Scholarships and Awards

• $1,000 to $4,000 may be awarded per student. 
• An additional $1,000 may be awarded in support of the awardee’s sponsoring faculty member. 
• Award may be used by the student for any expenses incurred during the summer months (June-August). 
• A faculty committee will review applications and make a recommendation to the Dean of the Division of Social Sciences. The award recipient(s) will be notified on or before March xx, 20XX. Winners should plan on attending the division’s award luncheon.

• $1,000 to $4,000 may be awarded per student. 
• An additional $1,000 may be awarded in support of the awardee’s sponsoring faculty member. 
• Award may be used by the student for any expenses incurred during the summer months (June-August). 
• A faculty committee will review applications and make a recommendation to the Dean of the Division of Social Sciences. The award recipient(s) will be notified on or before March xx, 20XX. Winners should plan on attending the division’s award luncheon.

Fred Keeley is currently serving as Mayor of Santa Cruz, CA, and also recently served as the Santa Cruz County Treasurer/Tax Collector. He represented the Monterey Bay area in the California State Assembly from 1996 through 2002, and earlier served as a Santa Cruz County supervisor. During his tenure in the state legislature he authored the Marine Life Management Act, which the Associated Press called the “most significant advancement in ocean policy in 50 years.” Keeley also authored the two largest park and environmental protection bonds in the state and nation’s history. He is a board member of Ocean Champions and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

• Award amount varies by year. 
• Preference is given to undergraduate students who have a demonstrated interest in or are pursuing studies in one or more of the areas in which Rick Hooper focused his life’s work:
  • increasing understanding of the Arabic language or the Arabic-speaking or Muslim world
  • study at a college or university in an Arabic-speaking or Muslim-majority country
  • an internship in peace and conflict resolution or human rights
  • study or work in Palestinian human rights issues
  • Applicants are evaluated based on academic merit and financial need.
• A faculty committee will review applications and make a recommendation to the Dean of the Division of Social Sciences. The award recipient(s) will be notified on or before March 24, 2023.
• Winners should plan on attending the division’s award luncheon.

Applicant requirements

• Applicants must be undergraduate student of any department in any division.

Application requirements 

• A completed online application form
• Narrative proposal (500 words maximum) submitted via the online application, explaining your project and experience, preparation, and concrete goals related to the research areas outlined.
• Submitted via e-mail to the Social Sciences Dean’s office:
  • Project budget with amount of funding requested, and line items for expenses (Project Budget Template)
  • Unofficial academic transcript

Rick, a 1985 graduate of UC Santa Cruz, spent many years in the Middle East and became one of the UN’s chief experts on the region. He became interested in the Middle East as a UCSC undergraduate while studying abroad, and he returned to join a campus student organization, the Palestine Support Group, dedicated to promoting awareness of the culture, aspirations, and human rights situation of Palestinians. He spent an extra undergraduate year studying at Birzeit University, studied Arabic on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Damascus and the American University of Cairo, and received a master’s in Arab studies from Georgetown University.

Rick Hooper first joined the United Nations in 1990 as a refugee affairs officer in Gaza with the UN Relief and Works Agency. He later served at the agency’s Vienna headquarters. Since 2001 he had been special assistant to the UN undersecretary general for political affairs. In 1995-96 and 1999-2001, he served as special assistant to the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process. He had a long association with the Norwegian Institute for Applied Social Sciences and helped establish its Program for International Cooperation and Conflict Resolution. He was also the founding director of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum in New York.

• Two awards of up to $1,500 may be awarded per year. 
• Two graduate recipients are selected each year, one from the Economics Department and one from another department in the Division of Social Sciences.
• Applicants are evaluated based on academic merit. 
• Deadlines for each award is set by individual departments in the Social Sciences. Applicants should contact their graduate advisor for support in completing the application, and to find out more about department-specific deadlines for submission.

Applicant requirements

• Applicants must be a graduate student and teaching assistant in one of the departments of the Division of Social Sciences.

Application requirements 

• Applications are completed through the applicant’s graduate advisor. 
• Graduate student should contact their graduate advisor for more information on submission materials and department-specific deadlines for consideration.

David Kaun, emeritus professor of economics at UC Santa Cruz, was a devoted and generous donor to UC Santa Cruz since 1966. A recipient of student support during his graduate work at Stanford University, he was inspired to endow a graduate student award after working with two talented teaching assistants in the fall of 1999. 

The award, which was established to recognize outstanding teaching by graduate students, is named after its first recipients, Garrett Milam and Matt McGinty, graduates of the UC Santa Cruz program in international economics. Milam and McGinty were teaching assistants in Kaun’s Intermediate Microeconomic Theory course, which had an enrollment of about 120 undergraduates. Kaun credited Milam and McGinty with making major contributions to the success of the course and inspiring him to establish the endowment. 

Upon receiving the first award, Matt McGinty remarked “As graduate students, there are lots of reasons not to devote time to teaching, including your own studies, but to be a good TA, you have to care about your students.”

• One award of a variable amount is given per year to an undergraduate student.  
• Students who volunteer to help underserved communities, such as foster youth, people with disabilities, and unhoused people are ideal recipients of this award.

Applicant requirements

• Department nominees must be undergraduate students with significant financial need, pursuing educational and career goals in social justice, with a strong preference for first-generation students.

Application requirements

• Students are nominated by their departments and do not need to put forward an application. 

The Benjamin Quaye Memorial Endowment for Social Justice honors the memory of Benjamin Quaye, a UC Santa Cruz student who died at age 21 in 2010. Benjamin had a strong commitment to spreading the values of tolerance and social justice, and his studies and future plans were built upon these ideals. Ben participated on the Men’s Rugby team, helped foster youth and people with disabilities, and espoused the Oakes College theme of diversity and inclusion. 

Ben dreamed of becoming a social worker so he could counsel troubled children and young adults. He was a vibrant part of the UC Santa Cruz and the world around him.

Benjamin was a loving brother and devoted son. A lover of the outdoors and all things natural, Benjamin was equally at home on the snow and the water. He enjoyed snowboarding in the winter and wakeboarding in the summer. He especially enjoyed hiking in Eaton Canyon near his home in Altadena, California. His family, friends, and loved ones donate these endowed funds in his loving memory to support students at UCSC who share his ideals.

• One or more awards of up to $5,000 are given per year. 
• This award rotates annually among the departments in the division. 
• Applicants are evaluated based on academic merit and financial need. 
• A call for applications letter goes out on or around March 1 annually. Application deadlines are set per department.

Applicant requirements

• Applicants must be undergraduate students in any department in the Division of Social Sciences.

Application requirements

• Applications are submitted through undergraduate advisors. Contact your undergraduate advisor for more information on the submission process and requirements. 

Distinguished Professor of Economics Carl Walsh, and his wife Judy Walsh, established the Walsh Family Scholarship Endowment for Social Science majors in honor of Eugene and Bessie Walsh. “This is a lasting way of honoring my parents,” said Carl Walsh. “They set a good example of doing things they thought would make the world a better place.” In recognition of the gift, the conference room in Social Sciences 1 was renamed the Eugene and Bessie Walsh Conference Room. A plaque inside the room describes the careers and philanthropy of Eugene and Bessie Walsh.

Eugene Walsh, after being forced to cut short his studies at UCLA to support his parents during the Great Depression, followed by his service in the 94th division during WWII, returned to the classroom decades later, graduating from UCLA’s executive program in 1964, and receiving an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University in 1972.

He retired in 1977 as president and CEO of Ralph’s Grocery Company and vice president and assistant to the chairman of Ralph’s parent company, Federated Department Stores. Eugene and Bessie Walsh are active in the Food Industry Circle of the City of Hope charity in Los Angeles, which has raised more than $ 100 million for cancer research, and Eugene Walsh has received numerous awards for his civic work in the Los Angeles area. The elder Walshes have also supported research activities in UC Santa Cruz’s Economics Department for years.

Carl Walsh joined the UC Santa Cruz faculty in 1987 after being affiliated with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where he continues to be a visiting scholar. Previously, he was a faculty member at Princeton University and at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research focuses on issues in monetary economics, including the effects of institutional reforms on monetary policy. Judy Walsh is a member of the pioneer class of Crown College, earning a bachelor’s degree in history in 1971. In 1990, she received a master’s degree in applied economics. She served as the Development Consultant and Development Director for the New Teacher Center until 2007.

• Awards vary by year, with one or more awards given per year. 
• Applicants are evaluated on meritorious, ongoing, and demonstrated commitment to public service and academic excellence. 
• This is not solely a need-based award, but financial need is a consideration.
• A call for applications goes out in late February or early March each year. 
• Each department selects one candidate for this award along with a nomination letter detailing the exceptional qualities of the nominee. Applications are forwarded to the review committee convened by the Dean of Social Sciences,  including at least two faculty members and two community members, as well as a past Zimmerman Award recipient. 
• The recipient of this award will be honored publicly at the Social Sciences Division Student Award Luncheon in the spring.

Applicant requirements

• Applicants must be an undergraduate student in any department in the Division of Social Sciences. 
• Applicants must be in good to excellent academic standing.

Application requirements

• Applications are submitted through students’ undergraduate advisors. Applicants should contact their advisor for support in completing the application. 
• Applications should include the following materials, submitted to the applicant’s undergraduate ad
  • Unofficial transcript 
  • Resume
  • A short essay of 2-3 pages outlining your passion for social issues and demonstrated commitment to public service.

Gabriel “Gabe” Zimmerman graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2002 as a Sociology major, and he was working for Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as her Director of Community Outreach when he was tragically shot and killed. Generous donations from more than 520 alumni, community members, and the general public funded this endowment. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi taped a special video to congratulate the 2013 Zimmerman Scholar, Carson Watts. 

Please contact Social Sciences Development for information about making a gift, or to make an online gift, click Donate to this Fund.

• One or more awards of $2,800 are given per year. 
• Applicants are evaluated based on merit. 
• A call for applications letter goes out on or around March 1 annually.
• The scholarship selection is administered by the Dean of Social Sciences.

Applicant requirements

• Faculty-nominated students must be an undergraduate student of any major affiliated with College Nine or John R. Lewis College, and working directly with faculty within the Research Centers in the Division of Social Sciences.

Application requirements

• Students must be nominated by a faculty member with whom they are completing research. Faculty members should submit nominations on the student’s behalf.

This award was established in 2005 by Timothy and Jean Weiss. The Weiss Family Scholarship enhances the mission of the Division of Social Sciences research centers, rewarding outstanding students, strengthening student/faculty connections, and providing an additional incentive for the research centers to involve the students within these two Division of Social Sciences residential colleges