The 21st Century Leonardo da Vinci Scholar

The 21st Century Leonardo da Vinci Scholar is awarded by the Division of Social Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz to honor superb undergraduate students who have pursued cross-disciplinary education. Da Vinci Scholars are seniors who have double majored in a program in the Division of Social Sciences and in another course of study outside of the Social Sciences. In addition, recipients must have earned at least a 3.80 GPA, overall.

Recipients are awarded with a certificate and a gift certificate for $100.00 in recognition of their hard work and outstanding success at UCSC.

The award is named after Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, the Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He is widely considered to be one of the most diversely talented individuals to have ever lived. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal, and he has been widely described as the “archetypal Renaissance man.”

Da Vinci's talents extended far beyond his famous artistic works, and, like many leaders of the Renaissance era, he did not see a divide between arts, letters, and sciences.