#UMassGives 2019

Students in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences receive a world-class liberal arts education supported by outstanding faculty who teach them how to think, and robust advising and career and professional development resources that help prepare them for life after college.

Your gift to the SBS Dean’s Priority Fund will address the greatest needs of the college such as….

SBS Pathways to Success

SBS Pathways is an innovative advising and curriculum framework that guides students to explore their interests outside of conventional barriers like academic major and helps them build a robust college program of meaningful coursework and experiences.  Funding is needed for costs associated with high impact 1:1 advising for a large student population with diverse needs.

The Academic Fellows Program (AFP)

Designed to provide specialized opportunities and programs for the nearly 2000 SBS students that are the first generation, from low-income families, and/or part of historically underrepresented groups, AFP provides advising, mentoring, internships, alternative spring breaks and other experiences from exceptional faculty and alumni.  Paid AFP student diversity fellows help connect the dots across the college in an effort to close the opportunity gap.

Experiential Learning

Internship, study abroad, and research experiences open students’ minds, expose them to different people and cultures, enable them to give back to our communities, and introduce new ways of thinking and problem-solving. Students who demonstrate this openness achieve greater career success and are often more attractive to employers of choice.

Faculty Excellence

 Ample funding to support research, knowledge creation, discovery, and teaching support is critical. SBS sees hundreds of applications for a single faculty position, and we compete with the top universities in the world for faculty. Philanthropic support helps to recruit and retain the very best talent.

Here’s what one faculty member has to say about the impact of funding:

“Research funding has enabled me to study how social class and caste/race can result in inequities in education levels and social standing in communities across the globe - from the Dalits (the so-called untouchable castes) in India being forced into some of the lowest paying jobs to African Americans in the US. The most effective step I can take to mitigate such inequities, as a researcher, is to study them and raise awareness.” 

-Vamsi Vakulabharanam, Associate Professor of Economics

Your impact:

Gifts of all sizes matter. Your gift could buy a plane ticket to study abroad, help an intern with meals and rent in an expensive city, help a student interviewee buy a suit, pay a stipend for a diversity fellow or peer advisor, provide emergency funding that helps students facing temporary difficulties stay in school, and much more.