Community-Driven Climate Action Spurs Economic Benefits
For Carolina Rios, work used to mean the agricultural fields where her immigrant parents labored outside Stockton, California. An internship changed her life. Rios now works with the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, helping families like hers access home upgrades to save money, energy and water. “I’ve learned a lot, like how to be more green and how I can help my community,” Rios said. The internship turned into a job as a project manager with Rising Sun, and Rios’ new income has helped her family of five move from a one-bedroom place to a more spacious home. Both the internship program and the energy- and water-saving projects were funded by a grant from California’s Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) program. New reports from the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation illustrate how TCC has funded development and infrastructure projects to achieve environmental, health and economic benefits in the state’s most disadvantaged communities. UCLA researchers tracked progress in five communities that have each received tens of millions of dollars from TCC: Fresno, Ontario, Stockton, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Northeast San Fernando Valley and Watts. Many of the projects enable households to help the environment while helping their pocketbooks, including the installation of solar panels on low-income homes and improved mobility options for getting around without an expensive, polluting car. The first round of TCC grants is nearing the end of implementation in 2025, but the increase in federal climate funding through the Inflation Reduction Act has the potential to unlock additional investments.
Social Welfare Hosts International Youth Conference
From May 30 to June 2, UCLA Luskin Social Welfare served as host during the 9th edition of the International Youth Conference, which brought together youth from around the world for a series of in-person and online discussions, workshops and collaborations. Hector Palencia of the field faculty was the Luskin School’s local representative to the organizing group, with assistance from students and staff that included Carmen Mancha, Lorraine Rosales and Tera Sillett. The sessions taking place in the Public Affairs Building at UCLA were made available to a global audience of more than 720,000 people via live streaming on IYC’s digital platforms. Participants from 180 countries attended the conference online and in-person. The overarching focus was on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and youth inclusion in policymaking. In addition to Palencia, UCLA Luskin faculty members Laura Wray-Lake, Randall Akee and David Turner participated in conference events and panel discussions. They were joined by other scholars from UCLA and other universities, youth activists, civil society leaders and luminaries in international peace and security, science and technology, and global governance transformation. The media partner for this event was ABC7 in Los Angeles, which sent a news crew to campus to interview participants for a story that aired during a May 31 newscast.
View photos from the conference
Watch a highlights video about the conference
‘It’s Never Too Late to Learn … Even For Me’
When Emily Wang moved from China to California with her husband and 3-year-old daughter, she knew just one person in this country. Settling near Los Angeles, Wang worked as a restaurant cashier and contemplated options for her future. Learning English was key, so she enrolled in ESL classes at El Camino College in Torrance. A counselor told her about transferring to a four-year university. Wang was 34 at the time, with a first-grader in tow. “They told me it’s never too late to learn,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow, really? Even for me?’” With assistance from the Center for Community College Partnerships, she successfully transferred to UCLA and will graduate this spring with a bachelor of arts in public affairs from the Luskin School. The process of applying to the UC system also stoked her desire to pursue policy work, as she discovered that she was technically an undocumented immigrant. The family had come to the U.S. legally, applied for asylum and had work permits. But eight years have passed, and Wang has had no updates about her case since she and her husband separated during the pandemic. “I thought, since I’m stuck in this situation, I’m going to use my undocumented identity as my strength to advocate,” she says. “We need more support systems to help undocumented immigrants who are already here, like my daughter.” Now 40 and a single parent, Wang plans to continue her work in political advocacy and — when her daughter, now 11, is a bit older — return to school for a law degree.
Read the full story about Emily Wang as well as other transfer students across the UC system.
Trivia, Tacos and a Sudden-Death Finale
It was a showdown that will go down in Super Quiz Bowl history. Heading into the final round of UCLA Luskin’s last-ever clash of trivia titans, three teams — one each from Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning — were poised to seize the last spot on the Quiz Bowl trophy. After the dust settled … it still wasn’t over! A tie-breaker was called to determine the final results:
1st Place: Bearly Here, Social Welfare (Norma A. Miller, Julia Kim, Andi Levenson, Marcelo Amora Rios, Laurel Mayeda)
2nd Place: Academic Probation, Public Policy (Alexa Moghadam, Joaquin Escalante, Xalma Palomino, Mikey Rincon, Alberto Vargas)
3rd Place: Planning Popcorn Shrimps, Urban Planning (Myranda Denise Arreola, Zeltxin Angon, Michelle Rivera, Erick Gasca, Dominique Ong)
In the individual competition, Karina Ourfalian of Public Policy took the top prize.
The May 30 competition brought the UCLA Luskin community together on the School’s rooftop terrace for trivia, tacos and a little friendly trash-talk. Quiz master Carlos Campos tested the players’ knowledge of Vegas casinos, college mascots, “Shrek” lore and more — including how to spell our interim dean’s last name. (It’s “Loukaitou-Sideris.” Don’t forget the hyphen.) Proceeds from Super Quiz Bowl will support Grad Nights for the Luskin School’s three graduate programs. Half the proceeds will be divided among the three departments that fielded teams, Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning. Public Policy will receive additional funding for having the highest percentage of attendance, team participation and staff participation. This year’s Super Quiz Bowl brings to a close UCLA Luskin’s 12-year tradition of fun, food and friendly competition to wrap up the academic year.
New Book Chronicles Citizen Action to Combat Environmental Injustice
In communities around the world, toxic pollution has taken a terrible toll on public health, leading to more than 12.5 million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization. In her new book “Slow Harms and Citizen Action: Environmental Degradation and Policy Change in Latin American Cities,” UCLA Luskin’s Veronica Herrera sheds light on the struggle against toxic exposure and the role of grassroots activism in crafting effective environmental policies. “For the millions of communities around the world where pollution is a slow-moving, long-standing problem, residents born into toxic exposure often perceive pollution as part of the everyday landscape,” writes Herrera, an associate professor of urban planning. The book, published by Oxford University Press, shares her pathbreaking research into river pollution on the poor fringes of three Latin American capitals: Bogotá, Colombia; Lima, Peru; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through original interviews, photographs, maps and other sources, Herrera illustrates how human rights movements that had previously helped dismantle state-sponsored militarized violence have also laid the groundwork for successful environmental activism. “In many instances, citizen-led pressures are increasingly the environmental regulatory institution of last resort in Global South cities,” Herrera writes.
Violence, Aggression Against Educators Grew Post-Pandemic, Study Finds
While threats and violence against pre-K to 12th-grade teachers and other school personnel in the United States declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the restrictions were lifted, incidents rebounded to levels equal to or exceeding those prior to the pandemic. As a result, the percentage of teachers expressing the intention to resign or transfer rose from 49% during the pandemic to 57% afterward. These are the findings of new research led by the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel, whose members include UCLA Luskin Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor. “Aggression and violence against educators and school personnel are major concerns that affect the well-being of school personnel and the students and families they serve,” the researchers concluded. They recommended an overhaul of existing policies, with the goal of bringing school personnel, students, parents and communities together to work toward improving campus climate, work environment, and student learning and well-being. The study compared the results of two surveys of educators and school personnel from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The first was conducted during the height of the pandemic in 2020-2021 and the second in 2022, after many campuses had lifted COVID-19 restrictions. Respondents were asked about their encounters with various forms of violence, including verbal, cyber and physical, from students, parents and guardians, colleagues and administrators. They were also asked if they intended to quit, retire early or transfer to another position within the school system. The study was published May 30 in the journal American Psychologist.
UCLA Paper on Youth Electoral Engagement Wins UC-Wide Competition
Although today’s young people are civically engaged in many ways, they continue to vote at lower rates than older age groups. A white paper by UCLA Luskin Social Welfare Professor Laura Wray-Lake identifies the policy barriers keeping young citizens from the ballot box and offers several recommendations for building a more inclusive democracy in California. The paper won a competition among scholars from all University of California campuses, and Wray-Lake and her team of researchers will present the findings at a public lecture hosted by UC Center Sacramento on May 29. The competition is part of the UC system’s “Grow Our Own” initiative aimed at diversifying the academy by encouraging students to see their own potential. Wray-Lake and postdoctoral scholar Christopher Wegemer were commended for bringing three UCLA undergraduates onto the research team: public affairs major Leslie Ortiz, sociology and statistics major Ryo Sato, and philosophy and history major Amy Wong. Using multiple research methods, the team found that California has several laws that promote ease of access to registering and voting, yet more can be done to maximize participation by younger voters. Among the recommended policies is the designation of high schools as official voter registration agencies. California offers automatic voter registration (AVR) through the Department of Motor Vehicles, but young people today are much less likely to get their driver’s license. Since school enrollment requires identification and residency documents that also satisfy voter registration requirements, “establishing AVR in high schools would allow California to act on a commitment to bringing young voters to the ballot box,” the researchers write.
View a recording of the public lecture
