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.
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.
On the second Thursday of each month, a group of UC San Diego volunteers meets in the evenings at the Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank to help sort through donations and assemble food packages for San Diego community members in need. Vanessa Pool, project manager at the Qualcomm Institute, the UC San Diego division of Calit2, started the UC San Diego Night at the Food Bank in June 2008.
Keep up with all the latest from UC San Diego. Subscribe to the newsletter today.
