Student Opportunities
If you have any questions about our opportunities or want to propose a way to collaborate with us as an undergraduate or graduate student, please contact us at rightlivelihood@ucsc.edu. Be sure to check out our latest News & Events, as well as our online recordings from previous events.
Right Livelihood Center student club and international network
The mission of the Right Livelihood Center student club is to amplify systemic change through student-led action education, research, advocacy, and civic engagement. We connect undergraduate students with Right Livelihood Laureates, allowing them to co-create knowledge through events, projects, and more.
We also aim to build global solidarities between students and social movements at our Right Livelihood partner campuses. Club members interact with other students from all over the world, creating meaningful connections and critical dialogue on the issues that matter most.
As part of the club, students have access to the Right Livelihood international student network, a newly launched initiative with partner universities across five continents.
We offer multiple tiers of membership to suit any student’s time commitment:
- Engager: Attend center events, have the chance to meet laureates, and receive our newsletter.
- Campaigner: All the benefits of the engager tier and serve as a volunteer in our campaign to get the center on the student fee measure ballot (link to section).
- Changemaker: All the benefits as our campaign tier, in addition to holding a student staff position at the center for 5 to 10 hours per week. Apply for our roles via Handshake, in addition to filling out our application form.
- Center leader: All the benefits as our changemaker tier, as well as being a core team member at the center.
Help us get Right Livelihood on the ballot
We ran an opinion poll in the UCSC student elections to ask the student body if they would vote “yes” on a Right Livelihood fee measure to fund student activism. Since students have broadly supported this addition, we are campaigning for an official vote on this measure in the spring of 2025.
The fee would go directly to fund student activism on our most important issues via workshops and training with changemakers, scholarship and grant opportunities for undergraduate research, travel, projects, and student leadership positions. Learn more about our work and join our student club to help us campaign during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Research Internships and Positions
For 2024-2025, we’re seeking ten students for our paid ‘student global secretariat‘ position and ‘research working group‘ internships. The work may include identifying and pursuing funding opportunities, project and fiscal management, tabling at events, directing outreach on and off campus, event planning and facilitation, designing marketing materials, and website management.
We offer internships year-round for 2 or 5 units. We welcome senior internships and related projects. Any major can apply for an internship with the center and earn credit through the Environmental Studies internship program.
Field studies and fieldwork
Right Livelihood Laureates come from and are embedded within communities and movements nationally and abroad, providing students with many opportunities for rich and meaningful exchanges, field studies and fieldwork.
Community Studies student Fatima Hernandez Alatorre decided to do a full-time 6-month field study and senior project at the Albert Einstein Institute in Boston, MA, to study strategic nonviolent action and the work of RL Laureate Dr. Gene Sharp.
Social Phychology Ph.D. student Aiswarya Gangadhar decided to visit India to develop relationships with multiple Laureates in hopes of collaborating with them on her dissertation research on gender inequalities, feminist activism, and climate change in India.
Study abroad: Environmental Movements, Social Justice, and the Cultures of India
The center sponsors an annual study abroad experience, including earning course credit while learning from Right Livelihood laureates and colleges. During the summer of 2025, we will host our first study-abroad program to India! We’ll travel and earn UCSC credit while learning with and from Right Livelihood Laureates.
Tentatively, the program will be held at the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad and Vandana Shiva’s Earth University, an internationally renowned center for agroecology and community development. The program also includes a weeklong cultural excursion into the Himalayas to temples, sacred sites, farms, and community seed banks. Join us for this life-enriching intercultural exchange & exploration of India’s diverse cultures & lands.To receive email updates as the program and application details become available, please contact Global Learning at globallearning@ucsc.edu.
Complete projects with Laureates
Let us know if you have a project we can support by linking you with a Right Livelihood Laureate or if you would like to join our team to complete a project.
Recent project examples include the creation of an RL research database using the app Zotero and a research study exploring how learning about Right Livelihood Laureates and examples of successful activism inspires hope and combats ‘doomerism’ in college undergraduates.
Courses featuring Laureates
Summer online course: ANTH 110-I Cultures of Sustainability and Social Justice
This course brings together diverse forms of cultural knowledge and complexities of everyday life to illuminate longstanding concerns of sustainability and justice.
It investigates multiple theories of sustainable development as well as tools, techniques, and contexts for ecological integrity, economic security, empowerment, responsibility and social well-being characteristic of sustainable communities. Case studies are drawn from around the world, highlighting the work of Right Livelihood Award Laureates in tandem with UC faculty.
The course also features video interviews with 30 Right Livelihood laureates and 30 faculty from across the UC system!
