Crowdfund UC Davis thanks all of the donors who gave to this important project in October. This campaign has closed, but we are grateful for your support!
Scholarship for Promoting the Success of Students from Historically Underrepresented and Marginalized Communities in Graduate Studies in Political Science
Last Fall our Department reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to students from historically underrepresented and marginalized communities in political science by raising new funds to support them. After an incredibly successful Crowdfund campaign, we offered the very first Student Diversity Award this past summer. The Award supports one summer of research and study by a doctoral candidate who is a first-generation college student, who comes from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, or who is otherwise able to contribute to a diverse educational environment. This Fall our aim is to raise funds so that we can endow the Award and thereby offer it every summer.
Our goal is to raise $16,500 to create a permanent endowment for this award. If we are unable to reach $16,500, your donations will be used to support our Department of Political Science Diversity Award in the near future.
Summer funding for graduate students is hard to come by. We have a limited number of summer grants that support collaborative research by faculty and students, some summer teaching assistantships, and an even more limited number of research positions. Together, these opportunities are not enough to support all our graduate students, meaning that each summer some of our students have to work off-campus (e.g., as baristas or wait staff or in retail). Summer funding is critical throughout a graduate student’s career at UC Davis. Early on, summer funding can make a huge difference in achieving success in the comprehensive examinations: a necessary step to advancing to candidacy, and, even more importantly, offering the student a chance to consolidate the first year or two of graduate learning in the foundations of the discipline. Later, summer funding can enable collaborative research with faculty or the submission of original research for publication. These experiences are especially important for students who come into their studies with less exposure to the substantive and methodological content of political science, and/or to the culture and practices of academia more broadly.
We are acutely aware of the higher attrition rates of underrepresented students in graduate programs across the country. Summer funding to support focused study and research can be pivotal to future success in graduate study and ensuring students remain in the program.
Support for a student membership in the American Political Science Association (where graduate students can present their research)
Provide hard copies of the books that the student will read end-to-end for their major comprehensive exam