System-Impacted Students Thrive at UC San Diego with Strong Peer Network

Mental health and wellness issues. Tight finances. Rising housing costs. While these challenges are faced by many college students, they are exacerbated with additional layers of stress among the formerly incarcerated. They are more likely to experience food insecurity and homelessness. Roadblocks to employment and access to health care, housing and child care often persist years after their release from prison.

At UC San Diego, formerly incarcerated and system-impacted students — those who experience the negative fallout of a close relative’s incarceration, for example, are beating the odds stacked against them with the help of a robust scaffolding of support and nurturing community offered by the Underground Scholars Initiative (USI) and Triton Underground Scholars (TUS).

Robert Edwards, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History in the School of Arts and Humanities, was among the group of students who galvanized support for the grassroots effort that began in 2019 to establish USI at UC San Diego. The overarching goal was to support formerly incarcerated and system-impacted students make the transition to college, navigate campus life, succeed in academics and thrive in their personal lives. The group modeled itself after the first such initiative that began in UC Berkeley in 2013. Today there are nine underground scholar organizations across UC campuses.

“We formed partnerships with campus groups such as Cross-Cultural Center and Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) and programs for transfer students,” Edwards said. “We hosted different events on campus. And we began to visit community colleges to meet formerly incarcerated students to give them resources and avenues to come to UC San Diego.”

Members of Underground Scholars Initiative
USI members take part in outreach and recruitment efforts on campus and in the greater San Diego community.
Edwards and his fellow USI members were also part of a UC-wide effort to secure state funding for academic support programs for formerly incarcerated and system-impacted students. Their advocacy resulted in the launch of Triton Underground Scholars (TUS) under the umbrella of UC San Diego OASIS (Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services). Today, USI and TUS collaborate in various ways to work toward their shared goals — recruitment, retention, advocacy and wellness.

As the associate director of OASIS, Berenice Jau oversees a wide array of benefits for members of USI. They include emergency housing assistance and grocery cards; tuition assistance and tutoring; workshops on varied topics of interest such as pathways to grad school, prepping for job interviews and finding quality child care; the eight-week Underground Scholar Research program that comes with a stipend and free housing in the summer; and a welcoming community space where students come together to brainstorm ideas, exchange information or find help with a tough class.

Berenice Jau
Berenice Jau
“We will continue to grow so that students will have a space where they belong, where they feel safe, where the masks can come off, where there is no code switch,” Jau said. “We know that with that sense of belonging, our students have more success academically.”

In his role as faculty advisor to USI, Michael McCullough, professor of psychology in the School of Social Sciences, meets with students one-on-one to discuss any topic they want to talk about—including university life, academics, research, and writing.

Michael McCullough
Michael McCullough
“I also try to work as a matchmaker who connects our scholars to interesting courses, lectures, and research opportunities at UC San Diego,” McCullough said. “Many USI scholars are interested in using their UC San Diego education to give back to their communities, and the initiative is helping them to sculpt their education to support those career aspirations. These are wonderful students who are working to make the most of the world-class education that UC San Diego offers. Their determination and commitment, often in the face of long odds, is an inspiration to me.”

Thriving students
Margaret Grant, a fourth-year sociology major in the School of Social Sciences and current president of USI, has flourished at UC San Diego, thanks to the community she has found in USI and TUS. She has emerged as an Underground Scholar leader and is preparing for her law school entrance exam. “I have found a very, very big passion for speaking up for the underdog and changing our criminal justice system,” she said.

Grant first learned about the group in her second year of community college while doing research for a class assignment.

“We had to find organizations that were doing good work in the community,” she recalled. “I found the Underground Scholars Initiative and I really liked the message that they were sending out.”

I have learned that I can use my voice and my position to really speak up and advocate for people who can’t speak up for themselves.
Margaret Grant, senior majoring in sociology
When she transferred to UC San Diego, she discovered that the group lived up to the promise in its message. She found help with housing and identifying all the resources that were available to her on campus. She began to participate in a daily flurry of emails among USI members where they brainstorm new ideas, swap leads on scholarships, internships and job opportunities, discuss housing and childcare arrangements and have candid conversations on topics such as expungement of records.

“If you’re struggling in one class, we can make a whole workshop for it,” Grant said. “We’re just one big family.”

Members of USI
USI members gathered at a lunch table to brainstorm ideas and exchange information on jobs, internships and classes.
Briana Gomez ’24, a mother of three young children, found that feeling of family in an informal parent group that has sprung up within USI. The friendship, understanding and support from fellow parents in the group made it easier for her to balance parenthood and classes, she said.

“I always had my close TUS friends I relied on to watch my kids when I needed to take a test,” said Gomez who majored in biological anthropology in the School of Social Sciences and coordinated wellness activities at TUS. “We went over to each other’s houses to babysit whenever one of us needed to take a test or midterm. It’s like we’ve become family.”

Honestly, if I had not found this community, I wouldn’t have made it.
Briana Gomez ’24 majored in biological anthropology
Being a part of the USI and TUS community has benefited her in more ways than one, Gomez said.

“They helped me in every possible way,” she said. “They helped me with mentorship. They helped me with resources by connecting with amazing people. They have helped with scholarships and enrichment opportunities. Honestly, if I had not found this community, I wouldn’t have made it.”

The achievements of Colleen Murphy ‘23 are also testament to the impact of USI and TUS. She graduated with a double major in sociology and political science from the School of Social Sciences and has secured admission to law school.

Six years ago, as she began the application process to transfer from Grossmont College to UC San Diego, Murphy said she was filled with trepidation and excitement — trepidation about facing a new set of challenges in a new environment and excitement that her dream of earning a college degree was becoming a reality.

That’s when she received an invitation for a beach barbecue from USI. As soon as she arrived in Ocean Beach just as the sun was beginning to set, she received a warm welcome and was handed a plate full of food. Her 2-year-old son and some of his newfound friends began chasing each other on the lawn nearby.

“I was like ‘Oh my god! This is a community I can be in, that wants me here,’” Murphy recalled. “It felt like home.”

Members of USI became her campus family, helping her with class registration, finding housing and childcare, navigating campus resources and even walking her to her first class at UC San Diego.

Grateful for their support and eager to give back, Murphy became a USI member and later its president. She took part in outreach to community colleges and answered queries from prison inmates considering higher education. She has also served as a TUS coordinator.

“I knew that I had to do everything in my power to help create that same feeling of belonging for others,” she said.

Paying it forward
USI members not only benefit from the resources, community and camaraderie of fellow Underground Scholars, they are also giving back by participating in the group’s education and outreach efforts.

USI members at Beyond Bars conference in New York City
USI members at the 2024 Beyond the Bars conference held at Columbia University in New York City.
Members like Grant, Gomez and Murphy visit community colleges in the region to speak to formerly incarcerated students to share information and resources about forging pathways to UC San Diego. They host campus tours, provide peer counseling and help with navigating campus resources such as tutoring services. They correspond with prison inmates who are eager to learn about attending community college, transferring to a four-year institution and securing financial aid.

Members of USI also advocate for breaking down the numerous barriers that previously incarcerated and system-impacted students face in securing employment, housing, education and economic stability.

Grant was part of the USI delegation from UC San Diego that attended the 2024 Beyond the Bars Conference at Columbia University, an annual student-driven event that brings together those who have experienced or been impacted by incarceration, including students, faculty, activists and advocates.

“This conference allowed people to share their experiences, strengths, and hopes,” Grant said. “I have learned that I can use my voice and my position to really speak up and advocate for people who can’t speak up for themselves. I have a voice now, and it’s important to use it.”