Honors College

Take Learning to a Higher level

While all students are urged to take an active role in their education, Honors College students lead the way. They aren’t satisfied with high GPAs — they are driven to know the whys and hows and strive to make the world a better place.

HONORS BENEFITSSupport Honors

Current Students

Approximately 1,200 FGCU students call the Honors College home. We have student representatives from each academic degree program.

About Honors

The Honors College is a community of dedicated and diverse students, faculty and staff.

Future Students

Whether you are an incoming freshman, a current FGCU student, or a transfer student, the Honors College welcomes you to join our community of dedicated and high-achieving students.

TUNE IN TO WINGSPAN: THE HONORS COLLEGE PODCAST OUR STUDENTS STUDY, RESEARCH, AND SERVE ABROAD

Honors College Spotlight

Honors Students Josie Lorea and Kea Kamiya were honored at the 2022 National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) Conference in Dallas. Congratulations to Josie, Kea, and all of the FGCU faculty and staff that have supported them!

A senior majoring in Biology at the Honors College at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) hailing from Charleston, West Virginia, Josie was named the 2022 NCHC Student of the Year, the highest honor that NCHC can confer on an honors student. Josie succeeded Katey Ryan, the 2021 NCHC Student of the Year, who graduated from the FGCU Honors College in May 2022.

A senior majoring in English and Art at the FGCU Honors College hailing from Bradenton, Florida, Kea was named a 2022 NCHC Portz Scholar for having written the best paper/senior thesis/honors thesis in the category of Arts and Humanities in the 2021-2022 academic year. With the other three 2022 NCHC Portz Scholars (in the categories of Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, etc.), Kea presented her work at a special session at the conference.

Kea Kamiya and Josie Lorea at NCHC
Kea Kamiya (L) and Josie Lorea (R) with Dr. Minh Nguyen, Interim Dean of the Honors College at FGCU

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Honors in the News

Alex Marsh

A trek through the Amazon

Honors student, Alex Marsh, has turned a three day study into a multilayer project, thanks in part to funding from FGCU's Honors College and other supporters. (Article: Kyle McCurry, FGCU 360/Photo: Matt Metcalf)

Jack Hellmer holding phone displaying screen of the app he is building

Entrepreneurship major develops app to help students manage stress

Honors student Jack Hellmer is working with Dr. Brunner, Director of FGCU's Counseling and Psychological Services, and Dr. Sandra Kauanui, Director of the Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship, as part of the Runway Program to build an app to help his peers access CAPS services. (Article: Tyler Watkins, FGCU 360/Photo: James Greco)

Fabiana Solano shows a jarful of glitter pulled from under the Merwin Hall boardwalk. Photos: James Greco/FGCU

Honors College Alum urges #DONTgLITTER

Solano, 21, who spent her undergraduate years as a highly visible Honors College student around campus working in projects with University Marketing & Communications, was connected with Chad Evers as her supervisor on the anti-glitter project by the instructor in her own University Colloquium class, Jessica Marcolini. (Article: Keith Gibson, FGCU 360/Photo: James Greco)

Cortney VanLiew

Volleyball star killing it at net and in classroom

Junior Honors Student star Cortney VanLiew is excelling in the classroom and on the court. “When your best players are the hardest working people in the gym, that’s when you have good things happen,” Botsford said VanLiew, who also is an honorable mention All-American, 3.9 GPA accounting major and president of the FGCU Eagles Council student-athlete advisory committee." (Article: Seth Soffian, FGCU 360/Photo: Brad Young)

Kambak and Honigfort

Water-Energy-Food project harnesses the power of trash

Multiple Honors students work with faculty,  Seneshaw Tsegaye, on the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus System project. The  integrated WEF system turns solid waste and wastewater into both a biogas energy source that can substitute for propane, and into nutrient-rich, recycled water for fertilized irrigation. In other words, the FGCU engineering team is working to convert your garbage into sustainable gold. (Article: Keith Gibson, FGCU 360/Photo: James Greco)

Cesar Hernandez-Isidro

Bioengineering student aims to build a better wheelchair 

Hernandez-Isidro’s research began last semester as an Honors College contract when Dr. Derek Lura, assistant professor in bioengineering, introduced him to Jennifer Lee, who was referred to FGCU during a fitting for her new wheelchair. (Article: Karen Booth, FGCU 360/Photo: James Greco)

Two of Dr. Greg Boyce’s student researchers, Marie Bozor and Daniel Quiroz, work in a lab in Seidler Hall

Honors students are active in Dr. Greg Boyce's chemistry lab

“I didn’t realize I was going to love organic chemistry so much … this has been just awesome,” said senior Jacob Foster, who’s earning a biology major and chemistry minor and hopes to one day pursue orthopedics or pediatrics in medical school. “This experience has really helped me excel in my other classwork, develop confidence in my independent critical-thinking skills and learn to take the knowledge in my head and apply it to real-world problems.” (Article: Keith Gibson, FGCU 360)

Daryl Cordova

DC-bound grad aims to work for the common good

Daryl Cordova came to Florida Gulf Coast University as a first-generation college student who planned to one day make a difference in the lives of others as a social worker. But as is the case with many undergraduates, Cordova, from Lehigh Acres, changed course. Switching to a political science major his sophomore year, the Honors College student still plans to make a difference, but on a bigger stage. Instead of creating impact at the grassroots level of social work, Cordova hopes to do so on the more wide-reaching platform of government work. (Article: Keith Gibson, FGCU 360)

Xylia Horgan with Mentor, Lyndsay Rhodes

Honors Alum receives prestigious fellowship 

A summa cum laude graduate in biology, Xylia Horgan, plans to practice pediatric oncology. Horgan is spending her so-called “off” time immersed in research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — the nation’s biomedical research institution — in Bethesda, Md.

Lucious Spiller

Delve deep into the Delta Blue

The Mississippi Blues Legends Festival at FGCU offers not just a chance to enjoy an outdoor concert of soul-stirring, hip-swaying music from the Deep South played by established artists from Clarksdale, Miss. Presented by the Honors College, it’s also an opportunity to learn — about the past and present of Delta blues and about the musicians keeping alive the tradition of sizzling slide guitars and passionate singing

Photo of Harlaxton College courtesy of Clay Motley

Students charmed by studying abroad at Harlaxton

Honors students Chandler Burwell and Kaliegh McFadden are spending a semester studying, living, eating, and playing at the Harlaxton College Manor in London. Thanks to FGCU's partnership with the British campus of the University of Evansville (Indiana) the opportunity to spend a semester at Harlaxton College, London is open to all students. 

Taylor Sieger

Honors Senior studying in China on embassy scholarship

"Sieger was one of 15 undergraduates chosen from across the United States by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C., for 2018-19 funding to study abroad. An art and English double-major, she is studying Chinese language and culture at Soochow University."

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