Meet Alicia Hayes, Associate Director, National Scholarships and Experiential Fellowships, Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarships (OURS). Alicia has managed the OURS National Scholarships Office since 2001. In this role, she administers the scholarship selection processes for numerous nationally competitive scholarship and fellowship competitions, including the Rhodes, Goldwater, and Truman scholarships.
In 2010 and 2022, Alicia received the Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Award, presented to individual staff members and teams demonstrating exceptional initiative to impact the UC Berkeley campus community significantly. Alicia is also an active National Association of Fellowship Advisors (NAFA) member and has consistently served on several committees, the NAFA Board of Directors, and two terms as the organization’s secretary. In 2021, she was selected as the recipient of the NAFA’s Suzanne McCray Award for Excellence in Service. Alicia is the first in her family to graduate from college and holds graduate degrees in history and public administration. Alicia is passionate about student-centered advising and making educational enrichment opportunities more accessible to every student she encounters.
What brought you to UC Berkeley?
I came to UC Berkeley in June of 1999. As a Bay Area native, UC Berkeley has always been known to me. I attended my first music concert at the Greek Theater with my father when I was a pre-teen, and some of my best friends attended Cal as undergrads. After finishing my first graduate degree, I was offered the opportunity to work as a program coordinator for the Alumni Leadership Scholarship with the Cal Alumni Association.
What does “a day in the life” look like for you at work?
My days often start in the office at 6:00 a.m. I begin answering emails and reviewing my calendar to prepare for the day's upcoming meetings with students and others. I usually review essays, proposals, or resumes for scholarship applications that students share for feedback. The early start allows me to accommodate students who might be on the East Coast doing an internship or studying abroad worldwide. A student once called me a “kind critic” because although I “ripped their essay to shreds,” they said I did it in a way that motivated them to improve.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I have the best job in the world because of the students with whom I have the privilege to interact. I get to learn about their plans for the future and guide them on a path toward achieving their goals. I’m inspired by their brilliance, compassion, and desire to make a difference in their disciplines and the world overall. I love that I am still in touch with many of the students I advised throughout my career at UC Berkeley, and I consider them a part of my extended family. A memorable highlight was when I turned age fifty in 2020. One of my former students reached out to others I worked with over the years and created a book of fifty messages from fifty students I have advised on how I inspired them. It is now one of my most treasured mementos.
How can staff support your work or collaborate with you?
We have so many outstanding students at UC Berkeley with the potential to become recipients of these prestigious awards. Please help spread the word that our office exists! Forward our emails to students. Send them to theNational Scholarships website! Encourage them to contact us about the opportunities listed there.
I’m currently learning and/or would like to learn…
I love to draw, I know how to sew, and I love fashion. Although I can make a garment from a ready-made pattern, I want to create something of my own design that someone else or I can wear.
Do you have a favorite spot on campus?
My favorite spot on campus is the reflecting pool northeast of the Moffitt Library and west of Memorial Glade. It is surrounded by foliage and is hidden. I sometimes go there to sit and just listen to the sounds of the university around me that I cannot see but only hear from within the enclosure.
Is there anything you'd like us to know about you or your work?
Fellowship advising was a nascent profession when I first started. My involvement with theNational Association of Fellowship Advisors (NAFA)has been integral to my development as an advisor. As an active member of NAFA, I work to support and mentor others at colleges and universities around the country as they start fellowship advising offices and navigate the scholarship processes with which we all work. However, many of us work in one- or two-person offices, which can be isolating when no one at our home institutions really understands what we do. I love that I can reach out and support my colleagues at other universities and feel supported by them in return.
