Undergraduate Student Support

The Humanities Institute cultivates critical thinkers and prepares undergraduate students to grapple with a complex world. 

Our focus on experiential scholarship promotes student success and encourages our undergraduate students to take charge of their education. We provide hands-on training and professional development opportunities beyond the classroom, including an innovative EXCEL Fellowship program that places Humanities students in paid internships that prepare them for rich and lasting careers. We offer opportunities for undergraduate students to pursue independent research projects and present their work. Programs like THI’s Deep Read also engage our students with the campus and broader community. See our current and previous THI Fellows here.

 

THI Undergraduate Student Funding Opportunities (click here)

THI Undergraduate Research Fellowship

CFA: THI Undergraduate Research Fellowships 2024-2025 Deadline Dec 2nd, 2024

Undergraduate Competitions

The Coha-Gunderson Prize in Speculative Futures, 2024-2025: Deadline extended November 15th, 2024

EXPLORE Fellowships (more information here):

EXCEL Fellowships (more information here):

Deadline November 22nd, 2024

Deadline November 10th, 2024

Deadline October 13th, 2024

Other Undergraduate Research Fellowships

Undergraduate Summer Fellowship with Digital Heritage Mapping: Deadline May 6, 2024

Intra-American Slave Trade Database Summer Research Internship Program: Deadline April 17th, 2024

Earth Futures Undergraduate Frontier Fellows Program: Deadline March 10, 2024

Selection of Previous Undergraduate Fellowships

The American Prospect
Editorial Intern
Deadline November 27th, 2023
The American Prospect (TAP) magazine and website is devoted to promoting informed discourse on public-policy matters from a progressive perspective, through a narrative interpretation of complex issues. TAP’s value lies in explaining the power dynamics at work behind the story, and how that power might be shifted to the public’s benefit. American Prospect, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Lookout Santa Cruz (2 Positions)
– Educational Programs Assistant
– Editorial Fellow, Audience Engagement
Deadline October 18th, 2023
Lookout Santa Cruz is the region’s largest news company and is quickly becoming the go-to new source for thousands of readers in Santa Cruz County. Lookout’s newsroom of 10 counts 140 years of collective experience, providing excellent mentoring opportunities for the fellowship applicant.

Community Foundation Santa Cruz County
Community Engagement Intern
Deadline October 18th, 2023
The Community Foundation Santa Cruz County awards grants, loans, and scholarships across education, the arts, human services, the environment, health, and economic development. The fellow will be working on the Engagement & Impact team which supports: 1) local nonprofits through grantmaking, storytelling, and education 2) graduating high school seniors achieve their dreams of higher education through a scholarship program 3) local Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Leaders through the Rise Together coalition, and 4) local visual artists and arts organizations through the Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship.

Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) (2 Positions)
– Assistant Archives Coordinator
– Assistant Education Coordinator
Deadline October 18th, 2023
The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) is a thriving community gathering place that offers rotating art and history exhibitions, visual and performing artworks, public festivals, education and outreach programs, and cultural celebrations in collaboration with many partners.

Prison Journalism Project
Poetry Concentration Editorial Intern
Deadline October 18th, 2023
Prison Journalism Project (PJP) is an independent, nonprofit, national initiative. PJP works with incarcerated writers and those impacted by incarceration to train them in the tools of journalism and help them reach a wide audience through PJP’s publication as well as through collaborations with mainstream media.

Watsonville is in the Heart
Curatorial Research Assistant
Deadline October 2nd, 2023
Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) is a community-driven public history initiative to preserve and uplift stories of Filipino migration and labor in the city of Watsonville and the greater Pajaro Valley. WIITH is looking for two undergraduate students to support the development and execution of WIITH’s art and history exhibitions.

CFA: THI Summer Undergraduate Public Fellowship with Open Campus: Deadline May 22, 2023
Open Campus is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigating and elevating reporting on higher education across the country. We combine a team of national reporters and editors that know higher ed deeply with local newsrooms that know their communities deeply. We work on stories with higher ed journalists in nine newsrooms across the country. And we publish a collection of national newsletters, written by expert journalists, about higher ed topics. Our three national reporters cover prison education, rural education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

CFA: THI 2020-2021 Undergraduate Public Fellowships with Senderos
Deadline November 21, 2020
Program Coordinator & Language Education Developer at Senderos
Senderos is a non-profit organization that teaches and celebrates Latino cultures through music, dance, and language, and that provides free educational resources for K-12 students and adults in Santa Cruz.

Undergraduate Student Travel and Experiential Fellowship Program: Egypt, Ancient to Modern: Deadline May 2, 2022

Keep reading to learn more about the different kinds of support THI offers for undergraduate students. More information can be found in each link.

    

Research Fellowships

THI Research Fellowships support undergraduate research projects at UC Santa Cruz in the humanities and prepare students to present their findings in a research poster for the Humanities Spring Awards. 

Public Fellowships

Humanities EXCEL Fellowships create opportunities for humanities students to contribute to research, programming, communications, and other activities at non-profit oganizations, companies, and cultural institutions.

The Deep Read

The Deep Read is an annual THI program, which invites curious minds to think deeply about books and the most pressing issues of our contemporary moment. THI offers an undergraduate class connected to the book, free books for students, and an opportunity for students to meet the author.

Join Our Community

Join us for an upcoming THI event. We host or co-sponsor over 150 events every year and often provide free books or tickets to students. There are also many opportunities to get involved in campus research through research clusters, research projects, and other initiatives. 

THI has also partnered with faculty to create international research travel opportunities for undergraduate students, including a trip to Egypt and visits to Okinawa with the Okinawa Memories Initiative.

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