Student-Led Project Criteria

Students who apply as a Project Lead must also submit a project proposal. Projects supported by the Global Impact Fellows program must:

• Articulate a goal or outcome that ties into at least one of the UC Davis Global Learning Outcomes and at least one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• Be designed in such a way that it impacts not only the students participating in the project, but also other UC Davis students and/or the greater UCD community including community partners and collaborators.
• Be completely student-led, with as-needed guidance from a faculty or staff mentor and accountability check-ins from the assigned Program Coordinator.
• With guidance from the Program Coordinator once the program has started, work with their project team to submit an articulated Theory of Change.

Current Projects

Global Aggies Near and Far Podcast

Dedicated to promoting cultural literacy and international collaboration through a student-created podcast, this team fosters global education and connection at UC Davis by creating a virtual space for UC Davis students, faculty, staff, and community members to share international and national experiences and research. Opportunities are available for students to learn about podcast production and create podcasts available to the public that showcase diverse cultural backgrounds and different UC Davis student experiences. Podcast episodes are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher.

One Health Symposium

This annual, daylong symposium, hosted by the One Health Institute and Students for One Health, brings together students and professionals in veterinary, medical and environmental fields to join interactive discussions, poster presentations and networking on a variety of topics impacting the health of animals, people, plants and the environment. This team will focus on both resource creation and leadership training through the process of large-scale symposium planning and execution, with a focus on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. This project work will support the continuous execution of OHS for years to come, with a specific goal to improve student engagement with the event and collaboration with global communities.

ParaDocX

The ParaDocX project spans the domains of design, computer science, informatics, international relations and other related disciplines to contribute on a health-related project: the development of a new electronic medical record (EMR) system. This system is designed with a dual focus: enhancing educational opportunities for future clinicians (including those in nursing, medicine, physical therapy, dentistry, and social work) and implementing technological advancements in free clinics, which have historically been overlooked in the realm of digital healthcare solutions. The immediate goal is to develop a minimal viable product, that can be implemented within the various student run clinics here at UC Davis. Once proven to be efficient, the program is planned to be provided and deployed in various languages for global use. 

Creating and Distributing Multilingual Resources

This project team aims to create resources on campus and online available in different languages so that international students, undocumented students, immigrant students, and those whose first language isn’t English can feel more accepted on campus and more easily understand what is available to them. Research shows that seeing other languages in public spaces, especially the language(s) one speaks, promotes an environment of inclusion. UC Davis prides itself on its global diversity, with international students from over 140 countries. This suggests that many students would benefit from having and seeing resources in languages other than English.

Project Amazon Link: A Cross-Cultural Collaboration for Sustainable Applications in Plant Biotechnology

Project Amazon Link (PAL) is a virtual exchange course designed to connect students from diverse backgrounds to discuss agricultural challenges and biotech and learn from students with different cultural points of view. The pilot session of this course connected student participants from UC Davis, Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, and Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil. This course is based in the Department of Plant Biology; course objectives span improving both technical knowledge in plant biology as well as soft skills around intercultural communication and leadership. PAL's goal for the Global Impact Fellows is to assemble a multidisciplinary team to enhance the intercultural exchange elements of the curriculum.

Discovering Academia

Discovering Academia is a podcast project launched in January 2023 by Brent Valentine and Keller Kramer. In their episodes, they discuss a variety of research topics across all academic disciplines with researchers from around the world. They have recorded in-person interviews in the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Mainland China. By recording podcast episodes, they hope to achieve their mission of providing educational resources to promote curiosity about current research and make academia more accessible to undergraduate students. As a growing, multidisciplinary team, they plan to focus on facilitating growth in their audience and the educational resources they provide.

Simulating the California Food System

The goal of this project is to 1. Work with researchers, institutions, extension offices, industry stakeholders, and policymakers in and connected to the university to gain permission for data use about where and why food waste occurs and the stakeholders involved, and 2. Use that data pool to create a digital twin of the California food system from farm to fork. A digital twin is a highly complex model based off of a real-world system. With enough data, it can be used to simulate what would happen if changes to the real system were made.

Past Projects

Student Farming Around the World

In partnership with Katharina Ullman, director of the Student Farm in the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis, student participating in this project are sparking global conversations among student farmers at UC Davis, Universidade Estadual de Maringá - Núcleo de e Desenvolvimento Sustentável in Brazil, Universidad de Talca in Chile, and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco. The aim is to advance a global network of student-led farms and gardens, cultivating passion for sustainable agriculture, sharing knowledge, and making friends around the world—all while empowering students. Additionally, there is a goal to raise awareness and provide opportunities for students to engage with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This team is in the process of organizing their 2nd annual Global Student Farm Symposium and hopes to coordinate more with faculty members to create additional opportunities for engagement between students from all partner universities.

Resources for International Students who are Teaching Assistants

This project works to understand the challenges faced by international graduate student TAs at UC Davis. As part of the project, students organize mentored discussion events and maintain an online resource (with a focus, this year, on mental health).