Resources on Campus: Find Your Support
Now I don’t mean to brag, but UCI has an incredibly intricate network of resources for its students. There are more services and events at UCI than trees in Aldrich Park (650)! Well, that’s not exactly true, but that’s what it feels like.
Need help with your crappy resume? Hit the Career Center.
Need to find a community where you feel safe and accepted? Check out the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer) Resource Center or the Cross-Cultural Center.
Struggling with your mental health? Get one-on-one support at the Counseling Center, or the Center for Student Wellness and Health Promotion!
I’ll go over some of the main offices and resource centers on campus so you can get acquainted with all of the support UCI has to offer:
Career Center
UCI’s Career Center hosts workshops and fairs, helps students find jobs and internships, and gives students tools to prepare for professional life after college. The staff is kind and helpful (I can vouch from personal experience). I went in for a drop-in consultation about my (VERY out-of-date) resume and got the pointers I needed as well as a helpful book of resume and cover letter templates and other resources. Here are a few of their resources for undergraduates to check out!
CARE Office
CARE stands for Campus Assault Resources and Education. UCI is dedicated to advocating for victims of sexual assault, and providing holistic healing. CARE also provides campuswide education and various helpful workshops and events. I have friends who have volunteered to help out at CARE as well as friends who have benefitted from its services. It’s one of UCI’s most helpful and important resources, and it’s a relief to have those resources available on campus for free.
LGBTQ+ Resource Center
This resource center provides events for creating community among LGBTQ+ students at UCI, and aims to increase openness and inclusivity on campus. They also host weekly meetings and events for the LGBTQ+ community and allies!
Center for Student Wellness and Health Promotion
Provides helpful information about health, from drugs and alcohol to relationships and emotional well-being. They offer HIV testing, condoms, workshops, and consultations, all free and on campus. Their website has so many tools, my favorite of which is this worksheet called “Assessing Your Life Balance” that involves coloring!
FRESH Basic Needs Hub
FRESH offers a free food pantry for students struggling with food insecurity as well as confidential consultations, various workshops, and much more. The students who I’ve interacted with from FRESH have been incredibly kind and helpful. To become a volunteer, just fill out the survey on this site.
Student Success Initiatives
Student Success Initiatives, or SSI for short, holds many programs to promote success for undocumented students, international students, first-generation students, transfer students, and more!
Center for Black Cultures, Resources & Research
The Center for Black Cultures, Resources & Research (CBCRR) is available to prioritize the needs of Black and African American students at UCI. Whether you want to improve on career or academic development, apply to scholarships, or need assistance with housing, this is a great place to get all your questions answered about how to succeed as an Anteater.
Latinx Resource Center
Another great center that assists the needs of underrepresented communities, the Latinx Resource Center (LRC) was founded to raise awareness of social, political, economic, historical and cultural realities of the Chicanx/Latinx communities. The center offers resources, programs, and a space where culture, art and academia are interconnected to ensure student empowerment.
Womxn’s Center for Success
The Womxn’s Center for Success advances gender equity by raising consciousness on social justice concepts, fostering personal growth, building community connections, encouraging identity development and increasing access to resources that support holistic wellness. Their amazing team actively organizes wellness workshops and events that are available to all students who want to participate!
UCI DREAM Center
No matter what your immigration legal status is, the DREAM Center is a safe community where undocumented students can receive access to resources and support such as applying for DACA, participating in the annual DREAM Fellowship, to attending community events that foster solidarity and visibility of undocumented students on campus. Stop by at the DREAM Center from 9am to 5pm to meet with the team, paint, chat with friends, or lounge in their study area.
… But WAIT! There’s MORE!!
If that list didn’t impress you, here are a few more offices and services:
The resources I’ve covered in this post are just a few of the many helpful centers on campus. The through-line between all of them is that even with all of these amazing resources, you need to be the one to utilize them. It’s up to you to make your experience what you’d like, and these centers and offices can only help you if you ask! It’s always okay to ask for help, and when you do, UCI has got your back.
