From the Nominator

For 60 years, UC San Diego has paved a new path: one founded on challenging expectations, engaging in experimentation, and taking risks. So when COVID-19 shut down our university, our nation and our world in March, we were prepared to find innovative new ways to move forward: from pivoting to virtual instruction to pursuing novel public health approaches. 

And thanks to our health sciences enterprise—spanning UC San Diego School of Medicine, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, and UC San Diego Health, as well as partnerships with divisions and departments across campus—we are uniquely positioned to identify innovative new paths to resuming in-person activities. In May, we embarked on an ambitious plan, one that united our expertise in infectious diseases, public health, state-of-the-art testing, integrated student health services and UC San Diego Health, and data science to guide our ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

UC San Diego’s Return to Learn Program incorporates a research-based public health model with three primary goals: risk mitigation, viral detection, and intervention. Together, this adaptive, three-pronged approach is designed to prioritize the health and safety of our campus community while offering rich, equitable, and flexible opportunities for our students. 

The Return to Learn case for support provides a high-level overview of our strategy, and highlights philanthropic funding opportunities that will ensure the program has the resources necessary to implement on a campus-wide scale.

From the Judges

UC San Diego’s Return to Learn Program incorporates a research-based public health model with three primary goals: risk mitigation, viral detection, and intervention. We were impressed with this approach as a means to prioritize the health and safety of campus community members as it relates to having in-person instruction. We especially enjoy reading the impact this campaign had in just four months, raising close to $160K.