About Us
The Caltech Y's mission is to enrich student life and challenge students to grow into responsible citizens of the world.
The Caltech Y is an independent 501c3 organization recognized by and formally affiliated with the California Institute of Technology. Founded by students in 1916, the Caltech Y seeks to broaden students’ worldviews, raise social, ethical, and cultural awareness through teamwork, community engagement, activism, and leadership.
For more than 100 years, the Caltech Y has enriched the lives of Caltech students through a wide variety of programs and services that are initiated and led by students. We supplement and complement the excellent academics of Caltech by providing a variety of co-curricular events and activities for all campus members. Our programs fall within our 5 pillars: Leadership, Service, Adventure, Civic Engagement, and Perspective.
Pillars
Leadership
Students play a key role in initiating and organizing every Caltech Y program and activity. The Caltech Y leadership activities give students meaningful opportunities to sit on a nonprofit board, program committees, manage budgets, and plan programs from start to finish.
Service
A range of on-campus and off-campus community service projects fits each student's schedule and interest. This includes tutoring for the Caltech Y Rise Program, Reading Partners, serving meals at Union Station Homeless Shelter or Alternative Spring Break service trips.
Civic Engagement
Students learn to be effective citizen scientists and to address diverse issues that face us today - on campus, and in our local, national or global communities.
Adventure
Outdoor trips to many exciting venues each year service student adventures - from novice to seasoned. Day trips and multi-day trips afford students the opportunity to escape the daily rigours of Caltech. Students learn about themselves and explore the boundaries of their comfort zones within the ease of a trip guided by other students.
perspective
Caltech Y programs broaden student views through cultural exchanges and service opportunities, students see that they can have an impact on the world beyond their own vocations, and they learn how to affect change locally, nationally, and internationally.
Land Acknowledgement
The Caltech Y resides on the ancestral homeland of the Tongva (Gabrielino) people, the original stewards of this land. In offering this land acknowledgement, we make no attempt to undo centuries of systemic colonization and genocide faced by Indigenous peoples on this land.
Today, the Tongva people continue to maintain their deep connection to these lands through their culture, ceremonies, and care for the environment. As guests on this land, we acknowledge our role in helping students grow into responsible citizens of the world, central to which is striving to seek justice for Indigenous peoples, spreading knowledge about the land we are on and the stewards of it, as well as bringing awareness to the stolen land and forced removal that has happened here.