Scholarships for Environmentalists of Color

Scholarships for Environmentalists of Color

TGIF Award: $36,000.00

Project Theme: Environmental Justice

Project Sponsor: Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC)

Project Description: The Students of Color Environmental Collective (SCEC) as well as other environmental students organizations such as the Bay Area Environmental Consulting Network have discussed and considered grant opportunities to set up a similar scholarship in the past couple of semesters. The resounding consensus is that such a scholarship would greatly advance and benefit students of color at UC Berkeley. Black, Indigenous, Students of Color are more likely to face barriers in accessing higher education and environmentalism. Institutional gaps in resources, funding and opportunities leave BIPOC students oftentimes unable to participate in co-curricular environmental activities such as student organizations, internships, professional development workshops, and community building events due to the prioritization of part-time/full-time work, the care of loved ones, commutes, or other related challenges that are furthered by racial disparities. Most students do more than the full student workload of 13 units per semester. We want students to join the campus conversation and environmental community outside of their coursework. The Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC), aims to create a new scholarship for environmentalists of color. By offering this scholarship, we are opening up pathways for environmentalists of color at UC Berkeley to engage in sustainability work and thrive as underserved students.

Project Goals: a) Financially support 15 environmentalists students of color with a $2,000 scholarship for the academic year ; b) remove financial barriers for students of color to create space for them to participate in co-curricular activities and learning opportunities.

Project Leaders: Gabrielle Ambayec, Sarah Xu, Sion Calabretta, Sharon Daraphonhdeth

2021 TGIF Spring Application