The mission of UAF's Honors Program is to challenge the University's best students to be critical thinkers, problem solvers and community leaders. Given that humankind has become a global community in which a growing population faces diminishing resources and profound social and ecological change, tomorrow’s leaders and problem solvers must have a scholarly understanding of resilience and sustainability. Resilience is a common feature of complex systems, be they companies, cities, or ecosystems. These systems perpetually adapt through cycles of growth, accumulation, crisis and renewal, often self-organizing into unexpected new configurations. Sustainability is the ability of these systems to maintain their processes, functions and productivity into the future. Resilience and sustainability are recurrent themes within the UAF Honors Program, which aims to educate critical thinkers, problem solvers and community leaders who adapt as the future unfolds.

The Honors Program at UAF provides superior undergraduate students with intellectual opportunities greater than those generally found in university classrooms. It promotes the highest standards of academic, professional, and personal achievement, and encourages students to think critically and to act in ways that benefit society. Students in the Honors Program experience:

• small classes,
• direct contact with top faculty members,
• a flexible curriculum,
• early research opportunities, and
• incentive to pursue independently their own intellectual interests.

The Honors Program is based on the conviction that genuine achievement in college means broad competence in areas outside a student's major field of specialization as well as excellence within it. With an emphasis on cross- and inter-disciplinary studies and encouragement to capitalize on their Alaskan and circumpolar experience, the Honors Program at UAF promotes and encourages personal growth, academic achievement, and participation in the intellectual and social community.

Honors Student development is facilitated through:

• challenging Honors-specific active learning courses, with limited enrollment, guided by UAF's best faculty;
• curricular choice supported by personalized advising services from Honors Program staff members;
• research, scholarship, internship, artistic, international, service, and other experiential opportunities;
• the availability of study and recreational facilities;
• encouragement to persevere and flourish;
• and participation in an intellectual and social community of student scholars.

In order to support and provide exceptional educational opportunities, the Honors Program will work with departments and individual faculty members in arranging for appropriate Honors courses, and will provide advice and assessment to those faculty who teach Honors courses, including information about a variety of non-classroom educational activities, including undergraduate research, study abroad, community service, off-campus internships, and national and local scholarship competitions.