In an effort to enhance diversity within University of California (UC) graduate programs, the UC system has partnered with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to create the UC-HBCU Initiative.  Several outreach award programs have been created through the initiative to assist in the recruitment of future graduate students.  The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology was recently awarded a 2016 UC-HBCU award to support a summer internship program.

The award allows for five students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, who are interested in pursuing a Ph.D., to spend eight weeks during the 2017 summer session doing research with a Ecology and Evolutionary Biology faculty member. If any of the students subsequently choose to come to UCI, they will receive full support for five years from the Office of the President and UCI.