Student Affairs sponsors a wide variety of groups, activities, and events that help UCSD students serve the community. In fiscal year 2006–2007, SOLO (the Student Organization and Leadership Opportunities office) oversaw fifty-two student organizations that provide civic services. These include teaching literacy, operating soup kitchens, dispensing tax and legal assistance to the indigent, and supplying aid to developing countries.
One such organization, the Student Health Advocates program, is designed for
students interested in promoting wellness and healthy lifestyles through peer
education. Student Health Services employed 100 student health advocates (SHAs)
last year. As part of their outreach efforts, SHAs collaborated with San Diego
schools in delivering sexually transmitted disease prevention education to eleventh
graders. Health education for fifth graders was also on the
SHA agenda.
Student Affairs sponsors the California Student Opportunity and Access Program (Cal-SOAP), which hired seventy-three UCSD students to work in forty-one San Diego County schools last year. Cal-SOAP provides information about postsecondary education and financial aid to K–12 children, while raising their academic achievement levels. The aim is to serve students from low-income families, those who would be the first in their families to attend college, and those from schools with documented low eligibility or low college participation rates.
The Career Services Center, which helps UCSD students and alumni determine and fulfill their career goals, also benefits the region’s business community. Last year the center sponsored several career fairs that brought hundreds of employers to campus to recruit highly educated, trained, and skilled university graduates.