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General Meetings

When we meet

We meet on a Wednesday of each month from October through May, 11:30 am to 1:00 pm unless otherwise stated below or on the calendar. These general membership meetings typically feature a speaker or program, as well as a light lunch. Our programs are open to members and guests. Scroll down to view the full academic year program.

Where we meet

Meetings are held at the beautiful UCSC Arboretum, Horticulture Building II Classroom. Detailed directions to the Arboretum can be found on the UCSC Arboretum website. After entering the Arboretum, drive past the small kiosk on your left. The road will curve uphill. Follow the road to the right and park in the gravel parking lot. The Horticultural Building II Classroom and gardens are to your left. Park and walk toward the gardens where there are two nondescript entrance ways to gravel paths. Take the lower path with the wrought iron arbor, closest to the entrance to the parking lot. The path runs along another road that leads to two redwood buildings on your right. The larger building is the Horticulture II Classroom.

Potluck Lunch Instructions

Attendees are asked to contribute to the meeting lunches. Potluck instructions.

 

    Winter 2025 continued...

  • February 5, 2025, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. - General Meeting with Cloud 9 A Cappella Choir

    UCSC A Cappella Group Cloud 9Cloud 9 is University of California Santa Cruz's original  a cappella group. Established in 2001, it has been rocking collegiate a cappella for over a decade. The group travels across Northern California performing with other collegiate a cappella groups in various showcases and loves to share their talent with the community. Explore Youtube performances on their website

  • March 5, 2025, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. - General Meeting with Speaker Ari Friedlaender, UCSC Associate Adjunct Professor in the Ocean Sciences and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Departments. His topic is “Healthy Oceans, Healthy Whales."

    Ari FriedlaenderProfessor Ari Friedlaender, in the Department of Ocean Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, is an ecologist with a primary interest in understanding the relationship between the foraging behavior of marine mammals and their prey. He works on a wide range of marine mammal species including baleen and toothed whales and dolphins across a range of geographic regions. Prof. Friedlaender has long-term ecological research projects ongoing in Alaska, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Antarctica. He has helped in the development of tag technology and analytical and visualization tools to better understand the underwater movements and behaviors of marine mammals. 

     

    • Spring 2025

  • March 26 - InterCampus Exchange Gathering. UCSC hosts UC Campuses from Berkeley, Davis, and Merced for a day of showing off our Santa Cruz campus.

    UCSCC Entry Sign

    UC Santa Cruz Community Connections invites you to SAVE the DATE for the InterCampus Gathering:

    Theme:  OUR VOICES WILL DEFINE THE CENTURY – THE REAL CHANGE IS US

    Wednesday, March 26, 2025 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

    UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Gardens, Arboretum Rd, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 

    The day promises amazing speakers, valuable networking, music, lunch and campus tours.

    We hope you will join us for an enlightening day.

     Register here by February 26, 2025.

     

  • April 16 - General Meeting - 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Note change of date to the 3rd Wednesday of April.

    This meeting's theme:  "Getting to Know You:  A chance to learn about our members' talents and interests"

     

  • May 14 - Scholarship Luncheon - 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

    Inn at Pasatiempo

    UCSC Community Connections will honor the 2025 Scholarship Recipients at a festive luncheon

    Date and Time:  Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

    Place: The Inn at Pasatiempo, 555 CA-17, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

    Cost:  $40.00 - includes a three-course plated lunch with vegetarian options

    Program: Singing by Fiat Musica Choral Group; scholarship recipients speaking about their stories and studies

    Invitations:  Will be sent to UCSC Community Connections members; guests are welcome

                                                                                                  

     

    • Winter 2025

  • January 15, 2025, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

    General Meeting at the Arboretum with Speaker George Ow

     George OwGeorge Ow was born in Santa Cruz in 1943, in the city’s Chinatown that was located just across the San Lorenzo River, near the county office building off of Ocean and Water Streets. This location was the city’s fourth iteration of Chinatown, established in 1894 and dismantled in 1955. But, for the first 12 years of Ow’s life, he ingratiated himself in the community, and found a great deal of joy from his upbringing in Santa Cruz.

    As Ow entered adulthood, he moved around and away from Santa Cruz — attending school at Monterey Peninsula College and UCLA, then entering the draft and heading to Vietnam — before returning to his long-time home. Since returning to Santa Cruz, Ow has delved more into learning about his past, and worked with locally based historians to garner more information about his family and that of the city’s Chinatown.

    • 2024 Events in Review

  • November 20 - Giving Day

    Giving Day Logo - 2024 

    Support Community Connections Scholarships for Local and Re-entry Students. 

    DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT! 
    Every dollar you donate on Giving Day will be matched up to $1,100 towards the Rita Olsen Pister Endowed Scholarship.

    Dear Members and Friends of UCSC Community Connections,
     
    Please support our local and re-entry students at UCSC on Giving Day!

    We are raising support for scholarships for both the Affiliates Scholarship Fund, in support of local students, and the Rita Olsen Pister Endowed Scholarship Fund in support of re-entry students.
    Community Connections serves both re-entry students and local students who show financial need for continuing their education at UCSC.

    Please join us on Giving Day so that we can award more scholarships to these students. This year Community Connections hopes to not only continue these scholarship goals but to surpass them.

    Please remember what help these scholarships mean for students who are struggling to make ends meet in a really tough economy. GIVING DAY will help more students receive these scholarships.
    We are raising funds for both the Rita Olsen Pister Endowed Scholarship (supporting re-entry stuents) and the Affiliates Scholarship Fund (supporting local students). We serve both re-entry students and local students who show financial need for continuing their education at UCSC.

    The Affiliates have donated more than $246,000 to local students, and the UCSC Women's Club has donated more than $483,00 to re-entry students for a total of 454 scholarships!
                                                      Donate to support student scholarships here.

  • November 6 , 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. with Speaker Kelly Weisberg

    Kelly WeisbergThe General Meeting at the UCSC Arboretum features speaker Kelly Weisberg, UC Law San Francisco Professor and wife of former UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal. The topic of her presentation is "Mindfulness for Seniors and Senior Moments." She'll also comment on her favorite moments of being the Chancellor's wife. 
    Professor Weisberg worked at the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, where she conducted legal research on the rights of children during the International Year of the Child. She taught at Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, and has been a visiting professor at Boston University and at Hebrew University, where she was a Lady Davis Fellow. She is a member of the California Bar. Her research interests focus on issues in family law, juvenile law, and domestic violence. She has participated in federally funded studies of juvenile parole, juvenile prostitution, family violence, and sexual exploitation of children. She served as a consultant for the American Bar Association's Women on Law Faculties Study, and for a study of child abuse conducted by the American Justice Institute's National Juvenile Justice Assessment Center. She also testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention about the relationship between runaway behavior and juvenile prostitution. In 2021 Professor Weisberg received the Hope Rising Journalism Award at the International Family Justice Center Conference.

     

     

    • Fall 2024

  • October 2, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. - Fall Gathering with Fiat Musica

    Meet and greet with Community Connections members as we join together in the large classroom of the Horticultural Building II at the UCSC Arboretum for our first General Meeting of the school year. Learn about our interest groups and hear from our group participants. Fiat Musica, one of our Community Connections Interest Groups, will entertain us.
    Arboretum Hebe