“At the heart of the Blum Center are the students and faculty who exemplify the UC Berkeley spirit of activism and who possess a fearless optimism that we can make a profound difference for the billions of people living in poverty. I am pleased to see this spirit carried on through the Development Impact Lab.”
—Richard Blum
DIL Student Programs
The ecosystem of student innovators is the backbone of DIL’s work. There are many opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to participate, both directly through DIL and through supporting programs at the Blum Center for Developing Economies and Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), the Lab’s joint headquarters at UC Berkeley.
Opportunities for all students and postdocs
- Competing in the Big Ideas@Berkeley student competition.
- Starting an Big Ideas IdeaLab with other students to explore challenges of global significance
Opportunities for graduate students only
- Follow the DIL Idea Team.
- Apply to and participate in the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering (DE2), or be a Graduate Student Instructor for a DE2 course.
- Work at the Blum Center as a DIL Graduate Student Researcher. Send inquiries through our contact page or respond to campus postings.
Opportunities for undergraduate students only
- Take courses in the Global Poverty and Practice Minor or other Blum Center-supported classes.
- Working at the Blum Center, which hires student designers, writers, and researchers to support initiatives such as DIL. Apply through UC Berkeley work-study and campus postings.
- Doing research with DIL-affiliated faculty labs. This is coordinated through individual faculty and the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP) at Berkeley.
Big Ideas@Berkeley
Big Ideas@Berkeley is an annual innovation contest which supports interdisciplinary teams of UC undergraduate and graduate students who have “big ideas.” The contest inspires innovative and high-impact student projects aimed at solving the world’s most pressing problems, annually awarding up to $300,000 in prize money across nine categories, including two new categories sponsored by USAID: Open Data and Supporting Human Rights.
DIL Idea Team
The DIL Idea Team is an interdisciplinary team of graduate students that designs and implements new, creative ways to engage the UC Berkeley community in global development challenges. Look for news on upcoming DIL Idea Team initiatives and events.
Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering (DE2)
Working with USAID and institutions across the Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN), the Lab is creating a new field of academic inquiry, Development Engineering. A cornerstone of these efforts is a Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering, or DE2, a “PhD minor” that prepares students to contribute in critical ways to the growing field of development engineering.