Recruitment
Transfer Support
We provide transfer advising and one on one support to currently and formerly incarcerated community college students who pledge to join our transfer cohort. Our services include transcript analysis, major preparation, counseling, support writing personal statements, and completing the application.
Transfer Pledge
This is for formerly incarcerated community college students who are in the early stages of Community College and would like support from Underground Scholars in transferring to the UC system. For eligibility information and application please visit http://tiny.cc/transferpledge
Transfer Cohort Application
We provide one on one UC application support for incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and system impacted transfer applicants. Our transfer program application will open in Summer 2024.
How to Prepare for Transfer
Incarcerated Scholars Program
Our Incarcerated Scholars Program provides outreach, academic advising, and transcript analysis for incarcerated students. Incarcerated Scholars may contact the program by writing to:
Underground Scholars
2400C Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
All of our mail is answered by student staff and interns. Therefore, there may be a delay in response, especially around finals and between semesters.
Incarceration to College
Incarceration to College is our newest recruitment program developed to create sustainable youth justice and is led by one of our current student leaders, Shani Shay. Incarceration to College (ITC) is a nine-unit college readiness course designed to be taught inside juvenile facilities. Shani was able to coordinate an agreement with Martinez Juvenile Hall to start the program remotely in May 2020 as the appropriate response to the severe impact COVID19 had on in-prison education programs. This devout instructor has completed the intake process with over sixty students and teaches twenty-one students in her weekly virtual classes. Shani’s well-developed curriculum is duplicatable and can be used by instructors in juvenile halls statewide and nationally.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT INCARCERATION TO COLLEGE
BUS Ambassadors
Our ambassador program hires and trains dozens of ambassadors at community colleges throughout the state each year. These ambassadors serve as a touchpoint to our program, support and engage community college students, and connect them to useful resources. The Ambassador Program runs from August to May each year and is a collaborative effort between the Underground Scholars chapters at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis.
CLICK HERE to apply to be an Underground Scholars Ambassador for the 2024-2025 Academic Year. Application deadline is June 30, 2024.
Cross Enrollment
We partner with key faculty on campus to offer cross-enrollment in UC Berkeley classes for community college credit. This program provides students with the opportunity to experience UC Berkeley while attending community college and also improves their transfer application by showing admissions that they can thrive in the UC Berkeley environment.
Current Cross Enrollment Course Spring 2024:
Intro to Abolition Pedagogy and Practice, 4 Units.
The course is taught by Dr. Victoria Robinson and supported by David Maldonado a doctoral student and Graduate Student Instructor for the class.
Campus Tours & Outreach
Arranging visits and tours of UC Berkeley for youth in continuation schools, youth and adults under correctional control, recently released people, and others who have been impacted by the criminal punishment system. Our tours are lead by system impacted students who can offer their non-traditional expertise and insight to prospective students. Our students also engage in outreach in communities impacted by incarceration and our allies.
Please contact our Outreach Coordinator at undergroundscholars@berkeley.edu to discuss outreach requests.
Recent Events
