New name, enhanced mission
The UCLA Scholarship Resource Center is now the UCLA Center for Scholarships & Scholar Enrichment
Jonathan Riggs | April 28, 2023
With more than a quarter of a century of success as an invaluable student resource under its belt, the UCLA Scholarship Resource Center has changed its name to the UCLA Center for Scholarships & Scholar Enrichment.
“The name change is inspired by the evolution of the center,” said Angela Deaver Campbell, director for the CSSE. “We are enriching the lives of students on the UCLA campus.”
“Even if students are fully funded or have no need,” added Rebecca Blustein, assistant director, “we can help them with strategy, planning and achieving their goals.”
“We are excited about our new name,” concluded Mac Harris, student affairs officer, “and how it reflects our plans for the future.”
To share more about the CSSE’s continuing commitment and expanded mission, the CSSE staff spoke with the UCLA College about what’s next.
What does this name change mean?
The SRC always did more than simply hand students scholarship resources — the original core mission was to mentor them through the bureaucratic intricacies and essay-prompt psychology of the scholarship world and help them reduce their debt. But the center’s mission has changed since it was founded in 1996. The portfolio of the center’s services and resources increased, and the new name more accurately reflects our day-to-day efforts and the full scope and impact of our work with students.
Angela Deaver Campbell,
director for the CSSE
In particular, the word “enrichment” has become increasingly important as we’ve added programs, including Phi Beta Kappa, and advising on nationally/internationally competitive scholarships such as the Rhodes, Marshall and Mitchell. We help students win scholarships, unlock the full diversity of academic and extracurricular opportunities available at UCLA, and realize how to translate those into a rich life and career beyond their undergraduate experience.
What should everyone on campus know about the CSSE?
The CSSE has something to offer every student, and we are here for every Bruin, regardless of financial need, UCLA school or major. We coach, teach and mentor students so that they learn to think through how their studies translate into goals. Students also work on self-presentation and explore how to put themselves in a position to succeed post-UCLA.
The CSSE administers over $2.5 million in donor-funded scholarships, and it provides workshops and counseling to guide students through the scholarship process. We also help students to construct their own individualized scholarship searches, and we support students from every imaginable background.
Since we began keeping track about five years ago, the CSSE has helped UCLA students win well over half a million dollars annually from funding sources outside UCLA.
What makes the CSSE so special to UCLA?
Most colleges and universities do not have a center like this or comprehensive scholarship advising for all students. UCLA is a world-class university that offers many academic opportunities, but students must remain enrolled to take advantage of them. The CSSE is an important part of helping students remain enrolled and graduate with less debt.
Rebecca Blustein,
assistant director for the CSSE
The CSSE helps bring students into UCLA via its administration of donor scholarships for entering freshmen and transfer students, which often involve programmatic elements that show students how to involve themselves fruitfully in UCLA life. (This can include individual counseling for recipients, guidance on service and research projects, and trips and other experiences that build a scholarship cohort.)
In addition, at the CSSE, students can collaborate one-on-one with staff and graduate students, which can make a big difference at such a large university.
How would potential donor funding strengthen the CSSE’s mission?
With a small but mighty staff, the CSSE has helped students win over $700,000 annually in private scholarships; with additional staff, more students could be served.
The CSSE helps students and families who continue to struggle with rising tuition. This is not only a financial initiative, but a mental health and community development initiative. Scholarship winners enrich not only themselves, but the life of the world around them.
We intend to develop more curricular and co-curricular scholarship programming (such as innovative courses and workshops). Funding and staff support will enable us to launch these initiatives. We envision more cohort-based scholarship events and programs, and want to develop more campus synergy with the numerous groups of scholarship recipients around campus.
The CSSE would also like to support Bruin finalists vying for national and international merit scholarships and winners with travel expenses. No student competing for the most prestigious scholarships in the world should worry about not being able to afford to travel to an interview.
Mac Harris,
student affairs officer for the CSSE
The CSSE is the home of UCLA’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. We want to make the oldest and most prestigious honor society in the United States available to all elected students. Donors can help us achieve that goal by increasing the number of PBK lifetime-membership fee remissions available to high-need students each year.
All in all, more CSSE funding means more scholarships and more prestigious awards for UCLA students, further raising UCLA’s profile — CSSE has greatly augmented the number of UCLA applicants, finalists and winners over the last five years. Donors can partner with CSSE to bring UCLA to a level that will change the narrative that public schools take a backseat to elite private institutions when it comes to those awards.
What are your hopes for the next 25 years of the CSSE?
We hope to expand our mission, continue serving all UCLA students, jump from helping students win $700,000 in private funds annually to over $7,000,000, move from a 20th-century staffing model to a 21st-century staffing model, collaborate with the new UCLA Affordability Initiative and the UCLA HSI initiatives, and increase our number of amazing scholarship coaches to help even more students.
Ultimately, the CSSE hopes to scale up toward becoming a center that UCLA will proudly announce to every student, even before the first day they step on campus. We want everyone to know we can help students stay in school and graduate with less debt while enjoying the most enriched UCLA experience possible — and learning how to build the future they want out of it.
The UCLA Center for Scholarships & Scholar Enrichment is open in person Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m.–6 p.m., and virtually on Mondays and Fridays from 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
