Mission Statement
Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) at UC Santa Cruz is an organization run by graduate students that welcomes the participation of undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff, and professionals in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The overarching goal of WiSE is to advance women and historically excluded groups in STEM fields both in percentage and position, in the face of historical, present, and future challenges.
Where will your money go?
Your donation supports the many programs and activities organized by WiSE! We organize events for K-12 students, events for UCSC undergraduate and graduate students, and events for the greater Santa Cruz community. These events include:
- Science Impacting Society: A program in which we bring middle school students to the UC Santa Cruz campus for a day of hands-on science activities, laboratory tours, and meeting amazing and diverse researchers on campus!
- Science on Tap: Our monthly seminar series that is free and open to the public. We host researchers from UCSC and the local community at Abbot Square to give talks about their work, to bring remarkable and innovative research to a broad audience.
- Classroom visits: We bring the science to you! WiSE volunteers visit K-12 classrooms to do hands-on STEM activities and introduce students to diverse researchers.
- Coffee hours: Workshops aimed at UCSC undergraduate and graduate students that impart skills and knowledge to empower women and historically excluded minorities to succeed in STEM fields. Coffee hour topics typically focus on career development, and/or ways to combat bias in STEM, and include free coffee and snacks for participants!
- GradPath mentoring: A quarterly mentorship program where we pair graduate student mentors with undergraduates who are interested in grad school. Grad students share experiences and advice for deciding to go to grad school, finding research opportunities on campus, and preparing for grad school and other careers in STEM.
- Middle school tutoring: WiSE provides tutoring services to middle school students who are struggling with STEM topics. This tutoring is free for students and schools!
- Naturalists: Excursions to see and appreciate all the nature Santa Cruz has to offer! We do a variety of events such as bird watching, wildflower tours, and tide pooling, each led by an experienced naturalist.
- Social events: WiSE hosts a variety of social events intended to build community among women and other historically excluded groups in STEM!
- Additional community outreach: WiSE is active in the Santa Cruz community and at UCSC, hosting booths at the Farmer's Market, Midtown First Friday, DNA Day, and many other events. We love sharing our love of STEM with our community, and hope to make it accessible and exciting for everyone!
Finally, these funds will provide us the opportunity to develop new programs that will help us reach our ultimate goal of empowering women and historically excluded groups in STEM!
Thank you!!
See our website here, and sign up for our newsletter here to learn about events and volunteer opportunities!