In Their Words: Alice Malmberg

Name: Alice Malmberg

Department: Politics

What Award/ Scholarship did you receive? 2017-2018 Dean’s Undergraduate Award

College:  Cowell College

What year do you expect to graduate? June 2018

Where do you call home? Santa Cruz!

With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out? I toured and applied to a lot of colleges all over the country, but the minute I stepped onto the UCSC campus, something clicked in my mind and I realized it felt like home already. The politics department and residential college system are also both amazing.

What is your field of focus? Specifically, within politics, I've focused on criminal justice reform, as well as voter mobilization and turnout. More broadly, I'm also very interested in access to higher education in California and beyond.

What do you hope to do once you graduate fromUC Santa Cruz? I hope to work in state/local government, government affairs, or higher education in California and eventually go to graduate school to earn my PhD in Politics. My ultimate goal is to run for office myself someday.

What is one memorable moment that stands out for you as a student here? My first year here, Angela Davis was the keynote speaker for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Convocation. My friend and I were so excited to go see her that we got to the venue 2 hours early...and then somehow ended up getting invited to a private Q&A session! We were both super excited to talk with her one on one about social justice. And it was her birthday, so we sang her "happy birthday", too.

What is your one piece of advice for incoming students about life at UC Santa Cruz? Be open to trying new experiences and remember to live your life on your own terms. I originally came in as a chemistry major and after I switched to politics, I thought I would graduate in three years. I wouldn't have written a thesis OR had the opportunity to discover was I was truly passionate about if I had stuck to either of those plans. In the wise words of my sister, "you are your own invention, make your own destiny".

How will this scholarship impact your academic life /research? It's very affirming to receive recognition for a project I spent most of my senior year working on. Felon disenfranchisement is a fairly new topic in the field of American politics and voting behavior and so when I was doing my research, it was easy to get discouraged because sometimes it seemed like my topic wasn't important since there's so little research on it. Receiving this award has helped affirm the importance of my topic and has inspired me to consider continuing exploring it in graduate school and beyond. Thank you!