About
University-Community Links (UC Links) offers after-school learning activities where P-12 youth and university students take part in guided activities that engage their minds and connect them to each other, their communities, and the world around them. The program uses digital and hands-on resources to create innovative learning activities for local young people.
• Ages: 4–18 years old
Since 1996, UC Links has worked as a collaborative community-university network to sustain quality after-school programs, and since 2005 it has been part of the University of California's Student Academic Preparation and Educational Partnerships (SAPEP) programs. UC Links is a network of university and community partners working together to develop innovative in-school and after-school programs, with each site formed through collaboration among local community, school, and university partners. The UC Links Office coordinates and facilitates the work of UC Links program sites in California, promotes cross-site collaboration in the United States and other nations, and sponsors regular international conferences that bring together program partners from across the globe. UC Links implements SAPEP's program impact and accountability guidelines as mandated by the State of California and the UC Office of the President, and has grown from 14 sites in 1996–97 to over 30 sites in 2024–25. Across its history, UC Links has engaged over 23,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 70,000 young people from historically under-resourced communities throughout California.
The UC Links mission states that it is a network of university and community partners working together to develop innovative in-school and after-school programs that bring historically underserved P-12 youth together with university students in guided activities. According to this mission, UC Links works to prepare P-12 young people for higher learning, improve undergraduate and graduate education, and build sustainable university-community partnerships. A former UC Links P-12 participant in San Diego, now a college graduate, said, “Interacting with university students made me feel that I could become like them one day.”
The UC Links Statewide Office leadership team includes Executive Director Mara Welsh Mahmood, a developmental psychologist (Ph.D., UC Riverside), and Associate Director John Cano, an educational technology scholar (Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara). The leadership team also includes Marisa Buenrostro (Student Assistant), Jennifer Martinez (Student Assistant), Wesley Veiga (Former Student Assistant), Karla Trujillo (Student Affiliate, Ph.D. Student — University of Colorado Boulder), and Charles Underwood (Executive Director Emeritus).
Last updated March 16, 2026.
• Ages: 4–18 years old
Since 1996, UC Links has worked as a collaborative community-university network to sustain quality after-school programs, and since 2005 it has been part of the University of California's Student Academic Preparation and Educational Partnerships (SAPEP) programs. UC Links is a network of university and community partners working together to develop innovative in-school and after-school programs, with each site formed through collaboration among local community, school, and university partners. The UC Links Office coordinates and facilitates the work of UC Links program sites in California, promotes cross-site collaboration in the United States and other nations, and sponsors regular international conferences that bring together program partners from across the globe. UC Links implements SAPEP's program impact and accountability guidelines as mandated by the State of California and the UC Office of the President, and has grown from 14 sites in 1996–97 to over 30 sites in 2024–25. Across its history, UC Links has engaged over 23,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 70,000 young people from historically under-resourced communities throughout California.
The UC Links mission states that it is a network of university and community partners working together to develop innovative in-school and after-school programs that bring historically underserved P-12 youth together with university students in guided activities. According to this mission, UC Links works to prepare P-12 young people for higher learning, improve undergraduate and graduate education, and build sustainable university-community partnerships. A former UC Links P-12 participant in San Diego, now a college graduate, said, “Interacting with university students made me feel that I could become like them one day.”
The UC Links Statewide Office leadership team includes Executive Director Mara Welsh Mahmood, a developmental psychologist (Ph.D., UC Riverside), and Associate Director John Cano, an educational technology scholar (Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara). The leadership team also includes Marisa Buenrostro (Student Assistant), Jennifer Martinez (Student Assistant), Wesley Veiga (Former Student Assistant), Karla Trujillo (Student Affiliate, Ph.D. Student — University of Colorado Boulder), and Charles Underwood (Executive Director Emeritus).
Last updated March 16, 2026.
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