The Institute for Social Transformation’s Building Belonging program is designed to foster student success, increase engagement, and build a greater sense of belonging for under-represented undergraduate students through faculty mentored service-learning and research projects. Click here to learn more about the Building Belonging program.
Watch the 2025 student presentations and read these testimonials from Building Belonging Fellows.
PROJECT: The Art of Knowing: A Curriculum of Story, Science, and Epistemic Justice
FACULTY MENTOR: Arshad Ali, Education
Mateo Fernandez
Community StudiesPROJECT: We have the right to stay: Counter-narratives on migration from Northern Honduras
FACULTY MENTOR: Amy Argenal, Sociology
Cynthia Lopez-Fernandez
Environmental StudiesPROJECT: Language Comprehension and Cognitive Control
FACULTY MENTOR: Megan Boudewyn, Psychology
Colin McConnell
Cognitive Science
Cebrian Carter
PsychologyPROJECT: Migrant Farmworkers and the Role of Corporate Chaplaincy
FACULTY MENTOR: Laura Beth Bugg, Global and Community Health
Pedro Lopez
Global and Community Health + Latin American and Latino StudiesPROJECT: Critical Co-Design for Justice: Expanding Research Capacity in the Everett Program
FACULTY MENTOR: Roberto De Roock, Education
Alejandra Vasquez-Crumpacker
AgroecologyPROJECT: Tracking Colonial Deportations in South America
FACULTY MENTOR: Jeffrey Erbig, Latin American and Latino Studies
Jesus Vargas
Latin American and Latino Studies + Psychology (Intensive)PROJECT: Communication Effects on Learning and Persuasion with People and Virtual Agents
FACULTY MENTOR: Jean Fox Tree, Psychology
Nasana Bajracharya
Cognitive SciencePROJECT: U.S. state-level agricultural legislation, local food sustainability, and international trade
FACULTY MENTOR: Galina Hale, Economics
Daniel Ward
Computer ScienceAngelica Garcia
Business Management Economics
Areli Figueroa
Business Management EconomicsLuis Garcia
Business Management Economics
Christian Jimenez
Global Economics + Technology and Information Management
Cole Filson
Economics + Technology and Information ManagementPROJECT: Hechicería, Connections, and Everyday Acts of Protection: A Case Study from 17th Century San Lorenzo de Quinti, Huarochirí
FACULTY MENTOR: Carla Hernández Garavito, Anthropology
Michael Arroyo
AnthropologyPROJECT: Bilingual Language Control
FACULTY MENTOR: Liv Hoversten, Psychology
Kaitlyn Armstong
Cognitive SciencePROJECT: Supporting meaningful community participation for climate justice in Pajaro
FACULTY MENTOR: Sikina Jinnah, Environmental Studies
Elise Weir
Environmental StudiesPROJECT: Agroecology and new technologies for water management
FACULTY MENTOR: Crystele Leauthaud, Agroecology
Juan Bermudez-Medrano
Agroecology
Alex Lee
Biomolecular Engineering and Bioinformatics (BMEB)PROJECT: Undernutrition vs. malabsorption: Diet, micronutrient deficiency, and environmental enteric dysfunction in Bangladeshi infants
FACULTY MENTOR: Audrie Lin, Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology
Alexander Martin-Carrillo
BiologyPROJECT: Innovations in Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture
FACULTY MENTOR: Michael Loik, Environmental Studies
Halle Bohlig
Environmental Studies + Legal StudiesPROJECT: Community-Engaged Scholarship: The Future of the Field
FACULTY MENTOR: Rebecca London, Sociology
Kennedy Thomas
SociologyPROJECT: Using digital technologies to amplify underrepresented voices and histories in K-12 curricula
FACULTY MENTOR: Daisy Martin, Education
Hannah Dinh
Computer SciencePROJECT: Housing Monterey Bay Workers
FACULTY MENTOR: Steve Mckay, Sociology
Kariel Torres
Community StudiesPROJECT: Children’s emotional understanding of death
FACULTY MENTOR: David Menendez, Psychology
Daniela Ledesma
PsychologyPROJECT: Narrating Santa Cruz’s Feminist Histories
FACULTY MENTOR: Madhavi Murty, Sociology
Nithya Raghunath
Anthropology + Sociology
Liliana Mata
PsychologyPROJECT: Mushrooms in the diet of wild chimpanzees and baboons from Tanzania
FACULTY MENTOR: Vicky Oelze, Anthropology
Juan Alvarez
Anthropology
Catalina Pesso
AnthropologyPROJECT: Sector Specific Minimum Wages in California: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
FACULTY MENTOR: Steve Owen, Economics
Kayson Tang
Business Management Economics + Cognitive Science + Psychology BAPROJECT: Associations between Psychobiological Stress Responses and Cannabis Use
FACULTY MENTOR: Danny Rahal, Psychology
Narissa Carthy-Dundas
Psychology + Legal StudiesPROJECT: The mess just jumps out at me!: Do people with obsessive-compulsive contamination fears detect messiness more easily?
FACULTY MENTOR: Hannah Raila, Psychology
Amaya Aquino
PsychologyPROJECT: Right Livelihood Student Global Secretariat
FACULTY MENTOR: David Shaw, Institute for Social Transformation
Natalie Capobres
Environmental Studies with a concentration in Global Environmental JusticePROJECT: Farmworker health amid climate change and other compounding crises
FACULTY MENTOR: Matt Sparke, Politics
Arisbeth Alva
Global and Community Health
Solei Gonzalez
Global and Community Health + Legal StudiesNancy Ortiz
Global and Community HealthPROJECT: Bank Balance Sheets, Systemic Risk and Business Cycles
FACULTY MENTOR: Alonso Villacorta, Economics
Ajay Senthilkumar
Computer Science + Business Management EconomicsPROJECT: Cover cropping communities of practice in California’s Salad Bowl: Addressing water scarcity and quality to promote ecosystem services
FACULTY MENTOR: Hannah Waterhouse, Agroecology
A.J. Scott
Molecular, Cellular and Developmental BiologyPROJECT: Peat-DBase: a global database of peatland depth, carbon and ecosystem characteristics
FACULTY MENTOR: Scott Winton, Environmental Science
Taima Traore
Psychology
