College Nine Pathways to Distinction

College Nine strives to recognize students who incorporate the international and global perspective theme in their undergraduate career. To encourage outstanding achievement, students may be recognized with a “College Nine Academic Distinction” upon successful completion of research experiences, course work, service and leadership and/or writing intensive courses focused on social justice and community themes. We acknowledge that learning styles and educational commitments are unique and personal. “Academic Distinction” is unique from other college awards, in that all qualifying work is based on research experiences and academic courses taken for credit towards a UCSC undergraduate degree.

This award comes with special recognition at commencement, a certificate of achievement signed by the College Nine Provost, and can be used on future resumes and graduate school applications. 

Directions: Self-nomination is required. To submit a nomination for yourself please either fill out this survey or make a copy of this document (File > Make a copy), and fill it out. To submit, click submit on your survey or share your document, or download it as a pdf, and send it to the College Nine Advisors (nineadvising@ucsc.edu). The deadlines to apply for distinction are also the deadlines to apply for graduation.

Eligibility Criteria

  1. UCSC cumulative GPA of 3.00 or higher at the time of application and in the quarter in which the student is graduating.

  2. Proof of completion of at least 15 units relevant to international and global perspectives with a combined GPA of 3.5 or higher in those courses. Provide an explanation of each course with attention to how the course fulfills the thematic and academic requirements. Examples include:

    1. College Nine Courses (CLNI 85: Global Perspectives, CLNI 90: Intercultural Understanding, etc)

    2. Completion of academic courses during or in preparation for a study abroad program

    3. Collegiate-level foreign language course work (level 4 and higher)

    4. Other departmental courses related to the theme of international and global perspectives 

  3. Proof of completion of at least 2 credits or the equivalent (6 hours/week) focused on the application of topics related to the theme, such as:

    1. Peer-to-peer or student taught classes, such as: 

      1. CLNI 191: Teaching Global Perspectives

      2. International and global perspectives themed tutoring positions

      3. Other student-led departmental courses related to the theme of international and global perspectives

    2. Research internship (including for-credit, volunteer, and paid positions), related to the themes through on- or off-campus organizations such as:

      1. Everett Program

      2. Blum Center

      3. Community-Initiated Student-Engaged Research (CISER)

      4. Institute for Social Transformation (Social Sciences)

      5. Office of Global Engagement

      6. Undergraduate research with HACER 

      7. Other theme-related community engaged scholarship/research

    3. A senior thesis, capstone project, or other independent research related to the application of the theme of international and global perspectives

  4. Completion of 2 of the 3 reflection questions within the survey/application.

  5. Submission of this survey or application by the deadline.