Social Welfare Fellowship Fund

A Passion for Fairness

Students enter social welfare because they want to make a difference in the world by addressing a broad range of injustices and adversity.

“The social welfare program has a unique mix of scholars interested in society’s most pressing issues,” says Assistant Professor Ian Holloway. But while research interests vary widely across diverse backgrounds and viewpoints, students share a desire to advocate for fairness and social inclusion at individual, organizational, national and global levels.

Doctoral student Gina Rosen was inspired to study social policy issues because her childhood in Milwaukee exposed her to high rates of inequality and segregation. Lesley Harris journeyed to Vietnam to conduct a three-year field study on relationships between children who lost parents to AIDS and grandparents who became their caregivers. Lin Chen’s dissertation focuses on intergenerational communication and the quality of life for older adults in long-term care. Stan Smith is active in the National Organization of Forensic Social Work. Christina Tam recently presented two papers on juvenile delinquency at a national conference.

These are just a few examples of the important challenges social welfare students address. But the rising cost of pursuing an advanced degree can make it difficult or impossible for students to effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems unless they receive financial backing. Pursuing a higher purpose too often results in a lower paycheck that is insufficient for repaying student debt that can dwarf what graduates expect to earn in a year.

UCLA has a proud tradition of preparing leaders from all parts of society who go on to serve all parts of the world. Your gift to the Social Welfare Fellowship Fund provides support for students who will pursue areas of inquiry unique to them — areas that might otherwise go unexplored. By helping propel these scholars to the next stages of their careers, you simultaneously enable UCLA to continue educating the leaders the world needs to advance social welfare innovation.