Holster Scholars History | UConn Honors Program

The Holster Scholars Program was inspired by Robert Holster‘s own excitement in discovering new paths of learning as a member of the inaugural class of UConn’s Honors Program. Since its inception in 2010, the program has supported 120 Scholars and 101 different faculty mentors hailing from 49 academic departments, centers, and institutes spread across seven different schools and colleges. Their work (some of which is archived here) represents the range of disciplinary diversity that exists at UConn and has resulted in patents, publications, art installations, and lifesaving community-interventions both here and abroad. In that time, program alumni have gone on to receive numerous prestigious, nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships, including the Marshall, Mitchell, Truman, Udall, and Goldwater Scholarships, NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, and various grants awarded through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Alumni currently populate some of the best graduate and professional programs in the world.

Perhaps most importantly, Holster Scholars past and present constitute a community of scholars. Because the awards go to students at an early stage of their development, the program has an outsized impact on the students and their development. In the process, Holster becomes an identity that shapes Scholars’ experience throughout their time at UConn, and often beyond.

Holster Scholars

Please use the links below to read more about the Holster Scholars themselves.