Nicole Britton

Name: Nicole Britton

College: College Nine

Department: Linguistics and Legal Studies

What Award/ Scholarship did you receive? Weiss Family Scholarship

What year do you expect to graduate? 2023

Where do you call home? I hail from San Diego, California but I am not sure where my ‘home’ is at the moment. I’m still trying to figure that out.

With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out?  To be completely honest, the choice to go to Santa Cruz was made for me by my abysmal college admissions decisions; but I can't picture myself going
anywhere else for undergrad. What led me to apply here was a mixture of the campus being located in the heart of a redwood forest and the overall campus vibes (e.g. an academically minded school without the social pressures of having to perform outrageously well all of the time).

What is your field of focus? I have two fields of focus by double majoring in Linguistics and Legal Studies
but I have largely been focusing on social justice issues such as human rights with my class selections. In fact, I have been a proud member of the Research Center of the America’s Human Rights Investigations Lab for two years and will be continuing again next year!

What do you hope to do once you graduate from UC Santa Cruz? I am still trying to figure that out, which is completely ok! Currently my pathway forward involves getting my paralegal certification this summer so I
can get some work experience in the legal field right after graduation. I am planning on returning to academia at some point in the future though, whether as a law student or a graduate student is to be determined.

What is one memorable moment that stands out for you as a student here? Man there are so many memorable moments from my time here at this point....but if I had to choose one, it would be meeting and hanging out with the friends I made.

What is your one piece of advice for incoming students about life at UC Santa Cruz? My best piece of advice is probably to explore all of the things! Take classes outside of your major for fun, find your class locations before they start (you can seriously get lost here), go to office hours (your professors and TAs are really cool people), explore the resources on campus (might take a bit of searching but it is worth it), join clubs, take hikes, etc. I have a whole laundry list but I think this will suffice as a short answer!

How will this scholarship impact your academic life /research? This scholarship will help me pursue further research in the human rights investigations lab as I am gearing up to do a 2-3 quarter project as a thesis if everything goes to plan.