Giving our students access to the best academic experiences, enhancing and expanding those opportunities, and helping them take advantage of them are at the core of all we do at the Honors College.
Most of our students’ academic experiences are delivered through the incredible resources of Rutgers University as a whole, as our schools and research centers provide them with classes and research opportunities with our world-renowned faculty. The Honors College enhances these resources through dedicated research funding, co-curricular initiatives, our faculty fellows program, and our own integrated curriculum focusing on social innovation and interdisciplinary thinking. Among other priorities, funds donated will support the following academic programs.
Summer Research Opportunities
Honors College students choose Rutgers in part because of the vast and rich research opportunities available from the very start of their college careers. Each summer, rising Honors College sophomores participate in the Aresty Research Center’s Summer Science Program, an intensive, full-time, on-campus research experience for rising sophomores only. With this opportunity, Rutgers Honors College students engage in the process of inquiry that develops through experiential learning and the creation of new knowledge.
Through Aresty, students are matched with faculty mentors from a diverse array of scientific disciplines to learn about the process of research by working in the lab and by participating in library workshops, seminars, and trips to local industry and medical research laboratories. Summer Science experiences have led many to greater involvement in research opportunities, allowing them to build on professional practice.
Innovation Lab Course and Makerspace
The Honors College Mission Course, the Forum, challenges first-year students to develop projects designed to address societal issues that could also become sustainable, profitable ventures. Of the 100+ ideas pitched in the Forum each year, six advance to become the focus for hands-on development in the Innovation Lab Course, which takes place in our Makerspace, during their sophomore year.
Faculty Fellows Program
Alongside the 500 first-year students at the Honors College, live Faculty Fellows. Fellows dedicate time outside their full teaching and departmental schedules to provide our students with weekly social and academic programming. They offer personal opportunities and close professional connections for honors scholars beyond the classroom—dinners with guests, living room chats, design and project workshops. They teach, mentor, advise, and enrich the day-to-day experience of students.