The Discovery Hub advances the campus goal that discovery experiences become a common denominator and signature element of the Berkeley undergraduate experience.
Our work is grounded in a fundamental educational insight: students thrive at Berkeley when they are able to develop their passions into immersive projects which bring them educational purpose, community & belonging, and confidence as changemakers. We call this transformative learning “discovery.” Stories of student discovery projects are found on the Student Discovery Stories page and students in conversation about the Discovery process are on the Student Discovery Events page.
The Discovery Hub supports this educational vision through extensive campus partnerships and a range of programming for students, faculty, and staff including:
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Undergraduate Access to Discovery: Building equitable student access to discovery experiences is a guiding principle for all our work. Toward this aim, we provide workshops and digital tools to help students: develop discovery project ideas; find funding, community, and mentorship in support of their work; and share their accomplishments with the campus community and public.
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Co-curricular capacity building: undergraduate discovery projects often take place at the intersection of course work and Berkeley’s uniquely rich terrain of co-curricular programming. For this reason, we seek to strategically expand and organize the capacity of our co-curricular ecosystems in undergraduate research, arts, entrepreneurialism, and community engagement so that more undergraduates access immersive, hands-on learning experiences.
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Fostering the mentorship & advising culture on campus: mentorship and advising support are essential ingredients of student success in discovery. We want to expand the campus mechanisms through which undergraduates find prospective mentors, and we want to help create more training opportunities for the variety of campus members who seek to be mentors (faculty, graduate students, post docs, staff, peers, alumni). We also seek to inspire and support advisers & student services staff across campus to be innovative partners in undergraduate discovery learning.
- Support for curricular innovation: The Hub collaborates with the Berkeley Discover Departmental Innovation program which weaves high impact teaching & learning practices into the fabric of Berkeley’s teaching and research enterprises through funded innovation and the promotion of visionary educational ideas