The University of California, Santa Cruz invites applications for a student fellowship opportunity with the University of California Global Food Initiative (UC GFI). This fellowship will support the contributions of outstanding undergraduate and graduate students to work with campus faculty and staff on core objective areas of the fellowship.
The program provides each campus up to four student awards of $4,000 each to support costs of living while at UC Santa Cruz and engaged in the fellowship. Selected fellows will be asked to commit 8-10 hours per week each academic term across this year to their project and submit a final project concept in fall quarter. A fellow picture and brief bio will be featured on the campus fellowship webpage alongside their final project concept submitted in fall.
Applicants will select one of the following areas to focus on for this year:
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UCSC Basic Needs Sustainable and Equity Driven Food Sourcing—work with professional staff and student staff advancing healthy, sustainable, and culturally relevant food for students across basic needs food access sites. This project will explore food donations and recovery as well as new vendors and partners to advance sustainable food for all students.
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UCSC Dining Sustainable and Equity Driven Food Sourcing—work with professional staff and student staff advancing healthy, sustainable, and culturally relevant food in campus dining halls and food services. This project builds on supply chain sourcing analysis and reporting from UCSC to UCOP as part of the annual campus updates on advancing sustainable practices on our campus.
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UCSC Farm to Campus Project—work with professional staff and student staff in advancing sustainable food production and distribution to campus retail locations operated by UCSC Dining. This project will support a farm to retail pilot and develop agrifood literacy materials at the point of purchase/consumption to increase awareness of sustainable food efforts at UCSC.
- Regenerative Agriculture Research and Action—work with professional staff and student staff within on farm and community farm based regenerative and organic applied research activities. This may include current no-till to soil and climate smart agriculture efforts in conjunction with research staff and interns.
Applicants must be matriculated undergraduate or graduate students at UC Santa Cruz for the entire 2023-2024 academic year. To apply, review and complete the application form by September 26 at noon PDT. The application includes identifying up to two references that the review committee may contact before finalizing the selected candidates for this year. One reference must be a UCSC faculty or staff, and the second can be an internship agency sponsor or work/professional related reference. For any questions please email Tim Galarneau at tgalarne@ucsc.edu.
The UC GFI is an effort to use the university system’s expertise in research, education, and outreach to improve the food system on UC campuses, throughout the state and nation, and around the world. GFI is addressing topics such as UC student food security, agroecological practices, and resource conservation, as well as encouraging hands-on agricultural education and increasing the amount of locally produced, organic food available to the UC community.
Find more information on the UC GFI at https://www.ucop.edu/global-food-initiative/.
