Saturday, May 31 - Sunday, June 8, 2025

Students are recognized for their achievements in research and other scholarly activities during Student Achievement Week!  During this time, many will present their work publicly through a myriad of events -- everything from the Art exhibitions, Theater productions, and Undergraduate Research celebrations.

COLLEGES AND CAMPUS

AA/PI/SWANA Year-End Celebration

Friday, June 6
6:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Merrill Cultural Center

Chancellor's and Steck Undergraduate Research Awards Luncheon

Tuesday, June 3
In-Person Event
(Invitation only)

Three outstanding undergraduate theses/projects from each of the five divisions (15 total) are chosen annually to receive a $500 Chancellor's Undergraduate Research Award. One of these 15 undergraduate research projects will also receive the $3,000 Steck Family Award which recognizes the top senior thesis at UC Santa Cruz for 2024-2025. 

Chicane Latine Year End Celebration

Monday, June 16
1:00 PM
East Upper Field
(Ticketed event)

For decades, the El Centro has been hosting the annual Chicane Latine Year-End Ceremony (CLYEC). This year's CLYEC will be hosted in person on Monday, June 16, 2025 at 1:00pm on the East Upper Field. 2025 will mark the 53rd anniversary of our Chicane Latiné Year End Ceremony–a bilingual celebration for all graduating students, undergraduate and graduate, and their families. During the bilingual ceremony, there are danzantes, live musical performances, and powerful keynote speakers.

Digital Scholarship Symposium 2025

Tuesday, May 20
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Digital Scholarship Commons on the ground floor of McHenry Library

The University Library Center for Digital Scholarship each year invites all UCSC students engaged in creative, critical research using digital tools and platforms to consider presenting at our annual Digital Scholarship Symposium. Applicants can propose to present a project in the digital project showcase and/or deliver a brief VizWall presentation.

Koret Undergraduate Research Slam

Friday, June 6
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Virtual Event

This poster symposium event showcases the over 50 research and creative projects completed by the 2024-2025 Koret Scholars.The Koret Scholars Program is funded by a generous grant from the Koret Foundation and provides scholarships to undergraduate students for a variety of research projects and experiences from every division across campus. 

Pan-African Research Fellowship Spring Symposium

TBD
12:00 PM 
(Registration required)

The Office for African, Black, and Caribbean Student Success is excited to invite you to join us at our inaugural Pan-African Research Fellowship Symposium. We invite you to participate in enriching conversations with the fellows and learn more about the projects they contributed to this academic year. Following this, we invite you to attend our Formal Research Presentations which will be hosted at 3 PM in the Namaste Lounge. Each fellow will share an in-depth presentation of their work for an audience of students, staff, faculty, and community members.

The entire event is free and open to the public, however, seating is limited so please register in advance here: tinyurl.com/parfRSVP. 

Phi Beta Kappa Induction Ceremony

Thursday, May 29
2:30 - 4:00 PM 
(Invitation only)

Undergraduates who were elected to Phi Beta Kappa will be formally inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society at this event. Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's oldest honor society. This year’s ceremony will recognize inductees from the graduating classes of summer 2024, fall 2024, winter 2025, and spring 2025.

Lavender Graduation

Sunday, June 8
4:00 - 6:00 PM 
Cowell Ranch Hay Barn

For over 20 years, The Lionel Cantú Queer Resource Center has been proudly celebrating and honoring the accomplishments of graduating students at UCSC.  Originally conceived as the “Rainbow Ceremony,” the title of the graduation was updated in 2019 to align with the sentiment of the Lavender awards and the long history in higher education of these ceremonies being called Lavender Graduations. At the annual Lavender Graduation, graduates are celebrated in a uniquely queer way. Friends and family are invited to cheer on graduates, and there are keynotes given from guest speakers as well as student speakers.

ARTS DIVISION

Lakas Shimizu Memorial Scholarship Awards Luncheon

Tuesday, June 3
In-Person Event
(Invitation only)

We are excited to announce that this year we will present three students with the Lakas Shimizu Memorial Scholarship. The selected recipients of this scholarship will receive $2,500. The Lakas Shimizu Memorial Scholarship was established in 2022 by the Shimizu family in honor of their son and grandson who passed away unexpectedly at the tender age of 8 years old. Lakas means strength in Filipino, and the Lakas Shimizu Scholarship honors the spirit of generosity, kindness, artistic inclination, and great sense of fairness and equity that Lakas embodied. The awardees will be selected by a review committee convened by the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The recipients of the Lakas Shimizu Memorial Scholarship will be announced at the event by Dean and Distinguished Professor Celine Parreñas Shimizu.

Spring Open Studios

Friday, June 6
12:00 PM - 4:00 PM 
Elena Baskin Visual Arts Studio

Open Studios features student art work in a variety of media including: drawing, painting, print media, sculpture, photography, environmental art, and electronic art/new media. Come to the UCSC Art Department located in the Elena Baskin Visual Arts Studios on Friday June 6, 2025 from 12pm – 4pm to see the Art students’ artworks exhibited throughout the studios and classrooms. The event is free and open to the public.

HUMANITIES DIVISION

Celebrating the Humanities

Wednesday May 28th
5:00 - 7:00 PM 
(Invitation only)

Celebrating the Humanities is an end-of-year event highlighting excellence in the Humanities Division by honoring our undergraduate award recipients and showcasing the Employing Humanities Initiative. This inaugural celebration merges two previous annual events— Spring Awards and the Employing Humanities Celebration —into one special gathering.

History Undergraduate Spring Showcase

Thursday, May 8
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM 
Humanities 1 Room 210

The Undergraduate History Spring Showcase is an annual event held each spring that recognizes the exceptional research conducted by UC Santa Cruz History undergraduates.

Linguistics Undergraduate Research Conference

Friday, May 30
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 
Stevenson Fireside Lounge and Courtyard

Towards the end of the spring quarter each year, the Linguistics Undergraduate Research Conference (LURC) showcases the research of the department's undergraduate students. This conference always features as an invited speaker, a distinguished alumnus or alumna of the department. This year, the Distinguished Alumnus speaker will be Kirby Conrod, who is an Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College.

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, AND JACK BASKIN SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Baskin School of Engineering's Dean's & Chancellor's Award Ceremony

TBD
12:00 - 2 PM 
Baskin Auditorium Courtyard

This invitation-only event will honor student recipients of the 2025 Deans' and Chancellor's Award. The Dean of the School of Engineering will be handing out awards followed by a reception. 

Baskin School of Engineering's Senior Capstone Projects Showcase

Thursday, May 29
11:30 - 1:30 PM 
Baskin Engineering Courtyard

This year, Baskin Engineering is expanding its traditional senior capstone projects showcase to also involve poster presentations of research taking place in our Vertically Integrated Projects program. We'll be having poster & demo presentations in the Engineering Courtyard on May 29, starting around 11:30am -- all are welcome to stop on by and get a sense of the kind of work taking place in this program, and chat with the students doing research project work.

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Undergraduate Research Symposium

Friday, June 6
9:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Coastal Biology Building

The EEB Undergraduate Research Symposium is an end-of-the-year event that celebrates the accomplishments of EEB's undergraduate students and explores the diversity of research they have been involved in.

MESA Senior Celebration

TBD
(Invitation only)

This invitation-only event will honor MESA Engineering students of 2025.

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Building Belonging Student Showcase 2025

Wednesday, May 14
3:00 PM - 5:30 PM

The Institute for Social Transformation is excited to host an end-of-year celebration and student showcase event to honor the work that has been accomplished in the Building Belonging program. Students who have been involved in the program in 2024-2025 will present their contributions to research projects. The event will take place in person, at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center.

This event will provide Building Belonging Fellows an opportunity to share their research with the community. All are welcome to attend including students, faculty, staff, family and friends. Following the talks, there will be a reception with light refreshments.

Sponsored by: The Institute for Social Transformation and the Division of Social Sciences.

Environmental Studies Undergraduate Senior Poster Symposium

Tuesday, June 2
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Norris Center for Natural History, Natural Sciences 2 room 239 

Check out what the Environmental Studies students have been up to in their senior theses, senior internships, and senior seminar projects!

Latin American and Latino Studies End of Year Celebration

Tuesday, June 3
5:30 PM 
Abbott Square, Downtown Santa Cruz

LALS undergraduates are invited to join LALS faculty, staff, and graduate students at this celebratory end-of-year event.

Latin American and Latino Studies Student Research Symposium

Wednesday, June 4
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM 
Cervantes & Velasquez conference room

Everyone is welcome to attend the LALS Student Research Symposium will showcase research projects by current students.

Politics & Legal Studies Year-End Celebration

June 6
3:00 PM
(Invitation only)

Join us for the Politics and Legal Studies Year-End Celebration! Come join faculty, staff, graduating seniors, grads and their families for light snacks, graduation cupcakes and a cider toast. 

Sociology Celebration for Graduating Seniors

Friday, June 6
3:00 PM - 5:00PM
(RSVP sent to graduation studentts)

We have an informal celebration that we will be holding June 6th 3-5pm. The RSVP has been sent to our graduating students.