Metadata
Title
University of California Leadership Excellence through Advanced DegreeS - Research Program
Category
courses
UUID
1c8ec1d978184379a06c379654531f15
Source URL
https://calnerds.berkeley.edu/programs/UC-LEADS
Parent URL
https://calnerds.berkeley.edu/
Crawl Time
2026-03-10T04:25:13+00:00
Rendered Raw Markdown

University of California Leadership Excellence through Advanced DegreeS - Research Program

Source: https://calnerds.berkeley.edu/programs/UC-LEADS Parent: https://calnerds.berkeley.edu/

UC LEADS Pre-PhD Research & Leadership Program

The University of California Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees (UC LEADS) program is designed to engage and educate California's future leaders by preparing promising students for advanced education in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM). UC LEADS is designed to identify upper-division undergraduate students with the potential to succeed in these disciplines, but who have experienced situations or conditions that have adversely impacted their advancement in their field of study. Scholars are typically selected to participate in paid undergraduate research (two summers), leadership development, professional development, advising, community building, and graduate school application support. UC LEADS boasts a 76% success rate of our research scholars going on to STEM graduate programs. We are also proud to have UC Berkeley Faculty Research Mentor Dr. Alex Filippenko as one of the Faculty Representatives for our UC LEADS Statewide Steering Committee.

Isabella and her lab, Summer Research Poster Showcase 2022

Opportunities and Benefits

Dr. Ortiz and Dr. Matsui inspire students at a past Statewide Symposium

Summer Research Poster Showcase

2026 Cohort | Application is Now Closed

We hope to have the 2026 cohort announced in mid-to-late March.The next cycle of our application will be released in January 2027

2025 Cohort

2024 Cohort

2023 Cohort

2022 Cohort

2021 Cohort

2020 Cohort

2019 Cohort

2018 Cohort

2017 Cohort

Additional Information

UC LEADS is a UC statewide program (partially funded through SAPEP-GSPP). It is typically a two-year program designed to help students interested in pursuing doctoral STEM degree programs. The program provides students with educational experiences that prepare them to assume positions of leadership in industry, government, public service, and academia. It is a UC-centric program that provides a paid summer research internship at UC Berkeley and often a second summer of paid research at another UC campus (transfer students typically are funded for one summer). The program helps cover some of the costs such as housing, food, transportation to and from that UC campus and research stipend. Each spring five to seven UC LEADS scholars are selected. This program also has an annual research and leadership symposium which rotates among the UC campuses to host. We were proud to host the 2023 UC LEADS first ever alumni reunion and the 2024 UC LEADS Symposium Our 2020-2021 statewide annual report can be found here.

Eligibility Snapshot

**

FAQ

1) I have more questions, who can I ask?

—-Please text your questions or call Diana a #510.778.5165 or e-mail them to Chris at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)/*','a','/','<',' 117',' 100',' 101',' 46',' 121',' 101',' 108',' 101',' 107',' 114',' 101',' 98',' 64',' 101',' 108',' 98',' 111',' 110',' 107',' 99','>','\"',' 117',' 100',' 101',' 46',' 121',' 101',' 108',' 101',' 107',' 114',' 101',' 98',' 64',' 101',' 108',' 98',' 111',' 110',' 107',' 99',':','o','t','l','i','a','m','\"','=','f','e','r','h','a ','<'],i = l.length,j = el.length;while (--i >= 0)out += unescape(l[i].replace(/^\s\s\*/, '&#'));while (--j >= 0)if (el[j].getAttribute('data-eeEncEmail\_MOuXEtXomZ'))el[j].innerHTML = out;/\*]]>*/

2) Is there a stipend associated with this experience?

—-Yes, typically the stipend is $4,500

3) Can I take summer school or an internship and also do this program?

—-Unfortunately, no. You will be expected to immerse yourself into your faculty mentored research lab for 35 hours a week during our summer program plus an additional 5 hours a week of workshops and professional development training for a total of 40 hours of work each week of the program.

4) I already have a UC Berkeley faculty research mentor that I have been working with on campus. Can I still apply?

—-Yes

5) Will we present our research?

—-Yes, for summer 2025 we will be doing poster presentations at the end of our summer program and then a research poster presentation at our statewide symposium (typically in March).

6) I am a freshman or senior, can I still apply?

—Per our statewide efforts, we are working on recruiting sophomores or new transfer juniors to our program, though we will read all applications. More research opportunities can be found a http://research.berkeley.edu

7) What are the program dates for summer 2025 eight week program?

—June 9th to Aug 1st, 2025

UC LEAD Scholar Andrew (right) presenting his bioengineering research at the UC LEADS statewide symposium. Andrew earned his PhD in Bioengineering at Vanderbilt university, working on exoskeleton legs. Dr. Ekelem is now Chief Product Officer at Evolution Devices, where he makes rehabilitation robotics.

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