University of California, Berkeley's College of Environmental Design (CED) has announced a $5.3 million gift from alumnus Jon Stryker (MA '89) to fund a four-year graduate fellowship program.

The Arcus Social Justice Corps (ASJC) will provide more than a hundred graduate students who intend to focus on social justice work with tuition support and year-round programming including seminars, mentoring from practitioners, career planning support, and opportunities to incubate new ideas and engage in community-connected studios. Designed to provide the financial stability students need to pursue careers in social change — such as reforming housing policy, food accessibility, or urban planning — the program requires that fellows pledge to work for at least three years at organizations or in fields focused on addressing the impacts of social and racial inequities.

The first cohort of Arcus Fellows — to be selected by a CED committee that includes practitioners in social justice and faculty, staff, student, and alumni representatives — will be announced this fall.

"My goal in making this gift is simple — to empower these bright, talented students to live the idealism that attracted them to Berkeley in the first place," said Stryker, an architect and founder and board president of the Arcus Foundation. "Their professional fulfillment will have a multiplier effect that will benefit diverse communities, large and small, by removing financial barriers that often exist to those pursuing social justice careers."

The gift enables CED to ensure that Arcus Fellows become frontline social justice practitioners — a programmatic first among major international schools of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning, said CED dean Vishaan Chakrabarti. "Historically, CED has actively involved students in social justice and community-based work throughout their education, but now we can finally guarantee they are financially supported in their endeavors without the burden of overwhelming loan debt," he said. "The ASJC will ensure that CED fulfills its promise to be an incubator for our brightest minds to, together, create equitable and ecological communities of the future."

(Photo credit: University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design)