ABC Themed Housing

Located at Stevenson College, the Rosa Parks African American Theme House is a student-initiated living-learning space available to students of any college affiliation. There are residence hall spaces for first-year students (strongly encouraged for IGNITE participants) and apartment spaces for continuing students. Students who have lived in R.PAATH previously have the ability to return to the community when they indicate it in their supplemental application.

All students in R.PAATH are matched with a College Possible Coach who you will connect with on a monthly basis to assist academic success, personal development, and financial management. All students connected to a College Possible Coach also have a lifetime nationwide connection to Americorps beyond your participation in the program. 

Established in 2011, and named for NAACP activist Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, R.PAATH has grown into a space that nurtures, educates, and supports the students in community. Now a unique icon across campus, the symbolic red, black, and green coloring was added in 2017 as a result of student voices.

• R.PAATH is designed to intentionally create space for all students to feel connected, safer, and supported in a community centered on the experiences of African, Black, and Caribbean peoples. This is a primary focal point for the staff supporting R.PAATH.
• Educational seminars, programs, dialogues, and speaker series are structured to encourage solidarity and unity among students from all cultural backgrounds.

Located at Oakes College, ABC STEM @ Biko house is only available to Oakes affiliates. Named after Steven Biko, anti-apartheid leader and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement (Black Consciousness began to be defined as “an attitude of mind” or “way of life” of Black people who believed in their potential and value as Black people and saw the need for Black people to work together for a holistic liberation), Biko house is connected to our ABC STEM community. Students develop and utilize strategies that assist them in communicating and building relationships across political, social, and cultural differences. Students benefit from:

• Priority enrollment in Oakes 3L course (if enrolled in Pre-Calc or Calculus in their first year at UCSC)
• Experiential learning in the Black Lives Matter Garden
• Involvement with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
• A direct connection to faculty and staff committed to the progress and success of all students, including ABC students pursuing a degree in STEM

Located at Oakes College, Shabazz house is named after El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) & Dr. Betty El-Shabazz, and encourages independent thought and cultural pride, while advocating self-defense in the face of oppression. These apartment spaces are for continuing students and available to students of any college affiliation. Students living in this community can anticipate: 

• Engaging in their community around Black Liberation and cultural pride
• Gaining the ability to explain the multiple dimensions of individual and social group identities (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, etc.) and demonstrating analysis of their own identity, biases, and culture

Located at Rachel Carson College, the ABC STARRS community is specifically designed for incoming transfer students. As a cohort, ABC STARRS residents are connected to the Services for Transfer, Re-Entry, and Resilient Students (STARRS) Office. Residents of this community will have an opportunity to:

• Connect with other transfer or re-entry students around a shared experience of being continuing students in their first year at UCSC
• Participate in the extended orientation program known as Black Academy
• Gain practical experience engaging in and with the African American community on campus and in the local community
• Identify campus and community resources and activities that educate and support them on issues of the African Diaspora

Located at the College Nine and John R. Lewis apartments, the ABC community @ NIJL aligns strongly to John R. Lewis College’s theme of Social Justice and Community as well as College Nine’s theme of International and Global perspectives. Residents of this community will:

• Be engaged in the Practical Activism Conference
• Articulate the need for social justice and/or service work
• Have the opportunity to learn and implement best practices and strategies on allyship to educate others and challenge incidents of bias and discrimination
• And more advanced students will actively participate and co-plan social justice and/or service work