Social Sciences Division Projects

The Science & Justice Research Center

Help us celebrate the 20 year anniversary of Science & Justice by supporting our graduate student researchers and Training Program (SJTP) through the Science & Justice campaign. Now more than ever the training offered by the SJTP is critical to addressing the problems of our times: ecological destruction; data justice; growing inequalities. These are problems that are not the domain of one discipline or area of practice. They require working across fields of knowledge and practice. The SJTP provides the space and transdisciplinary tools and thought needed for social science, humanities, engineering, physical and biological science, and art students to collaborate to respond to these core concerns of our times. Your support creates a vibrant future for science and justice researchers. With your help, we can provide: Travel for student field research and Summer research fellowships.

Business Economics Academia (BEA)

Business Economics Academia (BEA) is UC Santa Cruz’s oldest student-led organization dedicated to empowering students in business and economics. We bridge the gap between academic theory and real-world application through a dynamic mix of professional development, academic support, and community engagement.

Your support during Give Day 2025 will enable us to expand these programs, provide more resources for our members, and continue cultivating the next generation of business and economics leaders at UC Santa Cruz.

Alpha Kappa Psi UCSC's Premiere Business Fraternity

Alpha Kappa Psi is UC Santa Cruz’s premier professional co-ed business fraternity, dedicated to developing principled business leaders. We provide members with career workshops, networking events, and professional development opportunities that prepare them for success beyond college. This Giving Day, we are raising funds to support our members in attending leadership conferences and hosting on-campus events that build skills and community. Your donation will help cover registration fees, travel costs, and event supplies, directly empowering students to grow personally and professionally.

Anthro Pals

AnthroPals is an undergraduate to graduate mentorship program, where anthropology undergraduate students will be paired with anthropology graduate students with similar interests and helpful experiences. Students will have the opportunity to have one-on-one or small group mentorship meetings over a shared meal as well as participate in a social mixer once a quarter for all participants. The program will go a long way for instilling our anthropology student community!

Dr. Aaronette White Scholarship Fund

Dr. Aaronette White, a professor of social psychology and Associate Dean of Equity and Social Responsibility in the Division of Social Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, was an accomplished scholar and fierce social justice activist. Her interdisciplinary work impacted many fields, including Psychology, Women’s Studies, and African Studies. In honor of the impact Dr. Aaronette White had on UC Santa Cruz faculty and students, an endowment has been created in her name. Donations will help undergraduate students with demonstrated needs and an interest in social psychology pursue their studies. By remembering her scholarly contributions and skills, we hope to inspire future generations to take after her footsteps.

Bridgeman Graduate Award in Cognitive Psychology

The Bridgeman Graduate Award Fund will support cognitive psychology graduate students in the Psychology Department at UC Santa Cruz. As a way to honor Bruce Bridgeman’s passion for making higher education financially accessible to all, as he was given financial support during his studies, the award is granted to a prospective graduate student who might otherwise not be able to fully afford the cost of their studies and so that they can accept their offer to UC Santa Cruz.

The Huey P Newton Lab

The Newton Lab is a BIPOC-led research incubator that empowers students to explore climate justice, food systems, and clean energy through a STEM and agroecology lens. Operating out of UC Santa Cruz, the Lab provides hands-on research opportunities, mentorship, and culturally relevant training for underrepresented youth. This fall and spring, students will design and implement community-centered projects focused on regenerative agriculture, hydroponics, and environmental healing. The Newton Lab cultivates the next generation of equity-driven scientists, farmers, and environmental leaders.

Huerta Center Legislative Fellowship Program

Dolores Huerta is a passionate believer in democracy and civic participation. In honor of her commitment, the Huerta Center developed the Legislative Fellowship Program, aimed at introducing undergraduate students to public service. Now in its second year, the selected fellows spend 4 months interning in a local elected official's office while participating in professional development sessions with the Huerta Center faculty director and staff for continued mentorship.This fellowship program provides an invaluable opportunity for undergraduate students to get an insider's view into local politics, make important networking connections, and gain valuable professional skills that can greatly contribute to developing their career paths. Donations will go directly to supporting paid internships in local legislative offices so that students who may not otherwise have the opportunity are able to add this exceptional experience to their resumes.

Growing Leaders: Support Center for Agroecology Student Staff

Center for Agroecology students gain hands-on experience in sustainable agriculture and food systems. We’re raising funds to support our paid student workers—essential team members who help keep the UCSC Farm & Garden thriving and support our research, education, and public service programming while developing leadership skills and real-world knowledge.

Your support creates meaningful opportunities for students to grow as changemakers, connect with the land, and contribute to a more just and resilient food future. Funds raised will go directly toward student wages, ensuring these transformative learning experiences remain accessible to all.

Archaeological Research Center Student Research Experiences

We are raising funds to support undergraduate and graduate student field and lab research experiences. This support is critical for our students seeking hands-on research experiences in archaeology.

Mock Trial at UCSC

Mock Trial at UCSC is a student-run organization that simulates a real courtroom trial. Our program helps members improve their writing and public speaking skills while gaining essential courtroom experience. Mock Trial is one of the only ways for undergraduate students to get trial experience, which helps them prepare for law school and beyond!

Our program travels across the state of California to compete in tournaments against other schools. Last year we went to nine tournaments, and this year we hope to do the same! As the UCSC student organization that travels the most, donations are critical to our team's success. Our organization covers all expenses for our members, allowing them to participate at no cost. Donations help us pay for tournament registrations, hotels, and travel costs.

Donate to Mock Trial today!

Support Education for Democracy: Teacher Preparation and Improvement of Public Education 

Current budget realities and shifting policy priorities have undermined support for teacher education, teacher educators, and research that improves teaching and learning at the very moment the state is facing teacher shortages and the nation's schools are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. Your financial contributions will help the Education Department to sustain its mission to prepare our state’s next generation of teachers, educational leaders, and researchers. In 2025 alone, the federal government cancelled nearly five million dollars of research dollars committed to the Education Department to improve teachers' classroom practice. Now is not the time for extras - we need your support to sustain the core purpose of public education for democracy. In the words of Franklin D Roosevelt in a 1938 address to the American People: "Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education." Please help safeguard public education - and democracy - by donating to support the Education Department.

Writing Rocks!

Today Is Giving Day and Writing Matters!
Support CCWP Today!
Empower Transformative Change in Writing Education!

Politics at UCSC: Research & Teaching Initiatives

Established in 1965, UCSC's Politics Department represents internationally recognized leadership in domestic and foreign policy—as well as an enduring commitment to preserving civil liberties and democratic institutions in the U.S. and worldwide. Your foresight and generosity will assist our distinguished Politics and Legal Studies faculty in their mission of training new students with UCSC's renowned cross-disciplinary approach. Despite ongoing shifts in federal budgeting for university research, we remain committed to our traditions of innovation and public service—and we're looking to you to help guide our future. Your contributions can help pioneer our exciting new experiential learning opportunities, state-of-the-art course designs for students from all majors and backgrounds, and new frontiers in our long-standing tradition of student-directed research and career initiatives. Make your voice heard today and help us empower new generations of Slugs in active citizenship and protecting democracy.

The Right Livelihood Center

We are a network of students and faculty worldwide that work with some of the world’s leading changemakers in social and environmental justice. Our community at UC Santa Cruz supports students and researchers in forming connections with Right Livelihood Laureates and colleagues within our global network.

Psychology Field Study Program Scholarship Fund

The Psychology Field Study Program is an academic internship program that allows students to acquire real-world experience in a career path related to their psychology or cognitive science major. Student interns support the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of our Santa Cruz community through their work at local organizations, non-profits, and schools, and a majority of this work is unpaid. The field study program is hoping to raise funds to provide monetary awards specifically to assist students in unpaid internships with costs related to field study (e.g., business attire, materials, transportation costs, etc.). We want to ensure that all of our students are supported in their pursuit of professional development, but we can’t do it without your help!

Health Sciences Internship Fund

Pre-med students are required to complete 80 internship hours to graduate. These internships help students gain experience and understand community engagement in the medical field. The Health Sciences Internship Fund will provide financial support to students while they intern and work to become well-rounded medical professionals. This support will alleviate cost of living expenses, transportation expenses, onboarding expenses, uniform expenses, etc.

Gateways: Abolition, Tech & Peer Power in Jail Classrooms

The Gateways Project, launched in 2019 by student leaders in the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change, is a peer-to-peer initiative that creates space for collaborative learning between UCSC undergraduates and incarcerated students at Santa Cruz County jails. With the support and mentorship of the Everett Program Fellowship and staff, teams of UCSC students design and lead a three-course series at the Rountree Men’s Jail Facility in Watsonville. Gateways' jail classes cover skills in computing, digital media, and 3-D design, focusing on practical tools that support employment upon reentry while providing space for creative expression. Through Gateways, undergraduate instructors gain hands-on experience in abolitionist pedagogy, community engagement, and curriculum design, while students develop their portfolios, work with cutting-edge and open-source software, and strengthen community connections by engaging in learning that is based on mutual respect and grounded in shared experiences. Donations directly sustain the Gateways Project as funds for curriculum development, transportation, and tech access, and may also support related program needs such as graduate student leadership, equipment infrastructure, and Everett Fellowship operations that keep this work evolving.

The UC Santa Cruz Sociology Department General Fund

Raising money to support our students and their continued work in challenging dominant norms and structures.
At UC Santa Cruz, we take scholarly leaps into the dynamics of social action: agency and governance, politics and mediation, identity and difference, social justice and ethics, democracy and sustainability, technologies and environment, affect and politics.
For Sociology@UCSantaCruz, these transgressive modes of research open new frontiers for research, new intersections for theory building, and new possibilities for change. Our research works to change the way people commonly understand the social and physical worlds in ways that move toward greater social justice. To continue challenging dominant social norms and structures that perpetuate social inequalities, we would like to invite you to be a part of improving our programs and expanding our reach for undergraduate researchers by donating today.

Teaching Democracy & Media Literacy in CA Schools

The History & Civics Project at UC Santa Cruz is a California Subject Matter Project site dedicated to supporting high quality K-12 teaching and learning through collaborations across K-16 and with community members and organizations. We work to support educators in making schools places where students learn about building and extending a multiracial democracy and this includes a focus on teaching and learning media literacy. Given the rapidly changing media landscape, the importance of accurate news and information and the ability to discern such information to a healthy democracy, this Project focuses on supporting educators in integrating media literacy lessons and activities into their curricula. This instruction can help students become wiser consumers, curators and producers of social media. Donations will be used to support our ongoing efforts to share curated media literacy resources with educators, to guide teachers in developing their own resources, and to participate in community collaborations and events focused on critical media literacy for local students and their communities.

Support Students Engaged in Field Studies with a focus on Community Organizing and Social Movement Work!

Community Studies students embark on six months of field study, a uniquely rewarding form of learning that allows undergrad students to make a difference for others while gaining valuable real-world experience. Students work with social change organizations all over the world and make important contributions to their organizations while collecting data for independent research projects. Many organizations do not have the funds to pay students for this work, and many students struggle to make ends meet while in the field. Your donation will help support students who are otherwise unable to complete their field studies with stipends for living expenses.

Enhance the Impact of Coastal Science and Policy Students

The Coastal Science & Policy Program is tailored for rising leaders to develop interdisciplinary solutions to challenges facing coastal communities and ecosystems around the world. To elevate, enhance the reach of our students' work, increase subject area expertise and build professional networks, CSP students need support to attend conferences and other professional programs. Such programs include the Blue Economy Summit, the World Fisheries Congress, Black in Marine Science, and others. We support each student with our limited funds, and this Giving Day, we ask for your support to help us fund student travel to conferences and professional trainings. This support also helps students share their own research and outcomes from their capstone projects across a host of coastal science and policy issues, thereby enhancing the reach and impact of their work. Learn more about the program by going to our website csp.ucsc.edu.

Plant Sciences Fund

The Plant Sciences Fund at UC Santa Cruz supports research and educational activities for students across all departments.  The UCSC Greenhouses are a focal point and gathering place for this diverse and enthusiastic community of plant lovers.  Our Giving Day campaign raises essential funding to cover student research and support the activities of the Plant Science Club.  We can’t do it without you!

The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.

To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy Statement for University of California Publications Regarding Student-Related Matters.