Conference: 2025 Cal-Bridge Doctoral Scholars Summer Institute

The University of California Irvine will organize and the University of California Santa Barbara will host the third Cal-Bridge Summer Institute Alumni Conference, July 20-26, 2025. Participants will be doctoral students who are alumni of Cal-Bridge, a partnership between the University of California (UC) and the California State University (CSU) systems designed to provide pathways into research and the professorate for students from CSU and California community college campuses. Participating scholars will form a peer learning community built on a community-of-practice model. The summer program will focus on how people learn and effective learning strategies, along with facilitating teaching and learning. The group will continue with regular virtual meetings throughout the academic year to promote the exchange of ideas and best practices. The portion of the workshop costs funded by the NSF will support funding for 25 Cal-Bridge Doctoral Scholars to participate in the Summer Institute. The Cal-Bridge Summer Institute, a series of professional development workshops, will have two major thrusts: 1) developing effective pedagogues, and 2) developing effective research leaders. In addition to these, the conference will include a variety of shorter professional development mentorship sessions, and community and cohort building activities. This conference aims to address two systemic points of loss along the professorial and professional researcher pathway for Cal-Bridge Alumni currently in PhD programs outside of the University of California system: completion of the PhD and entrance into the workforce. Specifically, the award will: 1) Broaden the impact of the professional development being offered to a larger group of doctoral scholars, and 2) Provide space for Cal-Bridge Doctoral students to hold discussions and activities to build up their professional network and community. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.