Graduate Student Support
Supporting Students at the Bren School
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It's so much fun! Master's student, Patrick Roehrdanz surrounded by his donors (from left) Joy Dittberner, Tom Peters, Gayle Cummings and Craig Cummings.
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Photo by Jim Boyden The Bren School views the task of preparing the next generation of environmental leaders as a fundamental responsibility. An unstinting commitment to assisting students is one of the keys to the Bren School's continued excellence, and an area where donors can have a personal impact on individual lives.
Students who received donor-funded, merit-based support are among the most outstanding members of their class and often emerge as some of our most important community leaders and innovators. Their acceptance of candidacy at the Bren School is due, in part, to donors who provided funding that enabled the Bren School to successfully compete with other top programs in the nation for these superb Ph.D. and Master’s candidates.
Supporting a Bren Ph.D. Student
The Bren School is proud to be among a handful of Universities world wide that offers a Ph.D. in this emerging interdisciplinary field of environmental science and management. We view this work as critical to the future of the planet and yet our faculty and students are often challenged to support their leading-edge research because well established sources of traditional disciplinary funding are not yet available for novel interdisciplinary approaches for environmental solutions.
One of our greatest needs at the Bren School is fellowship funding to recruit the best and brightest applicants to our Ph.D. program. The university competes with the nation’s top institutions for the very best advanced-degree candidates. Recruitment packages that guarantee at least five years of funding, including support for research, are now essential to compete with the top-ranked programs for the most promising students. Please contact Jennifer Deacon directly for more information on making a gift to support Ph.D. students. Opportunities for graduate funding are as follows.
Named Full or Partial Endowed Ph.D. Fellowship
A Full or Partial Endowed Ph.D. Fellowship at the Bren School is a highly prestigious endowment that would permanently associate a donor’s name with the Bren School and the University of California, Santa Barbara. This endowment opportunity represents one of the highest priorities of the School and University. A named full or partial endowed fellowship would provide funding for a student and support summer research to facilitate their progress to complete their dissertation. The commitment to establish an endowed graduate student fellowship will ensure that in years to come, the Bren School has the resources to attract and retain the most outstanding students. A fellowship at this level would be highly prestigious for the fellowship recipient and would raise the national profile of the Bren School.
Named Partial Endowed Ph.D. Award
A named Endowed Ph.D. Award at the Bren School, is an endowment that would support an annual award coupled with institutional funds to help recruit and support top Ph.D. students. In addition, this recruitment fund may also support summer research to facilitate student progress in completion of their dissertation. This funding would help to top-off funding packages offered to potential graduate students or it may be used to support the ongoing research and travel of current graduate students at the Bren School.
Contribute any amount to the Bren School’s Endowment for Student Support
The School’s Endowment for Student Support enables the Bren School to recruit and/or support outstanding Ph.D. and Master’s student each year. Funds from the endowment may be offered alone, coupled with other institutional resources, or offered as summer funding for dissertation research. Gifts of all sizes are most welcome!
What does it take to support a Bren Master’s Student?
A gift of $10,000+ establishes a prestigious one-year named Fellowship. You may endow this Fellowship in perpetuity with a one-time gift of $200,000.
A gift of $5,000 establishes a one-year named Award. You may endow this Award in perpetuity with a one-time gift of $100,000.
A gift of $2,500 establishes a one-year named Prize. You may endow this Prize in perpetuity with a one-time gift of $50,000.
Endowments make possible named support in perpetuity and ensure the excellence of the School's student body for years to come. For information about making a gift of student support, please contact Assistant Dean of Development Jennifer Purcell Deacon at (805) 893-5743 or jennifer@bren.ucsb.edu.
Master’s Student Support
Photo by Jim Boyden |
Donors Barry and Jean Schuyler flanked by the Recipients of the Jean and Barry Schuyler Prizes (left to right) Julia Griffin, Erica Eisch, Bridget Dobrowski, Lucas Bare, Lara Polansky, recipient of the Barry Schuyler Fellowship and Laurel Brandt. |
The Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, one of the top three programs of its kind in the nation, is emerging as the preeminent institution for the education of solution-oriented professionals trained in a comprehensive, balanced, interdisciplinary approach to environmental science and management.
Bren students are part of the next generation of environmental leaders. We view the process of teaching and training them as a fundamental responsibility that is part of our unwavering commitment to ensuring a sustainable future. Strong, consistent support for students is a key to the Bren School’s continued excellence; it is also an area in which we provide corporations, foundations, and individuals with the opportunity to have a direct and powerful impact on individual lives. Fellowships are essential to attracting and retaining the brightest students, and endowed fellowships are especially valuable in ensuring that the School can attract top scholars now and far into the future.
In the past two years, the cost of a graduate education nation-wide has increased significantly. The Bren School seeks support to extend fellowships that offset most or all of the tuition for outstanding students and those having the greatest need.
Named Summer Internship Fellowships
The Bren School places a strong emphasis on professional experience and expects all Master’s students to complete internships between their first and second year of study. Summer internships provide an opportunity for students to apply what they have learned in the classroom, gain valuable work experience, and make key contacts in the field – locally, nationally and internationally. Over the years, many internships have been instrumental in helping students locate career positions after graduation.
Because summer internships are often low or non-paid, fellowships are essential and greatly appreciated.
Summer Internship Fellowships are competitive and are awarded by the Bren School’s Office of Career Development in the spring of a Bren student’s first year. Fellowship donors are notified of their student recipients at that time and learn about the internship on which the students will embark. Then, in the fall, donors are invited to meet their students at the Annual Awards Dinner where they learn first hand about the work and experience they helped make possible.
Establish a Named Summer Internship Fellowship for $1,000+.
For information about making a gift of student support, please contact Assistant Dean of Development Jennifer Purcell Deacon at (805) 893-5743 or jennifer@bren.ucsb.edu.
Pictured at left: Donor Deanna Dehlsen with Master's student and recipient of the Deanna and Jim Dehlsen Award, Milena Viljoen. Milena earned her BS in Biology with a concentration in Animal Behavior in 2001 from Duke University. Prior to coming to the Bren School, she was a communications and outreach specialist at I.M. Systems Group in Long Beach, Calif. and also an Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education Fellow with the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center also in Long Beach. While at the Bren School, Milena plans to study Conservation Planning and Coastal Marine Resources Management.
Photo by Jim Boyden
2007 - 2008 Named Prizes and Fellowships Recipients and Donors
(*Endowment)
Association of Environmental Professions (AEP) Prize: Melissa Harris Allen Associates Prize: Melissa Gomez Alana Birchim Memorial Prize: Brandon Willer Harvey Bottelsen Prize: Jordan Sager Jim Boyden Prize: Lauren Flinn *Donald Bren Foundation Fellowship: Alicia Godlove, David Panitz, Courtney Scarborough, Danae Werthmann Larry Chiang Memorial Prize: Chien-Ju Lin Robert T. Deacon Prize: Uthra Radhakrishnan Deanna and Jim Dehlsen Award: Milena Viljoen Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship: Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Kavita Heyn, Evan Johnson, Dominique Monié, Erin Myers *Monica Florian Award: Kristian Beadle Patricia and Dennis Forster Prize: Kelli McCune *John T. Gray Memorial Prize: Lindsay Lane Fred and Pamela Harris Prize: Danielle Côté-Schiff *Gary and Joanne Hunt Endowment: Phillip Johnson Investec Properties Prize: Theressa Karasek Elaine and Herbert Kendall Fellowship: Chris Noddings Charlie Kolstad Prize: Seth Strongin John Melack Prize: Thomas Holley Catherine and Alan Palter Prize: Heather Abbey Tom Peters and Craig Cummings Fellowship: Patrick Roehrdanz Claude G. Poncelet Prize: Toby Chu John C. Pritzlaff Memorial Prize: Caitlin Anderson Beth and Richard Rogers Prize: Ashley Dean Jackie and Linda Sandler Prize: Kristine Faloon Barry Schuyler Fellowship: Lara Polansky Jean and Barry Schuyler Prize: Lucas Bare, Laurel Brandt, Julia Griffin, Bridget Dobrowski, Erica Eisch Naomi Schwartz Prize: Samantha Port-Minner Dana Carlson Severy Award: Leslie Abramson J.C. Thompson Prize: Nicholas Osgood Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker Prize: Christina Tsiarta Wege Foundation Fellowship: Tessa Bernhardt Douglas Wheeler Prize: Emily Welborn David White Memorial Prize: Milli Chennell Maria Wilhelm Award: Clare Shelton Mel Willis Prize: Sarah Bumby |
Photo by Jim Boyden2007 - 2008 Dana Carlson Severy Award Donor Dana Carlson Severy with Award Recipient Leslie Abramson Recipient Leslie Mara Abramson, a first-year Bren student, earned her BA in Cultrual and Social Anthropology in 2000 from Stanford University. Prior to coming to the Bren School, she was an Able-Bodied Seaman on the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration Ship Rainier and Third Mate on the SV Corwith Cramer. Leslie is interested in studying sustainable maritime communities. |
Faculty Support
At the heart of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management is its distinguished faculty. Our internationally recognized faculty members draw the finest graduate students to the School, enhance our educational programs, provide service to the community, and disseminate their extraordinary knowledge throughout society.
Endowed Chair
An Endowed Chair is one of the most important gifts to higher education, because an Endowed Chair ensures faculty excellence.
Appointment to an Endowed Chair is among the highest honors that UCSB, by way of a donor's generosity, can bestow on a faculty member. These positions acknowledge in a permanent and distinctive way the contributions to teaching and research of an eminent scholar. Nothing helps attract and retain professors more than an Endowed Chair.
An Endowed Chair is much more than a platform upon which a scholar sits. It is, in fact, a permanent endowment created by a philanthropic gift that annually supports the teaching and research of a scholar, thereby contributing to the steady advancement of knowledge. (An endowment consists of money that is permanently invested in order to provide interest income in perpetuity.)
Through the creation of Endowed Chairs at the Bren School, foundations, corporations, and individuals can provide the resources to make possible significant academic advances in environmental science and management.
Further information regarding individual Endowed Chairs is available upon request. Please contact Jennifer Purcell Deacon at (805) 893-5743 or jennifer@bren.ucsb.edu.
Making a Gift