Inquiry with impact
Learn more about the students in the Transforming Futures program. IST intern, Belle Esters, connected with Transforming Futures students to highlight their 2024 summer experiences.
Student Testimonials from the Transforming Futures 2024 ProgramRead More
Through a life shaped by family, mentors, and public education, Carmen Rojas, Ph.D. (Oakes ’00, politics) has combined her personal and professional experiences to become a leader in the hard work of building racial, economic, and social justice. “I imagine a world where philanthropy sits at the feet of racial justice leaders,” said Rojas, President and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation.
Redefining philanthropy: Alumna Carmen Rojas drives changeRead More
UCSC sociology and legal studies student Marianas Fernandez illustrates how she has created opportunities on campus through simply becoming involved. Being a CUIP intern, apart of Transforming Futures, and athletics has helped her become a force of nature. She encourages others to find their passion on campus and create meaningful experiences.
Leading by Listening: Marianas Fernandez’s journey to becoming a student leaderRead More
While a part of the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Internship Program (CUIP) for the Institute for Social Transformation, Grace Nilsen created a social media campaign to highlight student experiences in the Transforming Futures program. These are the interviews from the summer cohort of 2023.
Lizeth Peña Sanchez, a fourth-year Social Sciences student at UC Santa Cruz, participated in both of the Experiential Learning programs at the Institute for Social Transformation. For Sanchez, the scholarships she received from Transforming Futures and Building Belonging reinforced her goals of becoming a teacher in Oakland and supporting future students and community.
Q&A with Lizeth Peña Sanchez: Transforming Futures and Building Belonging InternRead More
Thanks to a scholarship from IST’s Transforming Futures program, UCSC psychology student Leslie Salgado spent her summer interning for Jacob’s Heart Children’s Cancer Support Services. An experience she says enhanced her educational experience at UCSC, and allowed her to pursue her dream internship without worrying about the financial expenses.
Q&A with Leslie Salgado: Transforming Futures InternRead More
Professor of Environmental Studies, Sikina Jinnah discusses the possibilities and consequences of solar geoengineering, which could have the impact of turning our blue sky white. Sikina Jinnah has spent a lot of time thinking about the possibilities and consequences of solar geoengineering. Her work has put her at the table with many of the figures featured in Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, “Under a White Sky” and she has wrestled with the issues they and Kolbert raise around solar geoengineering technology, particularly as related to international politics and global oversight.
Serena Campbell constructs a vital network to unite UCSC’s critical environmentalism research across departments and disciplines. When Serena Campbell (Merrill ’23, sociology, critical race and ethnic studies) arrived at UCSC, it transformed her environmental worldview. Now, Campbell is working towards transforming UCSC’s own environmental research and pedagogy through her work with the Building Belonging Program.
As the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Internship Project (CUIP) intern for the Institute for Social Transformation (IST), Karina Diaz Alvarez wanted to learn more about the students who are engaged in the Building Belonging Program. Karina, a psychology and legal studies double major, centered her project around elevating student voices and highlighting their experiences in the program. Karina worked with a small sample of students, in collecting their testimonials and diving deeper into their incredible projects.
Rekia Jibrin is an assistant professor in critical studies of education within UC Santa Cruz’s Education Department. Her research, which focuses on how schools shape the racial order in the United States and globally, will help focus on teacher needs around ethnic studies work and identifying knowledge that can inform ethnic studies curriculum in county school districts.
Anthropology doctoral candidate Zahirah Suhaimi chose to attend UC Santa Cruz for its creative and cutting-edge research, radical activism, and a collaborative atmosphere. Now a Ph.D. student with over a dozen grants and awards under her belt, Suhaimi is interested in behavioral and ecological patterns, the stories underlying them, and how they are significant for community resilience and development.
Transforming Futures—a program launched by UC Santa Cruz’s Institute for Social Transformation—awards scholarships to first generation, underrepresented, and/or low-income UCSC students to pursue unpaid internships over the summer. The rollout of the program would not have been possible without the support of MR Macgill and Ho Nam. Their generosity created career-changing opportunities for UCSC students.
