Join the Board of Visitors
The Board of Visitors plays a key role in helping UCLA’s Department of Economics maintain and enhance its position as one of finest in the world. The Board helps us stay connected to the needs of employers and ensure that our undergraduates obtain the best training we can offer. To join, please contact us at ace@support.ucla.edu.
Give
Maintaining our position as a leading department in research and education requires your support. If you are in a position to help the next generation of UCLA graduates, we would be grateful for a donation of any size. Your tax-deductible gift can help to provide technology grants for our teaching assistants, scholarships for our undergraduates, and help us recruit the very best minds in the country. Thank you for your support!
Alumni Career Engagement
The Economics Department partners with our alumni and friends in the professional world, government agencies and community organizations. In partnership with the UCLA Alumni Association, we mentor students (Sharpe and Simon Fellows), bring professionals into the classroom (Collaborative Instruction), and offer workshops for our students (Bruin Development Academy). These programs are critical for our students to bridge the gap between tools we teach students in the class, and the skills they need to succeed in their careers.
If you would like to get involved in any of the following programs, please write to Alumni Career Engagement at ace@support.ucla.edu with the subject line “Economics Involvement”. Please tell us a little about yourself and your interests to help us match you with the right program.
You can also connect to us through UCLA ONE, your one-stop-shop for your professional needs and to connect with UCLA. Created to engage UCLA alumni and students, UCLA ONE serves as a resource for opportunities, events and professional development for Bruins worldwide. Here are further details about the network.
Sharpe and Simon Fellows Internship Program
The Sharpe and Simon Fellows programs bring together top employers with our brightest students. UCLA friends and alumni select the Sharpe Fellows though a competitive application and interview process. The successful Fellows then receive mentorship, career guidance, and leadership training. Recently, Fellows have accepted internships at organizations like Bain & Company, BCG, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Google, and PIMCO. If you would like to mentor or recruit one of these Fellows, then please reach out to us at ace@support.ucla.edu.
We welcome UCLA alumni and friends to join us in the classroom. This helps us bridge the gap between in-class instruction and real-world experience, and provides students with a more comprehensive academic and applied skillset. In our “Econ in Action” conferences, alumni judge and provide feedback on students’ presentations. In our “lab courses”, alumni work through case studies in which they introduce large, complex, unstructured problems that students must analyze, interpret and present to their peers. And in other classes, we bring in guest instructors to share their experiences and professional advice. These experiences strengthen students’ analytical thinking and communication skills, and help them see where their own careers might take them. If you would like to join us in the classroom, please reach out to us at ace@support.ucla.edu.
The Bruin Development Academy helps students prepare for the world of work through the support of our talented alumni network. Through intensive, hands-on training sessions, participants learn valuable skills from today’s industry leaders. These training sessions expose students to various career fields while strengthening communication skills, writing techniques and other industry-specific skills for a more comprehensive academic and applied skillset. Guest instructors from an accomplished pool of alumni and friends are brought in to share their experiences and professional advice.
Excellence in Economics (EXEC)
Each year, UCLA admits thousands of transfer students from Community Colleges who go on to obtain a degree and have a successful career. Transfers are essential to the spirit of the UCLA community and are crucial to fulfilling our mission of educating the next generation of Californians. The UCLA Department of Economics recently established the EXEC program to help transition transfer students to the campus community. EXEC equips first-year transfer students with the skills and resources to excel academically, socially, and professionally. Students in the program participate together in academic courses and career planning programs. This helps them build a community with other transfer students and expand their professional network with faculty, staff and alumni.
UCLA Social Enterprise Academy
The UCLA Social Enterprise Academy is a six-month social entrepreneurship program in which groups of UCLA students partner with participating social ventures to develop earned income opportunities and to present their ventures to potential investors. The program is designed to link students with established not-for-profits that are looking to enhance the effectiveness of their mission. In January 2012, the Academy launched its first course, Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship, in which students are introduced to the basics of business planning and then work in teams to develop a new revenue-generating business plan for the social enterprise to which they are assigned. Accomplished professionals serve as guest instructors to help participants learn about the basics of market research, operations, financial and business planning, marketing, SWOT analysis and pitching. The program also hosts UCLA friends and alumni as team coaches, judges and not-for-profit mentors.
For more information or to get involved, please contact
UCLA Alumni Career Engagement | ace@support.ucla.edu | (310) 825-2586
UCLA Alumni Career Engagement is supported by generous UCLA alumni and friends
