HOW YOU CAN HELP
Giving to the Undergraduate Research Centers
Our vision is for every interested undergraduate student at UCLA to be able to participate fully in research—for their benefit and for the world’s. Studies show that undergraduate research increases retention, promotes critical thinking and helps students choose a field of study and decide on a career path. Through experiencing the processes of scholarly research and discovery and by sharing their results with UCLA and the wider public, students become fully engaged members of the research community.
The Undergraduate Research Centers seek your support to help us provide a life changing experience to as many students as possible. By partnering with you in philanthropy, UCLA will be able to sustain and launch new initiatives like the ones outlined below.
Student Support
UCLA has thousands of students who participate in undergraduate research each year, yet we
have funding to support only a small percentage of them. Scholarships eliminate financial barriers for students pursuing undergraduate research, and allow them to focus on opportunities to enhance their education, rather than juggling jobs with their studies while they are at UCLA.
- By making a scholarship gift, you will provide students with the opportunity to gain experiences and skills that benefit them both academically and professionally, preparing them for graduate school and a wide variety of careers. You can support any of the following scholarship opportunities:
Discretionary Scholarship Support – Allows the Undergraduate Research Centers leadership to nimbly award students where there is the most need and student interest, including during Summer Sessions when funding opportunities are more limited. - Create a Named Scholarship – You can create a named scholarship with a donation of $100,000 which will provide scholarship support for students every year in perpetuity, creating a lasting impact for the future.
- Richard L. Weiss Undergraduate Research Quasi-Endowment – By making a gift to enhance the endowment you will support students seeking research opportunities, particularly STEM majors with high financial need and great potential for research careers.
Program Support
Your gift will support a variety of programmatic needs for the URCs including the infrastructure to support research programs, public events and workshops.
- Research Preparation – Workshops, Outreach & Advising
In order to recruit and prepare students for the undergraduate research process, they need mentors and advisors. Through research workshops and advising appointments led by graduate student mentors, undergraduates are equipped with the skills to launch their research journey.
These programs are proven to help undergraduates secure research opportunities with UCLA faculty and create the right connections. Advising appointments provide undergraduates with crucial hands-on assistance as they navigate the large university research landscape at UCLA. By making a gift to support graduate student mentors, you are creating onramps for undergraduates to take the next step into research.
How to Make a Gift
You can make your gift to UCLA through the following methods: Multi-year Pledge (up to five years), Cash by check or online, Planned gift, or even your donor-advised fund.
Here’s how an endowment works: A portion of the return on the investment is used for designated purposes, while the remaining portion of the return is reinvested into the principal sum to create market growth. In this way, an endowment serves immediate needs and creates financial security for the future
For more information on how you can support the Undergraduate Research Centers, please contact Samantha Booras at (310) 569-7877 or sbooras@support.ucla.edu
YOUR GIFT IN ACTION
undergraduate researchers at UCLA each year
URC-Sciences Programs & Scholarships focused on scholar enrichment
A Transfer Story
As a community college transfer student, I had limited access to research opportunities. Coming into UCLA, I felt that I was already behind on my chances of being a competitive applicant for graduate school, but the URC gave me the resources and community to conduct independent research projects as a beginning researcher.
I started with the two-quarter-long Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URFP), which allowed me to take time with my application and apply during my first quarter at UCLA. URFP had a seminar component to it, and I learned a lot on how to design and execute my own research project. I also benefited greatly from learning with the URC’s graduate mentor. I met with her at least once every week and she was very helpful and supportive.
My URFP project examined how community college stigma and the model minority myth can impact Asian American community college students’ mental well-being and sense of belonging. As a follow-up, my Undergraduate Research Scholars Program project was identifying the needs of AAPI students attending community colleges and finding ways to better support them with relevant resources. Currently, my Keck project examines the experiences of overall community college students in a broader context, looking at the impact of community engagement and transfer receptive culture on their academic trajectories.
As a community college transfer student myself, I appreciated this opportunity to conduct a project that was related to supporting underrepresented community college students in pursuing higher education. URC has provided me resources, both academically and financially, and has been a fundamental support during my undergraduate career.
As someone that’s been heavily engaged with URC, I now feel confident going into graduate school. URC gave me the opportunity and space to hone my research skills. Wherever I go, I now know I can execute my own research projects and even mentor others. For instance, I worked as a peer learning facilitator during the summer for the Academic Advancement Program’s Transfer Summer Program to help incoming transfer students from historically underrepresented backgrounds get involved with research. They had similar concerns that I had, including, “Will I have time to be involved with research while working two part-time jobs?” A parenting student approached me to tell me that it was hard enough being a full-time student while supporting her children. I encouraged her to apply to the programs at URC and treat it like a part-time job.
I would recommend anyone interested in graduate school to take advantage of resources that URC has to offer and explore their research interests. The funding allowed me to prioritize my research projects, as did the accountability that the programs gave me (e.g., the colloquiums, faculty advisor contract courses, and graduate mentoring). If it weren’t for URC, I doubt that I would’ve had the opportunity to make time and prioritize conducting these research projects during time I had at UCLA.
—GLORIA JIYOON KIM, Class of 2023
Discovering the Discoverers
The opportunity to participate meaningfully in research at the undergraduate level at UCLA has been amazing. I am very grateful to the URCs and the PEERS and CARE Fellows programs—without them, I would not have been financially able to obtain valuable exposure to cutting-edge laboratory studies in chemistry, which ended up supercharging my academic experience. The URCs allowed me to develop research skills early on and to participate in meaningful science aimed at developing new and better medicinal treatments for life-altering diseases. I have been able to make so many supportive connections with like-minded faculty and students and feel closer than ever to my goal of becoming a chemist and conducting pharmaceutical research.
There are so many bright, talented undergraduate students at UCLA who, with the right support, could become the next researcher to discover a needed cure, treatment or breakthrough. The URCs provide this vital opportunity by helping students gain invaluable experience that will allow us to make significant contributions to the world and the well-being of others.
—DANIEL TORRES POMARES, Class of 2025