Best Grant Program
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Best Grant Program
The Bruin Excellence & Student Transformation Grant Program (BEST) at UCLA fosters social justice leadership among campus activists. We support leaders by providing funding, femtorship, and coordination, as well as activist-oriented growth and development opportunities. BEST is an entirely student-led initiative.
We fund projects
We fund projects
BEST nurtures social justice initiatives that support underserved communities at UCLA and beyond. These action-oriented projects grow resources and leadership in service of transformational change. Importantly, BEST projects strive to create affirmational spaces for underserved communities, while fostering solidarity among students, staff, faculty, and community members of varied social identities, campus communities, and perspectives.
You can read more about the 2016-17 BEST projects in our first program newsletter.
Who we fund
Who we fund
BEST funds student leaders working to make a social justice impact in their respective communities. We fund students with a desire to learn, grow, and lead by example. BEST projects seek meaningful involvement of UCLA staff, faculty, and alumnae, as well as Los Angeles area community members.
Click here to read an Activist Spotlight highlighting the work of several student leaders advocating for social justice with BEST.
Joining BEST
Joining BEST
BEST aspires to provide transformative experiences for emerging organizers, activists, and activist-scholars. Further, BEST offers young leaders with the resources and support necessary to take their work to the next level. In addition to supportive funding, BEST leaders receive ongoing femtorship, social justice leadership development, and opportunities for collaboration and coalition.
Supportive Funding: BEST project leaders receive between $3,000 to $10,000 in supportive funding to complete their social justice programs through the academic year. All expenses must comply with UCLA policy.
Femtorship: Leaders accepted into BEST will be paired with a graduate student femtor. Femtors provide leaders with support in navigating institutional bureaucracy, project planning, implementation, and evaluation, and personal, academic, and professional support. Leaders meet with their femtors at least once per month and sometimes as often as weekly, depending on the needs of your project and team.
Social justice leadership development: BEST leaders participate in ongoing leadership development activities, including a summer retreat and organizer boot camp, monthly potluck workshops, leadership trainings and an end of year symposium.
Collaboration and coalition: BEST seeks to foster a culture of collaboration and coalition, such that groups across campus begin to develop interlocking networks of action and collective-reliance. As such, leaders participate in community building events, as well as cross group conversations, geared towards establishing cross-campus coalitional work.