BBQ, Conference, Workshops and More!

It’s the start of Spring quarter and we here at PCSE are preparing for a busy and exciting quarter full of events. First off, we will be host a BBQ for newly admitted MURP students the Sunday of Welcome Weekend.  Prospective students will have the chance to meet and mingle with current students and learn about all the work we do at PCSE.  We can’t wait to meet everyone!

On April 12th, we will be hosting the Urban Planning Youth Empowerment Conference for students from the East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy. ELARA is one of only three urban planning high schools in the nation. During the conference to be held at UCLA, students will participate in activities and workshops lead by PCSE students, giving students a glimpse of the work and opportunities available to them through Urban Planning. We hope to host many future urban leaders that day!

Finally, PCSE, along with other student groups from the Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Law School, has been working to put on a series of workshops and events about gender equity.  Events include a gender workshop series that will allow participants an opportunity to explore gender oppression along with providing them with the tools and skills need to combat it.  A full list of events can be found here. We hope to see everyone there!

Keep checking the blog to learn about what we are up to next!

2nd Annual PCSE Mixer

This Winter quarter PCSE held its 2nd Annual Mixer at Bar Nirvana. Dozens of students and professionals attended, networked, and shared stories and ideas on how we can work together in creating a more equitable and just LA.  It was an opportunity for students to connect with social justice leaders from various public and civic organizations and across fields from environmental to transportation.  Attendees included professionals from the City of LA Planning Department, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, LA Alliance for a New Economy, LA Food Policy Council, SAJE, and dozens more! Thank you for all those who attended. We hope to strengthen and grow our annual mixer as time goes on.

More photos from the evening can be found on our Facebook page here.

November Updates

Updates!

  • The Diversity Workshop was a great time! We had a great panel of current students and many prospective students eager to hear about our experiences in the planning program. Check out the photos here!
  • The Statement of Purpose Workshop on November 14th was a success. We had a great turnout! Thank you to all the prospective students who turned out and shared their personal statements with us! Prospective students learned tips on how to create the best personal statement possible and had the opportunity to get advice from and interact with current students in the program. Check out more photos here at our new facebook page!
PCSE member Natalie Nava looks over statement of purpose drafts with prospective students during our annual Statement of Purpose Workshop.

 

Our new hallway display. Features the new 2012-13 PCSE steering committees bios, pictures of our members and events and more!
  • We are working on developing an official logo for PCSE along with creating some t-shirt, stickers, and buttons, for the group so be on the lookout for that! For PCSE members, we’re collecting designs until December 1st, 2012. So submit!


  • Our last meeting for the quarter will be held on December 6 from 2-5pm in PAB 4357.  It will be a short meeting and then a study session/potluck! We will discuss our ongoing projects for winter quarter for less than an hour and then spend the rest of the time studying, hanging out and having a potluck. So bring both your culinary and math skills!

Statement of Purpose Workshop

PCSE and the Luskin School of Affairs is co-sponsoring a workshop to help prospective students with their statement of purpose. The statement of purpose (SOP) is one of the most important pieces of your application. Don’t miss this opportunity to get guidelines and tips from the department. At this great event, you’re able to have your SOP draft reviewed by a current student. Please RSVP; a light dinner will be served.

2012 Diversity Workshop for Prospective Students

On October 29th from 6:30-8, Planners of Color for Social Equity (PCSE) will be co-hosting a Diversity Workshop in collaboration with the department. This event seeks to address the questions and concerns of current applicants; we were all there a year or two ago and should remember how it feels. It also seeks to get Planning on the radar of people who may not have considered it before, and come from backgrounds/have experiences that may be missing or underrepresented in the field.

For current students: During the Diversity Workshop we will have small breakout groups, where participants can get more specific attention concerning parts of the application or any questions/concerns they have. In order to make this happen, we need volunteers who would be willing to help lead breakout sessions. Please contact us if you’re interested in leading.
For prospective students – we look forward to seeing you there!

First PCSE Meeting of 2012-2013!

PCSE had it’s first group meeting of Fall 2012! There was great turn out, especially from the first years and we have a lot of new things in the plans for the year. We discussed the mission of PCSE, which you can find in the “About” page and what we’d like to see for PCSE this year. First up – we’re having a retreat Saturday (Oct 20)

Check out photos from the meeting here.

Next – we’re creating committees for the events that we talked about. These are all planned generally by committee so feel free to jump in if you’re interested in helping plan some of these with us – just email.

 

Events:

Diversity Workshop (Oct 29, 2012): PCSE hosts and leads a workshop with the Department of Urban Planning for prospective students on how to improve their application for admissions.

Statement of Purpose Workshop (Nov 14, 2012): PCSE hosts and leads a workshop with the Department of Urban Planning for prospective students to get guidelines and tips on their statement of purpose. We also review SOP drafts one-on-one.

LA Tours - exploring diverse parts of LA. No dates set, join the committee if you want to play tour guide or just wanna come along.

Places people have taken on so far:

  • Environmental justice tour of Commerce
  • Koreatown
  • Pacoima
  • East LA

Winter quarter: 

PCSE Mixer: Students, professionals and others at a mixer.

Spring:

PCSE Roundtable

The next PCSE meeting should be announced after the retreat. So keep updated via our Facebook group, email list and hopefully this website comes in handy too!