Support Career Readiness

In 2017, Anthropology alumnus Eddie Ring visited the UC Berkeley campus from Los Angeles to speak to a group of 35 students. As founder and CEO of a real estate firm, and as someone who had managed several career transitions, he wanted to help current students understand the full range of opportunities ahead of them — and how they could best position themselves for success. Over time, more departments at Berkeley Social Sciences began to ask for help to bring alumni back so that they could engage with students around career development. Seven years later, this range of disparate activities and the funds donated to support them have been brought under a single umbrella, the Social Science Career Readiness Internship Program (SSCRIP).

The goal of SSCRIP is to deliver a student-focused curriculum, with the essential resources for counseling and mentorship. Students in the program have access to a wealth of internship opportunities and stipends, which will help close any pay gaps that might exist between those in the program and other students who have traditionally been able to get internships more easily. We hope to remove financial considerations from career advancing, experiential opportunities, so that students can afford to take an internship in any sector of the economy that interests them.

Thanks to the generous support from our alumni and friends, SSCRIP has selected its inaugural cohort and begun to prepare them for both U.S. and international internships in summer 2024. There are myriad opportunities to invest in our students for programming, stipends and professional development, in addition to volunteering, for those who are interested. To learn more, reach out to karras@berkeley.edu.