Community Center Resources

About the centers for Equity, Community, and Leadership (ECL)

The Centers for Equity, Community, and Leadership (ECL) provide a gateway to intellectual, cultural and leadership opportunities for all Stanford students. Each center has its own mission. Yet students seeking academic enrichment, connection to a broader community, and/or individual services and support will find excellent resources in the Community Centers.

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Asian American Activities Center

The Asian American Activities Center (A3C) offers individual advising, a weekly lecture series and small group sessions. It sponsors the AIM program, which matches sophomores with faculty and alumni mentors. The A3C houses an extensive Asian American Resource Library containing literature, hard-to-find periodicals, newspaper clippings and reference texts. The A3C also supports more than 40 Asian American Volunteer Student Organizations on campus.

Black Community Services Center

The Black Community Services Center (BCSC) offers students a variety of opportunities for intellectual exploration including faculty lectures in the Roundtable Series. BCSC provides leadership development, individual advising, service learning opportunities, and mentoring programs, and supports more than 30 Black Student Volunteer Organizations on campus. It also hosts Black Thought, a program for students working on senior honors theses.

El Centro Chicano y Latino

El Centro Chicano y Latino provides leadership opportunities and development for students throughout the Stanford community. Each year, the center hosts the yearly Ernesto Galarza Lecture and Community Awards, celebrating the accomplishments of Stanford Latino students, staff, and faculty. El Centro sponsors a wide variety of Chicano/Latino organizations. These include the Chicano and Latino Graduation Committee and the Stanford Society of Chicano Latino Engineers and Scientists, among many others.

Queer Student Resources

Queer Student Resources (QSR) is dedicated to making Stanford a place where students of all genders and sexualities can flourish. Programs, resources, and opportunities include: the Queer Campus Resources team, Sharing Our Stories at Stanford (SOSAS) panels, affinity groups like Trans & or one of the 10+ queer student organizations, and the campus-wide effort to uplift students of all genders through Gender-Inclusive Stanford (GIS). QSpot is a welcoming and inclusive space on the 2nd floor of the Firetruck House, open to any Stanford student. It's a place to relax, study, and connect with the queer community, offering a computer cluster, a library, printing and meeting space for a variety of activities and events exploring the diversity of queer experience and identity.

The Markaz

The Markaz: Resource Center for Engagement with the Cultures and Peoples of the Muslim World is unique in its cultural focus and goal of serving all students interested in Africa, the Middle East, and central, south and southeast Asia, as well as the American Muslim experience. The Markaz, whose name comes from the Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Turkish and Urdu word for "center," will serve as an entry point for students who want to get more information about opportunities to engage outside the classroom with the cultures, faiths and peoples of this vast region.

Native American Cultural Center

The Native American Cultural Center/American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Program provides a comprehensive retention program that serves both Native undergraduate and graduate students. Academic and cultural emphasis is encouraged through writing and research forums, a speakers series, workshops and cultural presentations. Leadership opportunities and mentorship relationships are encouraged, beginning with a summer immersion program. This is through alumni networking and the new First Nations Institute, which is cosponsored with Stanford faculty, the Woods Institute and Kamehameha Schools.

Women’s Community Center

The Women’s Community Center (WCC) facilitates scholarship, leadership, and activism. This is through a wide variety of programming and services that includes student leadership training, the yearly Stanford Women’s Leadership Conference, and career development services. Working closely with the Feminist Studies Program, SWCC sponsors the annual Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Francisco Lopes essay competitions in social sciences and humanities. The Center also collaborates with the Society of Women Engineers to provide free on-site tutoring.

See Also: 
Expanded Advising Programs (EAP)
Diversity at Stanford