Staff Profile: Kylie Rachwalski 

Kylie Rachwalski is the Assistant Director of Experiential Learning in the Humanities Division. As part of the Humanities Student Achievement team, she leads the Humanities Experiential Learning Opportunities in Research (EXPLORE) and Experiential Career Exploration and Learning (EXCEL) programs. She has collaborated with The Humanities Institute to grow and improve fellowship opportunities for humanities undergraduate students, and she has developed impressive programs since arriving at UCSC in 2023. Her work helps ensure that students gain tangible, hands-on research experience and professional training in the humanities, either working with faculty and/or partnering with organizations in Santa Cruz County. In December, we talked with Rachwalski about her exciting role in the Division, her background and interest in experiential learning, and how she is helping students identify future career paths once they leave UC Santa Cruz.


Hi Kylie! I’m so glad we can talk with you today. First, could you give us a general synopsis of your role in the Humanities Division and work with The Humanities Institute?

I’m the Humanities Division’s Assistant Director of Experiential Learning, and I work closely with our Student Achievement team and THI. A large portion of my role is focused on our Employing Humanities initiative, which includes coordinating our Humanities EXCEL internship program and our EXPLORE undergraduate research program for students with a major or minor in the Humanities division! Saskia Nauenberg Dunkell, THI’s Director of Research Programs and Communications Director, laid a very strong foundation for these programs with the successful Undergraduate Public Fellows program, and together, our teams have built on that success to create the Experiential Career Exploration and Learning (EXCEL) which brings community building and career readiness programming into the experience.

It’s exciting the Humanities Division has such an amazing Student Achievement team. Can you share some examples of experiential learning opportunities that are having a significant impact on students?

Thanks! Our Student Achievement team is focused on creating opportunities for current and prospective students to engage with the humanities in exciting co-curricular ways outside the classroom. We’re all about showing our students how relevant and useful their studies are in the community and beyond. In our EXCEL paid internship program, we design the opportunities with the partnering organization to be pertinent to a wide range of majors or minors in our division, and we’ve seen students from every major participate. The roles range from doing archival projects with museums to supporting communication strategies to planning and executing community engagement events of all sizes. Each position provides opportunities for foundational skills in the humanities with a wide array of experiences. 

In the EXPLORE Program, fellows work on a faculty’s research project. They experience the professional research process and have the opportunity to engage deeply with the academic content they’ve been exposed to in coursework. Often, our faculty’s professional research is connected to community organizations or public humanities work, allowing students to apply concepts tangibly and develop transferable skills. We hope that having sustained mentorship from a faculty member allows the students to build trust and positive working relationships and feel like they belong here. 

We’re stoked that students can earn a competitive wage working in an internship that aligns with their studies, provides career clarity, and has valuable experience on their resume when they graduate. 

For people unfamiliar with experiential learning, could you describe what that means to you specifically and why it is so important?

I explain experiential learning as a process whereby students “learn by doing” and then reflect on the experience routinely. You try something, conceptualize the connections you’re making, examine your mistakes, and then apply what you learned going forward. 

It’s important to me that our offerings go beyond being paid jobs and are framed as learning endeavors from the start. When we develop the opportunity, we make sure there are a portion of duties that our students are set up for success to hit the ground running with, as well as some that are in a good stretch zone, meaning that with support from our team and their mentors, they’ll grow into mastering over the course of the year. All EXCEL and EXPLORE fellows write learning goals they share with their mentors.

Kylie and THI Research Programs and Communications Director Saskia Nauenberg Dunkell with EXCEL Fellow Serena Ramirez at TedX Santa Cruz in Spring 2024. Serena created a Loteria board game for the Community Foundation’s table at TEDx. 

When our cohorts meet together, there is dedicated reflection time to process how their academic expertise shows up in their roles as interns and research assistants. The goal is to help learners take the skills and concepts they leverage from their humanities coursework and apply them in a professional or research setting. 

Experiential learning can only occur through strong partnerships in the community. Who are a few of the partners you are working with, and what are some things that you have learned through these collaborations? 

We have a network of incredible community organizations that partner with us to host and mentor EXCEL fellows! THI has deep and longstanding relationships with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History and The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, who have mentored undergraduate fellows for many years. Employing Humanities has allowed our division to forge partnerships with more organizations and diversify the types of roles and fields in which Humanities students can work and thrive. In the past two years, we’ve forged partnerships with eighteen additional organizations, non-profits, and businesses alike, who share our conviction that humanities scholars have the necessary skills that are needed in the workforce. 

I’ve had the privilege of building relationships with these individuals who choose to host an EXCEL intern and commit to meaningful mentorship. It’s been so encouraging to see that many people in our community want to build bridges with the university and learn from us about best practices for working with undergraduate students. It’s my intention this year to support our mentors in addition to our fellows.

These are many of the community partners that provide experiential learning opportunities for students.

Students love to hear about the paths that people take to end up working at UCSC. Can you tell us about your professional trajectory here and maybe some moments of experiential learning that shaped your journey? What advice would you give to students based on your own career experiences?

Absolutely! I’ve had a handful of experiential learning opportunities that shaped who I am as a learner and educator. I earned a B.S. in Liberal Studies (Education) from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a multiple-subject teaching credential, and an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from San Jose State. Nearly all of my courses in my undergraduate major and graduate studies were designed as active-learning labs that utilized instructional practices and routines we could replicate with our future students. My professors would facilitate discussions where the class would process the lesson experience both as learners and from a teaching perspective. I became obsessed with that reflection and integrated it into my professional practice.  

I also got to do field study in local elementary school classrooms and later did one year of student teaching. This gradual release model of going from observing and helping to working 3 days per week and doing some lessons with a mentor teacher, to then co-teaching five days per week with two full weeks on my own allowed me to build the skills and confidence gradually to take my first full-time job.

Teaching was a very happy chapter for me. Still, I decided to evolve my career when I moved to Santa Cruz and join UC Santa Cruz because I’m inspired by active learning and deeply value holistic success for the students I serve. My expertise is in instructional design, so I leverage that in how we structure our cohort programming and ensure that our students have ample opportunities to make meaning of their experience and reflect intentionally on their growth. 

Consider your top values and what skills you want to leverage in a role. Every job you have, whether it’s semi-professional or professional, is a chance to clarify what aligns with you and what allows you to thrive. All experiences equip you with transferable skills that you can carry forward with you, and as you build a resume, focus on the skills you gained, not what the job was. Your skills and values will help you identify who you are, what you do, and why you do it.  

What are some of the key resources that the Humanities Division has been developing that you want to highlight for students, faculty, staff, and community partners? 

We have a divisional Instagram @ucschumanities where we post about paid opportunities, and events, career-related things and spotlight our awesome students! Follow us so you don’t miss the most up-to-date info and fun reels made by our Student Achievement Coordinators, Jesus and Nazeerah. 

Our EXCEL and EXPLORE sites list all of our currently open and past opportunities in one central location for students; no more wondering where to find things! 

Our community partners in the EXCEL Program and Humanities divisional faculty who participate in the EXPLORE Program receive handbooks that guide them through the program’s cycle and offer best practices to support them. 

Finally, what are you most excited about in the year ahead?

I’m so excited to help plan our “Celebrating The Humanities” Event on May 22, 2025, where all Humanities EXCEL, EXPLORE, and THI Research Fellows will be invited to showcase their work from the year with a broad audience of students, faculty, staff, alumni and community partners! We’ll support our fellows in preparing to share what their specific contributions were in their positions and how they grew through the experience.


EXCEL and EXPLORE applications for the 2025-2026 school year will begin in May 2025 for the Fall Quarter, and additional applications will open in Fall 2025 for the start of January 2026. More information can be found here.

Banner Image: Kylie and the 2024-2025 Cohort EXPLORE Fellows at their program orientation in October. 

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