Dr. Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, Senior Vice President for Research and Partnerships at the University of Arizona, joins It's an Honor for a conversation about his foundations in physics, the mentors who shaped his development, and the role of persistence in undergraduate research.

What started in 1983 as an effort to increase Honors visibility has evolved into more than four decades of celebrating and uplifting exceptional faculty at the University of Arizona.

Natalie Rawlings, a W.A. Franke Honors College student, has been named a 2025-26 Astronaut Scholar by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. She was honored for this distinction at a ceremony on the University of Arizona campus last Thursday.

Students from the W.A. Franke Honors College collaborated with Tucson’s annual Agave Heritage Festival (AHF) to explore the cultural, environmental, and economic dimensions of agave through research, interviews, and more.

In this special episode of It’s an Honor, guest host Dr. Nadia Alvarez Mexia sits down with Franke Honors student Gabriella “Gabi” Arroyo to explore the deeply personal and universal theme of ancestry.

An $8 million estate gift from the late Susan K. Von Kersburg will provide lasting support for students of the W.A. Franke Honors College, empowering them to pursue their academic goals without financial barriers.

November is Native American Heritage Month, and we encourage you to learn more and celebrate the extraordinary contributions and accomplishments of Indigenous people and communities in Tucson and throughout the Southwest.

Dr. Tom Bever, Regents Professor at the University of Arizona and a foundational figure in the field of psycholinguistics, joins It’s an Honor for a wide-ranging conversation on science, language, and the future of the mind.

Nagasriya Ramisetty, a junior in the W.A. Franke Honors College, will engage audiences in new ways of hearing, feeling and thinking about mental health by creating an original poetry and art collection as a part of the JustArts Fellowship.