Thanks to the high standards that the Honors College at West Virginia University and other campuses across the nation have established, we are witnessing a shift in the way honors colleges prepare the next great generation of thinkers and doers. Honors colleges give individual students access to the kind of educational opportunities and environment that they might not have been able to afford otherwise. This article discusses the strengths and effects of an honors program in general, and provides examples of how a student's work at the Honors College at West Virginia University benefits not only the student, but the community at large.