Why UC Santa Cruz

A research university recognized worldwide for influential original ideas, UC Santa Cruz was founded also with a commitment to unmatched high-quality education. Gifts to UCSC help ambitious students achieve their dreams and enable innovative faculty to bring groundbreaking visions to reality.

UC Santa Cruz donors

• Provide the transformational experience of education and training in critical thinking at a world-class research university

• Recruit diverse future leaders in science, technology, and sustainability

• Drive research advancing social justice and a healthier environment

• Accelerate solutions in medicine, computing, and biology

• Enable insights that challenge assumptions and refine our understanding of society

Taking on inequity

A Hispanic Serving Institution ranked high for economic mobility, UCSC is a pathway to opportunities.

At UCSC the creation of new knowledge is directly connected to real-world impact. Undergraduates here have unmatched opportunities to apply their learning through field study, community-engaged internships, and contributions to professional research.

Future doctors work alongside senior researchers developing new cancer detection technology and advancing the science of the immune system. Aspiring entrepreneurs develop new products and hone pitches for startup funding.

Opening new paradigms

Researchers come to UCSC for a culture of challenging assumptions and breaking paradigms.

Here a team of computer scientists and biologists first published the human genome and have continued building upon that momentous achievement. In 2020, researchers developed the UCSC SARS-CoV-2 Genome Browser, and it is being used worldwide by COVID-19 researchers working on tests, treatments, vaccines, and pandemic mapping.

A pioneer of the organic farming movement, UCSC’s Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems continues training the industry’s leaders and identifying new techniques for environmentally sustainable food and farming practices. New research is testing the potential of organic methods to reduce climate change.

Graduate researchers are engaged in a vast diversity of inquiries, from modeling the development of the universe to documenting the indigenous languages of local immigrants from Oaxaca. Students program computer games to facilitate social change. Faculty organize public debate that elevates how we discuss our differences.

And this is just a partial illustration of the many powerful ways UC Santa Cruz is changing our communities, our society, and the world—for the better. Join us.