Creating Opportunities for Student Talent to Shine

Yuliana Ortega, Director of STEM Diversity Programs at UCSC, will explore the challenges and the rewards of the educational effort at UCSC to encourage and help underrepresented students pursue careers in scientific research. Three students, current and past beneficiaries of this effort, will join Ms. Ortega. Although the population of students at UCSC is highly diverse in ethnicity, the faculty, as on most campuses, is much less so. For many years the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the University of California have sponsored programs at UCSC to encourage and help underrepresented students pursue careers in scientific research. The efforts at UCSC have helped 130 underrepresented students attain Ph.D. degrees