Description
Our goal for this 2025 Giving Day is to raise money to help support MCGS students as they pursue their academic goals. Many students face ongoing struggle to pay for basic necessities while keeping up with their academic work and being engaged in their communities. As a department that centers diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice, we are committed to supporting the retention of students in our diverse majors and minors. This award has been created to honor the first African American student enrolled at California State University, Chico, Irma Williams in 1921. This award is intended to recognize students with a declared major or minor in African American Studies who have completed some course work in the field and have demonstrated advocacy, service, or contributions to African American Communities.
How will donations be used?
Funds will be used to support a student who is a minor in
African American Studies within the Department of Multicultural and Gender
Studies. The student will have completed at least one course in African
American Studies and have demonstrated advocacy, service, or contributions to
African American communities. The award will recognize a student’s charitable,
scientific, educational, literary, or civic achievements in betterment of
African American communities.
Support Multicultural and Gender Studies!
The Multicultural and Gender Studies (MCGS) Department is
made up of a diverse community of scholars and activists working together to
critically examine gender, sexuality, socioeconomic class, ability, race, and
ethnicity and to cultivate social justice through informed activism. The
department offers intersectional programs in women & gender studies, queer
studies, and ethnic studies. It is also the department that oversees the new
ethnic studies graduation requirement. Many of the students the MCGS department
serves come from populations the Chico State and the CSU system as a whole have
committed to better serving, such as BIPOC students, low-income students, and
first-generation students. Through our classes, students learn about different
types of oppression and how they can work within their communities, and society
as a whole to create a more equitable world.
Why are donations necessary?
Our goal is to support those students who are in the
African American Studies Program at California State University Chico, first
established in October 1969. Your gift, however large or small, can help us
support these students. We are grateful for any contributions, no matter how
small, that can help us make that dream a reality. Helping us build financial
support for students in African American Studies students can help ensure not
only their academic success but the success of the field as a whole. The
benefits do not end in the classroom; your support will benefit the larger
community by allowing students to continue their activism and advocacy without
worrying as much about financial burdens.