Student Educational Advancement

Making College Dreams a Reality

Thank you for visiting UCSD's Student Educational Advancement (SEA) website!

Motivating and preparing educationally disadvantaged and first-generation college students for college success and graduate school is our primary mission. SEA accomplishes this by creating, funding and administering innovative outreach programs and initiatives that actively engage students at the elementary, middle school, high school, and UCSD undergraduate levels. These measures are intended to ensure that students -- many who will be the first in their families to attend college -- are academically and motivationally prepared to make a smooth and successful transition to UCSD, other UC campuses, or to other institutions of higher learning, including graduate school.

Working with academic and community partners throughout San Diego and Imperial counties, SEA continually seeks effective ways to not only stimulate and improve students' academic performance in such core subjects as math and science, but also to make learning meaningful and lasting for students.

SEA's creative outreach approaches include:

An innovative distance tutoring program conducted via computer web cams. Area middle school and high school students at their school locations receive in-class and after-school online assistance in math and science from undergraduate UCSD tutors. The tutors are stationed miles away in SEA's specially-equipped Outreach Communications Center on campus in La Jolla.

Programs which help ensure that underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation college students succeed as UCSD undergraduates from their first year on campus through participation in individual or group tutoring/counseling in: all core academic subjects, effective time management, study skill enhancement, campus social networks, and other support.

Initiatives which provide UCSD undergraduates of all academic disciplines with challenging mentoring and research experiences under faculty members to encourage students to pursue doctoral degree programs, medical school and other professional school admission.

College-prep programs which expose middle school and high school students to academic enrichment in math, science, essay writing, college entrance test preparation, campus tours, student-parent interaction, and cultural activities.

Science enrichment for middle school and high school students which provides summer laboratory experiences and research mentorship at UCSD under laboratory professionals and scientists.

We are proud of these services and their impact on preparing bright young minds for college, graduate school and the challenging careers of tomorrow.

For more information on these and other SEA services, click on the Outreach Projects section of this website.

Please send questions/comments to: Michael Dabney, Director, SEA News Media & Public Relations, at: mdabney@sea.ucsd.edu