Give UCSC students opportunities to meet and learn from some of the world's most influential activists
About the Seed & Innovation Grant Program
Connecting activism and academia is core to what we do. Our Seed & Innovation Grant program supports the transformative student experience by resourcing students to engage with leading changemakers around the world around the issues that matter most to them. In fall 2024, we’ll have a Request for Proposals for 2 undergraduate awards and 2 graduate student awards for students seeking to collaborate with a Right Livelihood Laureate. Funds will be used for travel and supplies necessary for their project. Applications will be reviewed by the Right Livelihood Club officers with selection criteria based on: diversity, equity, and inclusion of historically excluded communities; complementarity with the Laureate; and the strength and feasibility of the proposal. Award letters will be sent by the end of fall 2024 so students can implement their projects in winter & spring 2025. We’ll host a report-back presentation where the students can share their projects with the campus community. For example, a student may choose to collaborate with RL Laureate Freda Huson, female chief of the Wet’suwet’en peoples, and the UCSC American Indian Resource Center to bolster international student-activist solidarity and amplify indigenous-led climate justice activism on campus.
Pictured above: Undergraduate students from KZSC with Right Livelihood Laureate Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! at our 2018 Conference. The conference reached over 2,500 students over three days earning it the reputation as the largest event UCSC’s ever had.
About Right Livelihood
UCSC’s Right Livelihood Center connects activism and academia, boosting urgent and long-term social change. We link students with winners of the prestigious Right Livelihood Award and the movements they are part of – some of the world’s most successful changemakers – to build solidarity with global movements and be more effective in our social and environmental change work. Previous Laureates include Greta Thunberg, Bryan Stevenson, Amy Goodman, Vandana Shiva, Denis Mukwege, and Daniel Ellsberg. Founded in 2013, we are the only campus in North America in the global RLC network spanning five continents. Based on our success, UCSC has been invited to lead and coordinate this global RLC network, providing us with a unique opportunity to increase student engagement and make major contributions to people and the planet. Your contributions go directly to our “Seed and Innovation Grants” to connect students with Laureates for research, travel, and project work.
Student Testimonial
“Collaborating with my peers at UCSC and abroad at the Right Livelihood Colleges in Mumbai, India, and Lund, Sweden made me feel empowered and as if I belonged to a community whose passions and values aligned with mine. From early on in 2019 through the end of 2020, I contributed to creating World Cafe-style dialogues on Zoom in which students, laureates, and all those in between were able to share their knowledge, ideas, hopes and fears for the world we were currently facing. We left each dialogue more gratuitous and energized than the last and were so proud of the global community we were facilitating. Now, almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, gratitude and energy are what I think I need most. I am sure there are many people who, like myself, feel like their mental health is being affected by our current reality; and who are struggling with depression and anxiety because of it. The Right Livelihood community helped with my mental health throughout college. It led me away from a negative and pessimistic outlook on our world and directed my attention to the possible outcomes and positive change that could take place if people communicated and worked together to do so. In continuation to my experience with Right Livelihood, I have chosen a career as a therapist to help break down the stigmas of open and honest communication, and to help those in my Latinx community, who for me exemplifies perseverance and strength, to choose hope, health, and motivation.”
- Jordan-Hunter Jimenez-Santillan
Connect
https://rightlivelihood.ucsc.edu | @rightlivelihooducsc
https://rightlivelihood.org | @rightlivelihood
