About Employing Humanities
We are excited to launch Employing Humanities , an initiative to make stronger, more explicit links between what students do in their coursework and what they’ll do when they graduate. The Mellon Foundation saw the potential of Employing Humanities and provided $1,000,000 to support Humanities’ undergraduate majors and minors with paid and for-credit experiential learning opportunities that connect their classroom curriculum with hands-on training, including undergraduate research and internships.
Employing Humanities will also connect students with community organizations through service learning opportunities that not only broaden student experiences but directly impact society. We aim to equip our students with the skills to succeed as socially-just leaders in professional, academic, and community-engaged settings.
Our Goals
- Increase Experiential Learning Opportunities for Humanities Majors
- Create Career Paths & Programs for Humanities Majors
- Implement New Humanities Curricular Innovations for All Majors
New cross-disciplinary academic certificates such as Humanizing Technology and Visualizing Abolition Studies are helping more UC Santa Cruz students experience the value of humanistic training, regardless of their major.
We believe that training in the humanities is essential for a successful and fulfilling future, both individually and collectively. Our work stems from the idea that the humanities transform lives and society for the better, and must play a central role in the imagining and iteration of the engaged democracy we aspire to be. As our alumni know, students and faculty in the Humanities at UCSC have a long history of reimagining the world; today, we are proving once again that we excel as thinkers and doers.
What is Experiential Learning?
Experiential Learning is a process in which students engage in cycles of direct experience and focused reflection in order to enhance personal and intellectual growth, as well as acquire practical skills. Experiential learning informs many methodologies and can occur in a wide variety of settings on and off campus, and usually takes a ‘learn-by-doing’ approach.
Experiential Learning Cycle
EXPERIENCING
Active engagement through a concrete experience.
REFLECTING
Reflect on & process the experience, analyze, and make meaning.
THINKING
Conceptualize ideas and develop new insights. Connect theory and practice. Examine lessons learned.
APPLYING
Act and apply the knowledge gained in future experiences.
FEEDBACK
Continually identify improvement areas, reinforce learning.
Employing Humanities will create an array of opportunities such as:
Paid Internships
Internships integrate knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting at local non-profit organizations, community archives, or cultural institutions such as:
The Undergraduate Public Fellows program, in association with The Humanities Institute, is one unique form of internship.
- Liliana Barajas (Literature, Anthropology) - Open Campus
- Sebastian Zamora (History) - The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
- Coury Jones (History) - The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
- Ruby Jung (Literature) - Lookout Santa Cruz
- Eetai Shwartz (History, Philosophy) - Lookout Santa Cruz
- Serena Ramirez (Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, Psychology, and Politics) - Community Foundation Santa Cruz County
- Tommy Balmat (Anthropology, Literature) - The American Prospect
- Callie Bobell (History, History of Art & Visual Culture) - WILDR Santa Cruz
- Jaye Santos (Psychology, Feminist Studies) - WILDR Santa Cruz
- Liana Stevenson (Literature) - Santa Cruz Public Libraries
- Coming Soon - Housing Santa Cruz County
- Coming Soon - Black Surf Santa Cruz
- Coming Soon - KSQD Community Radio
- Coming Soon - HIVE Poetry Collective
- Coming Soon - Santa Cruz Country Youth Poet Laureate Program
Undergraduate Research
- Faculty-Led Undergraduate Research Projects
- 2023-2024 Researchers
- America Damaris Garcia (Legal Studies and Spanish Studies)
- Ben Sommer (Sociology and Linguistics)
- Cassidy Hatfield (Linguistics)
- Claire Skelly (Politics and Spanish Studies)
- Dacia Van Wormer (Cognitive Science and Linguistics)
- Gabby Manzoni (History and Politics)
- Geneva Samuelson (History)
- Grace Nighswonger (Cognitive Science, Linguistics)
- Ian Doyle (History)
- Isabel De Blois (History)
- Jacob Press (History)
- James Leyton (History and Politics)
- Janeth Pérez-Quirke (History)
- Jennacess Carreon (Literature)
- Jennifer Goi (Linguistics)
- Jaxon Chester (Film & Digital Media and Global Economics)
- Junebug Sonnenberg (Film & Digital Media and Black Studies)
- Karen Hinojosa (Psychology and Spanish Studies)
- Lorelei Howe (Linguistics)
- Madeleine Powell (Spanish Studies)
- Maia Michelle Mislang (History)
- Marissa Omaque (Anthropology and Literature)
- Maxine Altura (Applied Linguistics)
- Millie Hacker (Environmental Studies, Linguistics)
- Nixie Young (History and Classical Studies)
- Rae Williams (Theater Arts, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, and Black Studies)
- Rosario Mendez (Spanish Studies)
- Samuel Almer (Linguistics)
- Sharan Sethi (Literature, Philosophy, History)
- Siliva Iniguez (Environmental Science and Spanish Studies)
- Sunny Jiang (Language Studies and East Asian Studies)
- Tony Butorovich (Language Studies)
- Walter Barnaby (History and East Asian Studies)
- Undergraduate Research Fellows in Linguistics and Language Science: A three-quarter program that includes a sequenced proseminar for course credit to orient students to research in Linguistics, a paid research internship, and an original research project.
- Research Labs such as:
Service Learning Courses
Community-Engaged Projects
Projects led by UCSC Humanities faculty such as these aim to connect academic and cultural institutions with the broader community to address shared concerns, explore cultural heritage, and promote mutual learning:
Immersion Travel
Domestic and international travel that is connected to coursework.
- Read about the 2022 Egypt immersion experience led by Associate Professors of History Jennifer Derr and Elaine Sullivan.
- Read about the Okinawa Memories Initiative Scholars Program and the 2019 Okinawa Memories Initiative immersion experience led by Associate Professors of History Alan Christy and Alice Yang.
Project-based Learning
Students work in groups for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging, open-ended, and complex question or problem. It involves a real-world application and can include coursework or paid opportunities outside of the classroom.
- Check out the Digital Karnak Project, where students are assisting Egyptologist and digital humanist, Dr. Elaine Sullivan apply 3D virtual reality technologies to ancient cultural materials.
Innovative Experiential Courses
Courses with experiential learning as a main component
- Literature 167J Exhibiting Monsters, a research and project-based class includes an introduction to public humanities work-an exhibition of monsters in comic books opening at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History in October 2023.
Career Pathways
Professionalization courses and career readiness programming prepare students to learn how to leverage their academic skills to make the most of their professional opportunities. Students see the relevancy of their degree in action out in the world.
- Where a Literature Degree Can Take You [In Development]
How to Get Involved
Visit our student page for more information about opportunities.
Interested in partnering with us and hosting interns at your organization? Visit our Community Partners page to learn more.
If you are interested in creating curricular or co-curricular opportunities for students, please visit the faculty page. Email hum-experiential-learning@ucsc.edu with any questions.
With your support, our Employing Humanities fund will create experiential learning opportunities for all Humanities majors, transfer student programming, and Humanities certificate programs targeting STEM students.
Email our Experiential Learning Coordinator Kylie Rachwalski at hum-experiential-learning@ucsc.edu with questions.
Employing Humanities is made possible thanks to the generous support of The Mellon Foundation and the Helen & Will Webster Foundation.