The 2024 cohort of Arcus Fellows. By Keegan Houser.
At UC Berkeley, Stryker established the Arcus Social Justice Corps to help talented graduate students at CED pursue careers in public service without incurring a mountain of debt.
“My aim has always been to have a direct impact in the world,” says Stryker. “The Arcus fellows are dedicated, talented young people who will find a way to do great things no matter what, but this program removes impediments to their success. And let me be clear, when they are successful, many others benefit.”
The fellowship program was launched in 2021 as a way of cultivating the next generation of leaders working in areas such as architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning. As the Arcus program wraps up its pilot phase, Stryker has made a new $10.8 million commitment to amplify the program’s impact and ensure that students have everything they need to succeed.
Informed by feedback from the inaugural cohort of Arcus fellows, Stryker provided additional resources for students pursuing careers that put people first. The first Arcus fellows (who graduated in 2022) received a level of support based on their financial profile, but they reported back that the funding was insufficient as they faced the high cost of living in the Bay Area. While financial need continues to be considered in the selection process for the fellowship, the program now provides an award that fully covers the tuition of each program, and in most cases, offers an additional stipend that students can use to cover their basic needs. Stryker, working with William W. Wurster Dean Renee Chow and Arcus program leaders, decided to amplify the impact of this important program in order to fully remove stumbling blocks for master’s degree candidates. As a result of this gift, the Arcus fellowship will soon provide the kind of comprehensive support enjoyed by students at Berkeley’s primary private competitors in environmental design — Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Penn, and Cornell.
“The Arcus Social Justice Corps program helps level the playing field for promising students who have demonstrated their dedication to advancing equity through thoughtful design,” said Dean Chow.
“By increasing his generous support for this important program, Jon Stryker has strengthened a pathway to careers that lead directly to vital societal change and to a widening circle of positive impact.”
Jon Stryker
Another way that an Arcus fellowship makes a difference for promising students is by providing support for summer internships. The internships benefit the students by helping them to expand their networks and gain direct experience at organizations where they may build future careers. In turn, organizations benefit from interns who bring technical, design, and socially-engaged expertise and the increased focus that arises when students are free from the obligation to earn money elsewhere. Current and former fellows have had the opportunity to pursue internships at organizations as wide ranging in their impact as the MASS Design Group, United Nations Executive Office of the Secretary-General, Healthy Havenscourt Collaborative, and the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice.
Alums of the program have gone on careers in important public service organizations such as Equity Community Builders, Eden Housing, BASE Landscape Architecture, Seattle Public Utilities Commission, and the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
Through the Arcus program, students in the following degree programs are eligible for full tuition coverage as well as a stipend for basic needs, provided they commit to working in a social service capacity for three years after graduation: master of city planning (M.C.P.), master of landscape architecture (M.L.A.), master of architecture (M.Arch.), master of science in architecture (M.S.Arch.), master of advanced architectural design (M.A.A.D.), and master of urban development (M.U.D.). In addition, students in CED’s master of real estate development and design (M.R.E.D.+D.) and master of design (M.Des.) programs are eligible for tuition coverage through the fellowship.
With this new gift, the Arcus program is perfectly positioned to build upon its initial success and cultivate the next generation of leaders in thoughtful, human-centered design.
