STAR Community Highlights Blog

The 2018 UC LEADS winners

Driven by Leadership

• Created by the UC graduate Deans in 2000, their vision was to develop a program that encourages UC STEM doctoral graduates to become leaders in academia, industry, or government.
• They named this UC systemwide pre-PhD STEM undergraduate program UC LEADS, which stands for the University of California Leadership Excellence through Advanced DegreeS, there have been more than a 1,000 participants.
• By design, it focuses on rising sophomores and junior students with the potential to succeed in these disciplines, but who have experienced situations or conditions that have adversely impacted their advancement in their field of study.
• Fifty three percent of their student population are first-generation students and 52% come from underrepresented backgrounds.
• Leadership is woven into the program in various ways. At UC Berkeley, the summer research scholars participated in a leadership institute run by book author Dr. Fred More.

So Many Benefits!

• One key strength of this program is that UC LEADS scholars are typically offered two years of paid summer faculty-mentored research experiences. One at their home UC campus and the second at another UC campus (which includes lodging and meals).
• Scholars showcase their summer work annually, at their UC statewide research poster competition.
• There are a lot of additional benefits, such as leadership training, professional development (ex: professional headshots, travel to research conferences, workshops, graduate school coaching), graduate school visits, a fantastic student community and a network of UC Graduate Division professionals.
• Moreover, they waive all UC STEM graduate school application fees for their program participants.