H&S is proudly the liberal arts home of Ithaca College—serving every student, no matter their major. We are a vibrant community of 160+ faculty, offering nearly 800 courses across 35 diverse majors. Our academic programs span the arts, humanities, social sciences, and STEM. Each program has a responsibility to prepare all students to address the changing demands of our dynamic and turbulent world.
Our students learn to pair critical thinking with technical expertise. They develop ethical awareness alongside a pragmatic understanding of real-world constraints and challenges, enabling them to meaningfully impact the issues that most matter to them. An education in H&S provides students with opportunities to engage directly with their communities. Students regularly travel to conferences to present their research; they engage in specialized creative workshops; they assist local organizations in problem-solving; and they meet alumni in their industries.
Please support these vital efforts by giving to the IC Annual Fund for Humanities & Sciences.
The Reach of H&S Donor Support
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Endowed scholarships are donor-funded financial awards offered to students, designed to support them year after year. Scholarships, like the Bill and Donna Bergmark Endowed Scholarship, tell a larger story that sustains a spak: in the rigor students learn, the mentors they become, and the discoveries they will claim as their own.
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The H&S Summer Scholars Program is a signature experiential learning program that offers 35+ students the opportunity to spend the summer in Ithaca pursuing self-designed projects under the mentorship of a faculty member. Whether in the lab, the field, or a studio, students gain professional experience while developing skills they will carry forward into careers, graduate school, and beyond. The challenges we face today (and those our students are tasked with addressing) require cross-disciplinary conversations and collaboration. This program brings together student scholars and faculty across disciplines in ways that fully complement our strategic plan's objective of facilitating interdisciplinary activities.
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With a heartfelt thanks to our donors, each year we support many H&S students as they pursue research and professional development beyond IC’s borders. In academic year 2025-2026, H&S sponsored 70+ students who traveled to conferences, presented their work, engaged in on-site research activities, or engaged in a workshop. These initiatives were largely supported through our annual fund. It is our faculty who coordinate these experiential learning opportunities for students, and it is donor generosity that helps to make them possible.
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Ithaca College now offers foundational summer courses to first year students, many of which involve the liberal arts. The Summer College for High School Students, established over a decade ago at the all-college level, significantly involves liberal arts faculty and courses. In 2025, the Computer Science department launched a Tech Innovation Summer Academy (TISA) for high school students interested in computing, an initiative made possible through a generous gift.
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H&S faculty make advanced undergraduate research opportunities accessible for our students by inviting them into their labs, workshops, and professional spaces. To be successful, faculty must be equipped with the right materials and equipment. Our annual fund and our endowed funds help to ensure that our faculty can maintain the hardware and software that they need in order to be competitive in their research areas and highly effective in their instruction, whether we are revamping our graphic design or architectural studios or acquiring new scientific instrumentation.