This summer, seven undergraduates from HBCUs are researching everything from urban ecology to jumping spiders with mentors in Berkeley’s Environmental Science, Policy and Management department. Jointly developed by Berkeley, Spelman College’s Food Studies Program (spelman_college), and Tuskegee University’s College of Agriculture (tuskegeeuniversity), the HBCU-Environmental Scholars for Change fellowship program aims to teach undergraduates about pathways to graduate school, says Kimberly Jackson, Spelman’s program director and biochemistry professor.  Former fellow Joy Rutledge is set to begin her PhD in Berkeley’s Environmental Science, Policy and Management department this fall, continuing her research on climate and environmental justice impacts of land use decisions. “The program definitely is life-changing,” says Rutledge, who graduated from Spelman in 2025 as a computer science major and food studies minor. Without it, she says she would have stuck to a career in software eng...