Outreach
The School of Humanities at UC Irvine is inextricably connected to our community, dedicating time and resources to local K-12 education in conjunction with teacher training. Our esteemed faculty and graduate students lead outreach programs at local libraries, community centers, museums, and beyond. They lead K-12 outreach and educational programs such as TH!NK: Philosophy for Early Adolescents.
TH!NK, designed by the Department of Philosophy, introduces early adolescent students to philosophical thought. The primary goal of TH!NK is not merely to teach students what philosophy is, but rather to enable them to recognize philosophy and its many applications in their everyday lives. TH!NK facilitators invite and challenge participants to draw from their own experiences and look deeper into texts that they may think they already comprehended. One of the goals of the program is to dispel the myth that philosophy is an academic discipline for scholars or geniuses. After the program, most students come to appreciate that they can use philosophy to think more deeply in many ways, for many ends. Participants report that they use philosophy to solve problems, make decisions, think differently about familiar things, and much more!
“The TH!NK program has changed my life. It now makes me consider objects differently in class and out of school [...] I am getting to notice a little bit of philosophy in the outside world as well.”
-Student from Canyon View Elementary (Irvine USD) (2015)
How Does Funding Outreach Programs make a Meaningful Impact?
Outreach is the absolute link between a university, its surrounding community, and beyond. Gifts to areas of outreach will have an immediate impact in program sustainability and creation thatdirectly benefits the Orange County community and beyond. For more information on how to make an impact through outreach at the School of Humanities, please contact Linda Haghi, Executive Director of Advancement, at 949-824-2923 or lhaghi@uci.edu.
Donor Spotlight
The UC Irvine History Project
The UCI History Project is an organization of teachers, historians, and affiliated scholars that promotes history education through professional development programs and leadership opportunities for Southern California teachers. Since 1999, the UCI History Project has offered teachers seminars and institutes in American and World History. These programs support teachers to make their classrooms into laboratories where students learn to read, think, and write critically. This research-based approach that focuses on the critical thinking skills of the history discipline, on content aligned with the state standards, and on academic literacy offers teachers relevant strategies for their classrooms. External evaluations document that teachers in the UCI History Project programs have improved their students’ understanding of historical content, their critical thinking skills, and their academic literacy. The UCI History Project’s goal is to increase the achievement of all students, thereby developing an informed and engaged citizenry prepared for the 21st century workforce.
Until recently, the UC Irvine History Project has been funded by state support and individual donations. With the wide reach of the Project across the Orange County community, its sustainability would greatly benefit from an endowment.
To learn more about the UC Irvine History Project, please visit: https://www.humanities.uci.edu/history/ucihp/
Advancement Contacts
4000 Humanities Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697