The FIU Honors College is home to 2,400 smart, curious, open-minded students drawn from every major and college at FIU. We bring them together with top faculty and practitioners from a variety of fields through a unique curriculum that works alongside any major and transcends disciplines. They are “dual citizens” – who belong to the Honors College and also belong to their major department. They get the best of both worlds making their educational experience at FIU Worlds Ahead.
Our main task is to help students develop the intellectual and vocational tools they will need to succeed at FIU and beyond. Our students understand that life is not a major, but that it is interdisciplinary, complex, sometimes messy, and a group project always in flux. We want them to be ready to compete in a rapidly morphing world where they must be agile, flexible, and adaptable if they are to thrive.
We are dedicated to scholarship, service, creativity, and leadership. Honors College students are citizens of our local and global community and understand that they have purpose and responsibility as leaders. They work as volunteers in the neighboring town of Sweetwater, participate in Alternative Break and other programs in the US and overseas, including an extraordinary service mission in Cambodia.
At FIU, we were the pioneers of social entrepreneurship and innovation and are – every freshman is involved in a significant social innovation project and the Hult Prize competition at FIU is dominated by Honors teams.
We want our students to be leaders and “first followers.” We encourage them to get involved in organizations and at any one time, a disproportionate number of our students lead SGA, honor societies, and a myriad clubs and organizations.
At the Honors College we strive to be at the forefront of pedagogical innovation, while embracing timeless values of inquiry. We embrace the ideals and practices of modern polymathy. We help our students rise and become the best they can be. We are Honors.
Juan Carlos Espinosa, Ph. D
Dean and Fellow
