ACES Community Projects

About

The American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Program offers students and faculty the opportunity to work with community organizations to develop cutting edge research projects associated with some of the nation's most pressing social issues.

The following are a collection of our growing ACES course offerings and previous student projects from these community-learning classes.

Topics

"What is the Role of Race in Urban Schools"

EDUC 181AC | Travis Bristol | Fall 2025

Students spent two hours a week tutoring in their Oakland Unified after-school placements.

"Introduction to Environmental Justice"

ESPM 163AC/SOCIOL 137AC | Michael Mascarenhas | Fall 2025

We have partnered with groups in West Oakland, including West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP), Common Vision, and the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).

"Introduction to Culture and Natural Resource Management"

ESPM 50AC | Kurt Spreyer | Fall 2025 & Spring 2026

Students learned and applied a range of skills, including working in agroecology, creek restoration, and educational garden contexts, as well as working on website content development, archival research, and program development for community partner organizations.

"Re-Thinking Latin American Geographies through Social Mapping"

GEOG 161| Geronimo Barrera de la Torre | Spring 2026

This project enabled community members from Latin America to participate in the class and discuss their geographies and social mapping projects with students. We reviewed the guest speaker's work for our class discussion. Additionally, I collaborated with PhD student Sydney Moss to design in-class mapping workshops that enhanced students' practical cartography skills and equipped them with ethical methodologies for engaging their communities in participatory mapping.

"Restorative Justice"

LEGALST 162AC | Julia Shackford-Bradley|Fall 2025

By working with organizations that provide services to people who were recently incarcerated or currently incarcerated, they expand their understanding of who incarcerated people are, what their families experience, what they need during and after incarceration, and how organizations get funding and work to respond to those needs. Additionally, students experience RJ in schools, and what it takes to support RJ in schools. Further, students engage in research about Restorative Justice and related issues which they then make available to their peers, providing information and insights that are not typically available through social media.

Public Interest Technology Clinic

Diag Davenport|Fall 2025 & Spring 2026

This student project used machine learning and administrative data to help ensure that working families receive the education tax credits they are eligible for but often fail to claim. Each year, billions of dollars in tax benefits go unclaimed due to informational barriers and administrative complexity, disproportionately affecting lower-income households. Student teams worked with public-sector partners to design and evaluate a data-driven approach for identifying families most likely to miss the American Opportunity Tax Credit and for prioritizing low-cost outreach to those households.

"Race, Ethnicity, and Public Policy"

PUBPOL 117AC | Erika Weissinger | Fall 2025

It provides UC Berkeley undergraduates the opportunity to serve as mentors and dialogue partners for Berkeley High School students exploring racial repair and economic justice. Through this reciprocal learning model, high school students and undergraduates develop leadership and facilitation skills while gaining structured exposure to reparations frameworks, constructive dialogue, storytelling, and civic engagement.

Review photos here.

"Race, Ethnic Relations, and Social Welfare in the United States"

SW 150AC | Kurt Organista | Fall 2025

Students do a variety of community volunteer opportunities, some that I make available (e.g., Berkeley Underground Scholars, Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation, Stiles Hall student tutoring, etc.). All volunteer work must be aligned with course themes and content to be approved. Hence student write a reflection paper regarding what they did learned, and how it interacted with course content and a particular reading or two.

"Social Movements & Social Media"

UGBA 192AC | David Harris | Spring 2026

The team working with TechEquity produced a website about “surveillance pricing,” presenting research directly relevant to pending legislation in Sacramento, explaining in clear, non-technical language how companies are increasingly surveilling users and charging different prices for different people. The team working with the Alecto Foundation created a social media strategy and created sample content for Breeze Liu, the organization’s founder and UGBA 192AC alumna, who was a victim of online image abuse.