Building Belonging Program
The Building Belonging program is a new five-year effort designed to increase engagement and build a greater sense of belonging for under-represented students through faculty mentored service-learning and research projects.
The program is offered through the Institute for Social Transformation in the Division of Social Sciences. The institute will award up to 100 Building Belonging undergraduate research fellowships of $1,500 per student each academic year (up to 50 fellowships in Fall/Winter and up to 50 fellowships in Spring/Summer).
The Building Belonging program was developed to enable and expand engagement with faculty and also give students a firmer sense of belonging and acceptance at the University. Making these opportunities paid rather than volunteer opens them up to students with limited financial means. We thank the generous donors who fund this program.
Applications for Fall/Winter have closed. Please stay tuned for Spring/Summer applications coming soon.
Please contact the Institute for Social Transformation with any questions at transform@ucsc.edu.
Eligibility/Who Can Apply
This program is open to all Social Sciences faculty and lecturers. Faculty apply to the program, and if selected, will choose students for their research projects. By applying to this program, faculty agree to mentor undergraduate students on a research project or a community-engaged scholarly project. Faculty may apply to mentor up to four students per academic year (includes fall/winter and spring/summer application cycles). The students can work individually with faculty or as part of a group. Faculty are expected to meet regularly with the student researchers. If faculty need help identifying students they can work with the institute and the EOP office.
During COVID-19 restrictions, all meetings and research should be conducted remotely.
A Building Belonging fellowship award is $1,500 per student for the quarter. This equates to approximately 100 hours per quarter. In the application, faculty will need to indicate in which quarter the research will be conducted. The intention of the program is to support as many individual students as possible, but faculty may request to support one student for two quarters (this would use two of the faculty’s possible four positions for the academic year) with appropriate justification.
As the goal is to build a sense of belonging among current students, participating students must be enrolled in 6 units or more. Students can not participate in the program post-graduation. We encourage faculty members to recruit students who are not in their final year for these mentoring opportunities. In the Spring all student fellows will be required to participate in a research symposium poster session.
The program aims to support undergraduate students in Social Sciences who are:
- EOP eligible
- first-generation
- low income
- under-represented
- former foster youth
Fellowship Payments
Student fellowship awards will be processed by the institute and disbursed as a fellowship/scholarship to the student’s financial aid account. The award will be incorporated into the student’s financial aid offer and the amount received as a payment/refund will depend on each student’s specific financial situation, including any unpaid university fees and other awards or aid they may have. If students have questions about this they can contact the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office or click here for frequently asked questions about fellowship/scholarship payments.
Fall/Winter 2020-2021 Application Information
Timeline
Faculty apply to the program, and if selected, will choose students for their research projects. Faculty applications due September 15, 2020. Decisions will be announced early October.
For fall quarter fellowships, student names and IDs’ must be provided by faculty to IST by October 16.
For winter quarter fellowships, student names and IDs’ must be provided by faculty to IST by January 15.
Past Building Belonging Fellows, Mentors, & Projects
Meet the fellows from our pilot program in Spring/Summer 2019-2020
