed to combat neuroinflammation in dementia could also help reduce the harmful brain inflammation associated with alcohol withdrawal — a discovery that could eventually open new treatment pathways for alcohol use disorder.

UK student 1 of 65 nationally to receive Udall Scholarship

By Tom Musgrave

May 18, 2026

AJ Hopkins, a rising senior natural resources and environmental science major and Lewis Honors College student, was awarded the Udall Undergraduate Scholarship.

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