Student Engagement

When you join the community that is the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, you will find a place of exploration and discovery. Here, you will be challenged to think more broadly and more deeply than probably ever before. You will learn to think critically and to act compassionately, working alongside your professors and fellow students in the classroom, in research settings and in the broader community.

With a major in CLAS, you will find you can:

  • Think critically and analyze complex situations.
  • Solve problems efficiently and effectively.
  • Speak persuasively with a variety of audiences.
  • Translate data into useful knowledge.
  • Write coherent explanations and arguments.
  • Collaborate with teams and lead from within.
  • Do research and analysis using state-of-the-art methods and technologies.
  • Interact with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds.
  • Cast a wide net for career and life opportunities.

student opportunities

Students can find diverse options for academic and personal development, including through learning communities, academic organizations and success seminars. Academic clubs and organizations provide another way for you to become involved. Many College academic departments offer honors programs, in addition to the University Honors Program. Engagement opportunities feature leadership roles, volunteerism choices and special talks and seminars to help you grow your knowledge and skills as you prepare for your future. Among the offerings:

  • Learning Communities
  • Undergraduate Research
  • Internships
  • Honors Programs
  • Education abroad
  • Experiential Learning
  • Service Learning and Outreach
  • Academic Student Organizations
  • The LEADS Program

Student News

In the still early-morning hours of Monday, September 11, 2017, UNC Charlotte Air Force ROTC cadets took up their posts at UNC Charlotte’s 9/11 Memorial. Starting at midnight, the students took turns over a 24-hour period standing as silent sentinels in memory of those who had lost their lives in the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, commonly called 9/11.

UNC Charlotte Model United Nations students in spring 2017 competed internationally at the Harvard World United Nations in Montreal, Canada, where they vied against 2,000 university students from more than 115 countries. Delegates brought home highest honors for individual participants, with two awards for verbal communications.

Undergraduate students from around the nation who may have thought graduate school was out of their reach found out in a one-week summer institute at UNC Charlotte that it is within their grasp. UNC Charlotte’s Organizational Science Summer Institute. The institute seeks to diversify the field of organizational science through professional development, specifically targeting historically underrepresented undergraduate students.

More than 100 undergraduate students competed in the 2017 Summer Research Symposium, with three College of Liberal Arts & Sciences students named the winners. “These are the agile minds that will advance understanding in many areas that affect our lives,” distinguished researcher Pinku Mukherjee said of the participants in the university’s research programs.

With her selection as UNC Charlotte’s first-ever Ertegun Graduate Scholar, UNC Charlotte’s Eileen Jakeway is headed to England’s University of Oxford, for what she anticipates will be one of the most intellectually rich and invigorating experiences of her life. Each year, only about 20 full-time graduate students in the Humanities are chosen from throughout the world to receive the scholarships.