Thank you for visiting the UGA Honors Program website to learn more about our students and opportunities.

In my role as director, I am privileged now to lead a program that I myself enrolled in when I was a student at UGA in the 1970s.  The Honors Program I knew and enjoyed then was focused on early registration, smaller classes, and close contact with leading faculty members.

Today, the Honors Program still has those central hallmarks, but as you will see reflected in this website, it is also a much larger, more complex, and more vibrant entity.  You will learn about our study abroad programs and our emphasis on undergraduate research, as well as our internship programs in Washington, DC, New York and Savannah.  You will see information about our scholarships, especially the Foundation Fellowship, the Ramsey Honors Scholarship, and the CURO Apprenticeship.

But in one sense, these opportunities are what the Honors Program does, not what it is.  For what I think the opportunities that we provide in the Honors Program really represent is a variety of expressions of a core set of values.  At heart, the Honors Program at UGA is committed to helping motivated students…with unrealized academic potential…not only meet, but exceed their expectations.  Again and again, I have seen our Honors students achieve things they never even visualized when they were in high school, whether it be earning a Rhodes Scholarship, providing key research to combat the spread of avian flu, or helping draft a piece of congressional legislation.

I am convinced that the Honors Program at UGA provides an unparalleled undergraduate educational experience-one that combines the excellence of the finest liberal arts colleges with the resources of a major public research university.  Honors students increase academic standards across campus, assume leadership roles in university organizations, volunteer in the local and global community, win major undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships, and bring distinction to the University of Georgia.

None of this would be possible without the drive and determination of the students that are a part of the Honors Program at UGA.  I am thrilled that you are interested in becoming a part of the Honors family, and I hope that you take the time to explore each and every one of the incredible opportunities you will read about in this website.

Sincerely,

David S. Williams