Application Deadline December 10, 2019

Are you, or someone you know, an emerging coastal science and policy leader? We seek applicants who are exceptional collaborators, early career professionals, or recent graduates who show leadership promise and passion to address opportunities and challenges from land to sea.

The Coastal Science and Policy Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz values diverse perspectives and encourages both U.S. and international students to apply, as well as students from ethnic, racially, culturally, and socioeconomically underrepresented backgrounds. Based on financial need and program resources, we offer a limited number of fellowships for tuition and living expenses or a combination thereof. New for the 2020 cohort, we are excited to announce the Repass-Rodgers Fellowship on California Salmon Restoration Policy.

The Coastal Science and Policy Program offers a Master of Science (MS) that will prepare ten outstanding students each year for leadership in coastal sustainability. Graduates of this program apply interdisciplinary understanding from natural and social sciences to inform actionable solutions to complex problems facing coastal communities and ecosystems and create measurable and scalable change. In 2019, we expanded the program to include a Ph.D. Designated Emphasis for students pursuing a Ph.D. in other UC Santa Cruz graduate programs (e.g., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Arts, Engineering, Ocean Sciences, etc.). To learn about the Ph.D. Designated Emphasis click here.

In the first year, MS students identify problems and threats, explore potential solutions, and pursue feasible options in intensive, practical, and interdisciplinary coursework. Our students hone and apply their skills at developing and leading solutions via individual capstone projects, composed of a summer placement and a second year embedded full-time engagement with a practitioner organization from government, nonprofit, or business. Second-year students also attend a capstone seminar in which they share their issues and progress with faculty and fellow students. This dual immersion in academic and practitioner cultures and contexts improves graduates’ ability to work fluidly across the science-practice interface.

Our location on Monterey Bay and at the UC Santa Cruz coastal science campus allow us to conduct groundbreaking collaborative research and offer students unique educational opportunities. We are an incubator, inspiring students to pursue new initiatives that contribute to coastal sustainability and marine conservation, and to steward larger institutions, government agencies, and the private sector in developing innovative sustainability programs.

Applications close December 10, 2019. Please share this email with promising candidates who you believe will be a good fit for the program. To learn more about our program, please visit our website or contact csp@ucsc.edu with questions.