Above: Students studying in the Science & Engineering Library. (Photo by Elena Zhukova)
What comes to mind when you think of an “undeclared” student? Is it the “un”? Does that prefix bring up other words with a critical tone, like “Unfocused”? “Unserious”? Maybe even “unsuccessful”?
Kim Lau, provost of College Nine and John R. Lewis College, doesn’t think that way, and neither do the students in her fall-quarter Undeclared Scholars Discovery Lab.
“We need more room for exploration,” says first-year Zomaya Boggeri (College Nine) after the first class meeting in the Social Sciences 2 building. Adds classmate Dylan Neymark (Oakes), “I worked my whole life to get to college, but didn’t work out what I’d do once I got there.”
Alumna Carmen Rojas (Oakes ’00, politics), left, president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, with Chris Benner, faculty director of the IST and professor of environmental studies and sociology, at the October 15 speaker series event titled “Moving Money and Moving Power: Philanthropy Isn’t Neutral.”
Others in the room identify wanting to find fulfillment beyond a future profession, balance in life, and more encouragement to explore interests during college rather than rigidly charting what’s ahead and following a set path.
Undeclared Scholars provides exactly this, reframing the notion of “undeclared” as a good thing, a positive, a plus. Unencumbered by tunnel vision toward a future career or quickly satisfying general education requirements so as to move on to major courses, the program takes students on a journey of discovery through two courses: the first, the Discovery Lab, is designed around “asking what makes for a meaningful life as part of their major selection,” says Lau. The second, the Opportunities Lab, introduces them to opportunities to get involved with campus research, internships, field studies, and student conferences and organizations.
Not just a path to a major, but to a meaningful life
This fall quarter sees the launch of this collaboration between Lau and the Institute for Social Transformation. The pilot program of Undeclared Scholars is fully enrolled with incoming first-year students of College Nine and John R. Lewis College whose majors are undeclared.
Lau had found herself increasingly bothered by “the move away from a liberal arts education that’s taken seriously, where we come to explore ideas together and be adventurous in our learning,” she says.
She had a conversation with a student who told her, somewhat ashamed, that he was undeclared. When Lau replied, “Oh, that’s fantastic!” he appeared perplexed. “College is a time for exploring,” Lau said, “for using your curiosity as a guide. You’re doing exactly the right thing!”
The student responded, “I wish my parents felt that way.”
Lau recalls having been deeply affected by this conversation, which tapped into the inspiration behind Undeclared Scholars: trying to change the overall perception of college from something preprofessional and transactional to an immersion in curiosity, discovery, and the guiding question of “What makes for a meaningful life?”
A community of learners
As with the student Lau mentions, the notion of being an undeclared student isn’t typically met with “good for you!” praise, but rather, concern: Is the student indecisive? Noncommittal? Why don’t they know what they want to do with their life? After all, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question commonly asked to children, and even then they are expected to have some idea.
For Undeclared Scholars, Lau sought to “create a community of learners” who would be driven by curiosity rather than uncertainty, who would be “willing to adventure and explore together, and to really think about this question of what makes for a meaningful life as critical to that exploration,” she says.
As far as deciding on a major, she wants these students to learn that many and multiple trajectories are possible–even likely—over the course of one’s life, of which one’s career is a part.
“It doesn’t have to be the thing that they are super passionate about or what they’ve always wanted to study since they were a little kid,” she says. “I tell them when I went to college I didn’t know what I was going to study, either.”
Lau graduated with a B.A. in rhetoric, earned a master’s in library science, and a Ph.D. in folklore.
“I pursued those different paths because something in a class excited me or something in the world excited me, and I try to tell them, ‘You can change. What you choose now doesn’t have to be the only thing you’re ever gonna want to study or think about for the rest of your life.’”
Advisers are also excited about the project.
“I heard back from a lot of advisers,” Lau said, who had positive feedback, such as, “‘We want students to slow down. We want them to think about what they’re doing.’”
Over 100 advisers attended Lau’s keynote address on Undeclared Scholars at a recent UCSC Advising Forum. Says Assistant Vice Provost of Advising & Success Yunny Yip, “Our advisers were inspired by its focus on shifting the guiding question from ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ to ‘What makes for a meaningful life?’ This approach will empower undeclared students to embrace a broader, more enriching college experience, reframing college as a time for discovery, and encouraging students to explore what truly excites them.”
Currently, Undeclared Scholars is primarily offered at College Nine and John R. Lewis College because of its status as a pilot, although students from a few other colleges were able to enroll in the Discovery Lab class. Lau would like to expand it in the future if the pilot is successful.
Reframing undeclared
The Institute for Social Transformation (IST), a key collaborator, had funding for racial equity and student success. Lau brought the Undeclared Scholars Program idea to the IST as a way of envisioning one approach to that mandate. Lau “really helped crystallize how we could go about and meet the original mandate, which came from Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology Katharyne Mitchell,” said Ned LeBlond, IST managing director.
“I think it came to the institute because of the success of our other programs,” Director of Operations Evin Knight explains. These programs emphasize connectivity, such as Building Belonging, which fosters student success for underrepresented undergraduates through faculty-mentored service learning and research. “The role the institute is playing is the fiscal, administrative, and intellectual home,” she says.
LeBlond adds that the Undeclared Scholars, who often are underrepresented students, get the opportunity to think through the notion of declaring a major “not from a career position, but from owning their own values and positioning themselves to live their best lives.”
The program also includes an alumni speaker series, which is open to the public. LeBlond and team are inviting “individuals who have lived an inspiring life to really talk about their story, not only their careers, but idiosyncratic pursuits from their lives,” he says, “to really bring this concept of identity and who you are into this. If we’re really going to challenge the diversity and representation we have in the university, we need to confront the reality that there aren’t a lot of mentors who look like the people we want to see in those positions.”
The series launched with a talk by alum Carmen Rojas (Oakes ’00, politics), president and chief executive officer of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, on October 15, titled “Moving Money and Moving Power: Philanthropy Isn’t Neutral.”
The future is undeclared
Securing funding for Undeclared Scholars so it can evolve in a similar vein as the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change is the primary goal at the moment, explains Chris Benner, faculty director at the IST and professor of environmental studies and sociology.
The Everett Program, a student-led initiative pursuing technology and social change, was established by students in the late ’90s—a time of rapid globalization and the growth of the technology industry.
“They were getting a lot of traditional social science critique of problems that were emerging in that context,” Benner says, “and wanted real hands-on skills to not just criticize the problems, but really develop solutions. There’s a lot of synergies between the issues around social justice and racial equity and student success. It’s important to use that student support model and student community so you’re not just sitting in the classroom together, but really trying to figure out how you support each other in that learning journey.”
Obtaining the necessary funding to continue and evolve Undeclared Scholars is crucial as an equity and justice issue, Benner says, because “undeclared students are disproportionately first-generation college students, lower income, and disproportionately students of color. This becomes a chance to help them in the exploration process. If we can get multiple years of funding so that multiple cohorts of students will have gone through the classes, you can bring in previous years’ cohorts into this year’s classes to help provide that support.”
Students going through the pilot program will inevitably become more confident and secure about creating their futures. But for the Undeclared Scholars program itself, uncertainty lies ahead. With budget crises, its continuation is dependent on the institute securing funding to keep it going.
LeBlond hopes that it will, articulating the program’s true and long-term potential.
“When you really think about the value of the university,” he says, “it’s not necessarily the capacity to earn a degree, it’s the experience of learning how to think. Declaring a major shouldn’t be an automated experience, it should be an exploration. In some ways, the students who are undeclared may actually be having the most transformative experience. And we hope to transform what academia can look like.”
Back at the first day of the Discovery Lab, students emphasized their gratitude already for the existence of the program, as they seek to find balance and support not only in choosing a major, but also in living a fulfilling life.
“When I got to college and was undeclared, I got pushback from my family,” says Mariela, a Cowell first-year student who asked her last name not be used. “This program destigmatizes that.”