35,000+
hours of community service provided by Honors College students.
Our multiple co-curricular programs provide the education edge that makes Honors a uniquely successful experience. Our programs are known for their innovative design and detailed execution, supported by personalized attention. Through the Honors College, we provide high-impact, out-of-classroom opportunities to help them expand their skills and their worldviews. Through the campaign, we want to create endowed funds to support activities like the following in perpetuity.
PROGRAMS
HONORS EDGE LAB
The Honors College Edge Lab is FIU’s only makerspace open to the entire university community. Our space gives students, faculty, and staff access to a variety of tools, allowing them to create anything from hand-crafted jewelry to fully functional prosthetics. The space has also taken the lead in working with new technologies and sustainable practices. Currently, the Edge Lab provides learning opportunities through workshops in electronics and digital fabrication, such as game design, vinyl cutting, CNC milling, and 3D design and printing.
The Edge Lab would use funding for materials that can allow for more workshops and community involvement as well as expansion of the makerspace.
For more information, visit the Edge Lab’s website.
HEARTS
Honors Education in the Arts (HEARTS) gives Honors College students opportunities to explore and appreciate different artistic and cultural traditions along with modes of artistic expression and to recognize the interplay of culture and society, while celebrating diversity. HEARTS provides free or discounted tickets for concerts, plays, movies, and other events on and off campus.
The HEARTS clubs are mostly student-led and need funding to allow for transportation, broader opportunities for access to more activities, supplies and materials that allow students to become fully immersed, and access to spaces designated for club meetings and events.
For more information on the HEARTS programs, click here.
ARCH
Advanced Research and Creativity in Honors is the nexus of undergraduate research at FIU, with an annual conference attended by hundreds of students, faculty, and recruiters.
Funding provides for student travel to make presentations at competitive national and international research and professional conferences; to maintain the Undergraduate Research Hub (undergradresearch.fiu.edu); to create awards for exceptional work, and to fund stipends for students working on sponsored research (to keep the talent at home).
For more information on research and the ARCH Program, click here.
PANTHER MOCK TRIAL
In late 2017, a group of talented FIU students established the Panther Mock Trial Club at FIU, a new organization housed within the Honors College, but open to both Honors College students and non-Honors College students alike.
Lead by Honors College instructor and lead attorney Kristen A. Corpion, Esq., the Mock Trial Club at FIU’s mission is to introduce students through participation in simulated courtroom trials and other law related activities to important aspects of our judicial system, with special attention paid to trial by jury.
The Panther Mock Trial team needs support to attend tournaments and competitions that allow them to compete with other trial teams nationwide.
SERVICE AND STUDY ABROAD
The Honors College offers 8 study abroad programs: Cambodia/Vietnam, China, Costa Rica, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, and United Kingdom. These programs allow students to immerse themselves in faculty-led seminars with other Honors College students and earn Honors College academic credit. Most programs are offered during Spring/Summer, with the exception of Costa Rica which is a Fall/Winter program.
For more information on our study abroad programs, click here.
Alternative Breaks (aB) combine travel with community service over the winter and spring school breaks. The experiences, friends, and memories created through the aB program are unforgettable. Monthly workshops train, educate, and prepare participants for this life-changing journey. Trips are led by students trained as site leaders.
For more information on aB, click here.
These programs are in need of funding that allow students access to these life changing experiences.
SOCIAL INNOVATION PROJECTS
In culmination of a semester’s work in the Honors Freshman Course, students present projects that address problems or issues at FIU or in the broader community using social innovation strategies. They prepare posters and pitch their ideas to members of the University community and guests.
The Honors College, together with StartUP FIU is a proud sponsor of the Hult Prize Competition at FIU, which is open to all undergraduate and graduate students. The Hult Competition challenges students to solve some of the world’s toughest issues by empowering them to make life better for millions of people through the creation of for-good for-profit businesses. Since 2009, the Hult Prize has been a benchmark program for social entrepreneurs and today over 1500 universities worldwide participate.
For more information on the Hult Prize at FIU, click here.
Funding would allow these projects to come to life and grant students access to materials and tools to solve problems.