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As an INSPIRE Scholar, you’ll start your UCSB career with a sophomore-, junior- or senior-year peer mentor and a peer group of other first-year students in your major. Your peer mentor will help you navigate your first year at UCSB and in the College of Engineering, while your peer group will give you community in your major from the very beginning of your first year. Through a weekly 75 minute seminar and a variety of fun social activities, you learn all about the resources available at UCSB and the exciting potential internship and job opportunities in your major, and you will get a jumpstart on building community with like-minded students in your discipline. Importantly, not only does it not cost anything to participate in INSPIRE, but we will pay you to participate! You will earn $300 for your completion of the Fall and Winter quarter components of the program.

INSPIRE focuses on serving those who are income eligible and first-generation undergraduates. In the 2024-25 academic year, we launched INSPIRE in the Chemical Engineering and Computer Science departments. In 2025-26, INSPIRE will expand to also include Electrical Engineering majors. In future years, INSPIRE will be open to students in all engineering majors.

INSPIRE will help you with your UCSB goals!

An Introduction to The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering’s INSPIRE Program at UC Santa Barbara

Be INSPIRED! Introducing New Computer Engineering Students to the INSPIRE Program at UC Santa Barbara

Be INSPIRED! Introducing New Electrical Engineering Students to the INSPIRE Program at UC Santa Barbara

Be INSPIRED! Introducing New Chemical Engineering Students to the INSPIRE Program at UC Santa Barbara

INSPIRE

Program Details

INSPIRE Scholars will enroll in a one-unit seminar, Engr 13A in the Fall and Engr 13B in the Winter quarter of their first-year. The seminar will be run by Profs. Elizabeth Belding and Diba Mirza in Computer Science, Prof. Joe Chada in Chemical Engineering, and Prof. Yogananda Isukapalli in Electrical & Computer Engineering, as well as by sophomore-, junior- and senior-year peer mentors from these departments. Weekly content will consist of campus field trips, games, and other activities designed to provide you with the information and skills you need to begin your academic studies at UCSB with success! There will also be occasional social activities, such as lunches or coffee, with your peer group and mentor.

The INSPIRE program is supported by National Science Foundation Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant 2345377.