USIE -Undergraduate Student Initiated Education

Applications for the Undergraduate Student Initiated Education (USIE) are live ! 📣 Students interested in offering a unique course of their own design next in Spring 2024 should apply! We welcome students from all majors and schools.
Apply here:

UCLA | Honors Programs | Undergraduate Student Initiated Education Undergraduate Student Initiated Education (USIE) is an innovative program designed to provide a select group of juniors and seniors with the opportunity to develop and facilitate, under close faculty supervision, a lower division seminar for their peers.

Applications for the Undergraduate Student Initiated Education (USIE) are live ! 📣 Students interested in offering a unique course of their own design next in Spring 2023 should apply! We welcome students from all majors and schools.
Apply here: https://www.honors.ucla.edu/other-programs/undergraduate-student-initiated-education/

📣 Applications for the Undergraduate Student Initiated Education (USIE) are live now! 📣 Students interested in offering a unique course of their own design next in Spring 2022 should apply! We welcome students from all majors and schools.

Apply here: http://www.honors.ucla.edu/other-programs/undergraduate-student-initiated-education/

RSVP to our Winter Workshop: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/136846013109/

T-minus 1 week until the deadline to apply to be in our next year's cohort of Student Facilitators. Please see the link below for more information.

http://www.honors.ucla.edu/other-programs/undergraduate-student-initiated-education/

And last but not least

Facilitator Spotlight: Doris Vidas

Major:Anthropology
Minor: Linguistics

Fun Fact: She lived on three continents and traveled to 20 countries (just for fun!).

Title of Course: Anthropology of Beauty
Faculty Mentor: Professor Alan Page Fiske

Inspiration for Course: She decided to create this course because of her interest in beginning a conversation about expanding the definition of beauty. She believes that the commercialization of beauty has led to a limiting narrative. She hopes that an analysis of the biological and cultural facets that lead to the human perception of beauty can help create a more holistic definition that accounts for many different forms of beauty.

"I hope to be intellectually challenged and inspire and challenge others. I would like to foster a Socratic learning environment in which the students and myself can find different meanings within diverse manifestations of beauty and together begin exploring and expanding the cultural narrative."

Our next Facilitator Spotlight: Izzy Sumner

Major: Economics
Minor: Chinese

Fun Fact: She is biracial, bilingual, bicoastal (having lived on both the East and West coasts) and Bi is quite literally my middle name!

Title of Course: Deviations from Rationality: An Introduction to Behavioral Economics
Faculty Mentor: Pierre Olivier Weill

Inspiration for Course: She has always been interested in the psychological aspect of economics. Behavioral economics has fascinates her in its intersection between psychology and economics. She originally wanted to create my own behavioral econ club on campus, but then thought why not dream bigger and create a course about it instead!

"I look forward to having intellectually stimulating and thought provoking conversations with my students. I hope to learn as much from them as they do from me through this collective education experience."

Sign up and get ready for an empowering class this quarter!

Facilitator Spotlight: Samantha Wieske

Major: Political Science/ International Development Studies

Fun Fact: She is a camp counselor at Bruin Woods!

Title of Course: Evaluating Cosmopolitanism: What it means to become a citizen of the world
Faculty Mentor: Professor Eric Sheppard

Inspiration for Course: She wanted a time to talk with her peers, connecting various subject areas from different disciplines, to examine what it means to be a global citizen. She hopes this will be an accessible and engaging space for everyone to have these important conversations.

"I hope that we will have interesting discussions in which all students and myself leave with new interesting and applicable knowledge.I hope that we will have interesting discussions in which all students and myself leave with new interesting and applicable knowledge."

Facilitator Spotlight: Alexander Soohoo

Major: Chemical Engineering

Fun Fact: He grew up in Santa Monica and went to Santa Monica High School, which is three blocks from the beach, but he has only gone to Santa Monica Beach once in his life.

Title of Course: Diamonds in the Rough: Genome Mining for New Therapeutics
Faculty Mentor: Professor Yi Tang

Inspiration for Course: He was inspired by his work in the research lab of Professor Yi Tang, his faculty mentor, along with his summer internship working at Genentech!

"I'm expecting it to be a really fun and unique experience for both me and the students!"

Facilitator Spotlight: Sienna Rohrer

Major: Geography/Environmental Studies
Minor: GIS&T

Fun Fact: Her happy place is the ocean :-)

Title of Course: Collaborative Cooking: Recipes for Social Change
Faculty Mentor: Professor James Bassett

Inspiration for Course: Some of her favorite memories are simply being in the kitchen cooking with her family and friends. Her parents taught her the importance of eating fresh and healthy food. They grew up gardening, visiting the occasional farmers’ markets, and all having a role in the kitchen. Her parents taught them to think about where their food came from and be grateful for each bite -- never being allowed to leave food waste on our plates. But most importantly, they taught them the value of sharing a meal. Sitting down together for dinner everyday was something she took for granted until she got to college and realized how much she missed cooking and eating in community. Now, she makes conscious choices to try to cook and eat with friends amidst the busy schedules -- and even show friends that doing so doesn't have to be such a difficult or unusual practice.

"I am a firm believer in the power of meal-sharing in affecting social change. Given that we all rely on food to survive, food/cooking is common ground that connects us all. Cooking is a personal, intimate, and also collaborative form of art that allows us to show and share our identities with others. It is thus an opportunity to build relationships, and even overcome larger barriers of fear, hate, silenced histories, and "othering" -- it is very difficult to sit down and share a home-cooked meal with someone and hate them afterwards. Cooking and eating are opportunities to humanize. My greatest expectation for facilitating this course next Spring is to learn from and about my peers, as we each become one another's teachers and students in the kitchen."

Facilitator Spotlight: Carla Pantoja

Major: Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Fun Fact: A spider recently bit me on my face-- not so much a fun fact, but a fact.

Title of Course: Molecular Biology in the 21st Century: Concepts & Techniques
Faculty Mentor: Professor Ira Clark

Inspiration for Course: Molecular biology is an insanely interesting topic, but often marred by heavy science jargon detracting many people from it. She was inspired, in part, to design this course while watching the Maury Povich show with a friend. They laughed as the supposed father ran (what seemed a mile) after hearing “YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER,” but in that moment her friend asked her if she knew how paternity testing worked. This course is truly a compilation of everyday questions students might have pertaining to molecular biology and discovering the ways in which scientist answer them- like paternity testing!

"My greatest expectation for this course is to pique interest in molecular biology for students and facilitate both a richer and deeper understanding for the field! Students should expect many ‘Aha’ moments! I also hope to learn from my peers and broaden my scope!"