On March 8, 2017 more than 100 campus teams will spend 24 hours raising money for projects at UC Santa Cruz. Projects in the Division of Social Sciences range from the Archaeology Graduate Research Fund to the Science and Justice Research Center, Colleges Nine and Ten's Practical Activism conference, the Farm & Garden and more outlined below.
Giving Day 2017 builds on the success of last year’s event, when nearly 3,000 donors came together to collectively give $340,000.
The Giving Day site will go live at 12:01 a.m. on March 8 for donors to make gifts and track their favorite projects in real-time. Before then, visitors to the site can preview projects and find ones that mean the most to them. Projects are grouped in categories that reflect the diversity of choices, such as Environment & Sustainability, Diversity Outreach, Scholarships, Social Justice & Activism, Community Ties, Arts & Letters, and Athletic Teams Incentives to give on March 8 include matching funds for specific projects, and challenges throughout the day to reward project teams that attract the greatest number of donors. Many projects are student-led; all benefit students.
Projects in the division include:
Center for Emerging Worlds: New Political Futures
“The Center for Emerging Worlds strives to go deeper than the headlines on national and international issues and to understand how the local is always connected to the global, and vice versa. Bringing together scholars, students, activists, visual artists, musicians, and religious leaders, the Center encourages collaborative inquiry into historical and contemporary worlds that have been created through cultural, social, environmental, and political encounters.” Read more »
Archaeological Research Center (ARC): Archaeology Graduate Research Fund
“We believe that graduate students are at the heart of our research and teaching efforts at the UCSC Archaeological Research Center. As a result of our Giving Day campaign last year, we established a fund to support graduate student research in archaeology and closely related disciplines on our campus. This Archaeology Graduate Research Fund provides seed money to fund preliminary dissertation research or small projects related directly to the Ph.D.” Read more »
Anthropology: Anthropologists Write!
“Your Giving Day donation will support the Anthropology Department’s efforts to create a dynamic, interactive learning environment that provides the resources and space our students need so they can grow as critical thinkers, writers, and researchers. Funding your generosity will help us in two ways: first, in the training and employment of Writing Assistants and, second, through the purchase of new furniture, including convertible tables and modular lounges.” Read more »
Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS): Educational Programs
“In 2017 we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UCSC Farm & Garden and the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS). We’ve trained generations of new organic farmers and gardeners, built a model undergraduate experiential education program, and helped shape a more sustainable food system through research and policy efforts.” Read more »
Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History: The Bird School Project
“The Bird School Project is an experiential environmental education program started by UCSC alumni Kevin Condon and Darrow Feldstein. In just three years, their program has reached more than 4,000 California students. The project provides binoculars, custom field journals, bird specimens, and knowledgeable UCSC intern instructors to schools around the Monterey Bay.” Read more »
Center for Labor Studies (CLS): Student Research for Community Action
“One of the most meaningful experiences students can have at UCSC is to engage in research that matters. Our unique project—No Place Like Home: The Affordable Housing Crisis Study of Santa Cruz—gives students a chance to participate in both research and community action, working with faculty and local nonprofits to address a critical issue.” Read more »
Science and Justice Research Center
“The Science and Justice Research Center (SJRC) is a globally unique endeavor that brings the question of justice into the very heart of science and technology (S&T). We believe technoscience is not just about what happens at the lab bench or a computer; it shapes the worlds we live in, and the ones we hope to build. The SJRC transforms the core sensibilities of science so that the S&T we create has the capacity to respond to complex, pressing problems, including health and social inequities, destruction of ecologies and ways of life, and discrimination.” Read more »
The UC Santa Cruz Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise and Participatory Governance: Food and Housing Info Access Pop-Ups
“Blum Global Poverty Awareness Week Food and Housing Information Pop-up Project As part of the Blum Center’s Student Action Council for the Eradication of Poverty and Inequality (SACEPI), students across the UC system are launching initiatives to increase awareness of poverty. Our goal is to deepen the understanding of campus, regional, national, and global poverty. Food and housing insecurity are significant concerns for many UCSC students, and these pop-ups will offer opportunities for students to share their own experiences and communicate how our campus can foster students’ economic security.” Read more »
Gabriel Zimmerman Memorial Scholarship
“The Gabriel Zimmerman Memorial Scholarship honors Gabriel “Gabe” Zimmerman (Stevenson '02, sociology), who died in the January 2011 shooting that killed five others and wounded 13, including Gabrielle Giffords, a U.S. congresswoman representing the Tucson area. The scholarship was established to support undergraduate students in the Division of Social Sciences who, like Gabe, are passionate about social issues and committed to public service.” Read more »
Colleges Nine Ten: Practical Activism Conference
“Practical Activism is an annual conference led and organized by students from Colleges Nine, Ten, and Oakes. October 2017 will mark the 15th annual Practical Activism Conference at UC Santa Cruz. Each year the conference addresses a range of social justice issues and offers tools for change through workshops, speakers, hands-on activism activities, the spoken word, and more.” Read more »
Community Studies: Field Study Changes Lives (Forever)
“Unlike many internship programs, full-time field study is not optional; it’s a requirement. It’s an exciting, irreplaceable part of the major, yet in an era of rising tuition and fees as well as shocking housing costs, financial concerns can affect students’ choices. Fully 60% of Community Studies majors belong to under-represented groups and Giving Day will directly and entirely support scholarships for field study students to help defray tuition and living expenses while they pursue and study social justice work that will change their lives (forever).” Read more »
Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program
“Land, water and wildlife have never faced greater challenges. To succeed, conservation needs to harness the broadest possible talent and support. The Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at UC Santa Cruz seeks out accomplished, passionate students from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds and supports them to positions of career leadership in conservation science and practice.” Read more »
Student organization: Pre-law Society
“The Pre-law Society is a student organization working to provide interested pre-law students with the resources they need to apply to law school or look into careers in law. As a new organization on campus as of this year, we have already brought in multiple guest speakers (attorneys, professors of law, etc.) and we have been working on team building to ensure that our organization will last over many years.” Read more »
