When former foster youth join the UC San Diego community as undergraduates, they are immediately embraced by a close-knit extended family of caring staff members who affirm the students’ potential and assure comprehensive support.
Students at the University of California, San Diego have something new to cheer about this season. Dean Spanos, chairman of the board and president of the San Diego Chargers, has pledged $500,000 to UC San Diego to support a new Athletic Performance Center. The gift will support the expansion of the existing Alex G. Spanos Training Facility, located at the north end of campus. The revamped facility will be renamed the Alex G. Spanos Athletic Performance Center.
GiveDirectly.org sends cash to poor people – with no strings attached. The nonprofit was co-founded by UC San Diego development economist Paul Niehaus. Called “crazy” by many, Niehaus and his colleagues are being honored by Foreign Policy magazine as “Leading Global Thinkers” of 2013. And a top charity evaluator has just rated GiveDirectly as its No. 1.
Over the past seven years, more than 7,000 sixth graders from 26 schools in San Diego County have visited the Jacobs School of Engineering to build model structures and test them on small shake tables. It’s all part of the Earthquake Engineering with K’NEX Outreach Program run by the UC San Diego chapter of the Society of Civil and Structural Engineers.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday now have a philanthropic counterpart: #GivingTuesday. The national day of giving—currently in its second year—is slated for Dec. 3. UC San Diego is once again participating as an official partner of #GivingTuesday, which encourages charitable giving and celebrates the spirit of philanthropy.
The University of California, San Diego is home to the first and only Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, honoring the vision of “2001: A Space Odyssey” author Arthur C. Clarke. Today, the campus is announcing a $1 million gift from San Diego-based satellite and digital communications innovator ViaSat Inc. that will continue Clarke’s greatest legacy: imagination. In recognition of this charitable donation, ViaSat has been named Founding Partner of the Clarke Center.
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