Student Union

Student Union is a student-run and student-funded organization supports students' needs by promoting their involvement in all levels of the CIIS community. Each semester Student Union allocates funding to support student participation in international and national conferences, special events for the CIIS community, and to active student groups. Student are encouraged to learn about these opportunities and to become involved in our multiple student groups whose missions serve a diverse field of interests; from astrology, meditation, expressive arts, sacred medicines, to social-oriented groups that support people of color, Latina scholarship and service, LGBT community, and international students.

Every registered student is encouraged to become involved and to attend Student Union monthly meetings. The goal of meetings are to insure accountability of Student Union funding and to create a forum to explore student ideas and concerns aimed to enhance the quality of students' well-being and representation at CIIS.

For more information, please visit MyCIIS Student Affairs tab then select Student Union Link and/or feel free to introduce yourself at studentunion@ciis.edu.


2020-2021 Student Leadership Groups

BREATHE Pantry

Breathe Pantry Student Group

Contact:

Breathepantry@ciis.edu

BREATHE Pantry is a community food-sharing initiative for the CIIS community CIIS, born from our daily needs and the desire to create sustainable change through mutual aid. The Pantry has been guided by the motto,  Take what you need. Give what you can

Furthermore, BREATHE Pantry Student Group is an opportunity to connect with and serve our CIIS/ACTCM community through the recognition of food insecurity on campus and its related hardships, as well as providing space for the celebration of nutritional exchange. The goal of the group is to enlist participation through communal upkeep of spaces and the solicitation of donations as well as the planning and sponsoring of events offering resources and conversations throughout the year on a variety of food related topics. 

This student group seeks to engage students, staff, faculty and our broader CIIS/ACTCM communities in a collective effort to support and thrive in the Bay Area and beyond! 

Committed and Aspiring White Anti-Racist Circle (CAWARC)

Contact:

cawarc@ciis.edu

Angus Moore

Sadie Robertson

Aliya Wilson 

Our student group aims to provide a contained space for white people and people with white privilege to face and overcome personal and social barriers in doing the work of anti-racism. The group also strives to build individual and organizational accountability for racial justice through organizing and collaborating with CIIS administrators, students of color groups, and community organizations dedicated to dismantling white supremacy. Through critical and embodied anti-racist praxis our group will help transform white fragility into racial stamina and resilience; white guilt and ambivalence into action and accountability. 

Golden Gate Slam

Jordan Wilson-Dalzell - Golden Gate Slam Poetry Group Contact

Contact:

Goldengateslam@ciis.edu 

Jordan Wilson-Dalzell 

We will create an intersectional  space for performance poetry on campus that uplifts marginalized voices, supports artists in all levels of participation to tell their stories through poetry. This space will bridge  the world of CIIS spoken word with the outside poetry world by collaborating with local slam communities on open mics, workshops and competitions. We will bring outside poets in to teach workshops on writing and performance as well as for features. The club will create a space for deconstruction of hard conversations and topics and their relationship to art. We hope to support students in learning from the larger poetry community by attending competitions and festivals that bring the community together.   

MK Veniegas

Green Team

Allison Lambert - CIIS Green Team Student Group Contact

Contact: 

greenteam@ciis.edu

Allison Lambert

The CIIS Green Team provides leadership for CIIS as an institution in the area of sustainability by embodying ecological justice, cultivating reciprocal relationships, and inviting play and pleasure into ecological accountability. We are committed to transforming our community’s consciousness through a holistic ecological focus that engages global paradigm shifts and enables action.  

Impact @ CIIS

Contact:

impact@ciis.edu

Somya Thakker

Our mission is to offer CIIS students with support on impact-oriented projects, while creating a space that nurtures integral leadership and creativity in order to build and sustain a community that thrives on transdisciplinary changemaking. 

Our vision is to have a student-led incubator that provides sustained support and funding to students who are utilizing an entrepreneurial toolkit to facilitate and nurture the Integral paradigm.  


Pan-African Student Union

Zuri Montgomery - Pan-African Students Union Contact

Contact:

pasu@ciis.edu  

Zuri Montgomery

The Pan-African Students Union (PASU) is an organization led by students of CIIS who self-identify within the African diaspora. This organization provides opportunities for interaction with students, faculty, administration, and alumni across CIIS’ diverse programs to promote and foster social, educational, political and therapeutic support for personal and professional development.

 

Joelle Dussek - Pan-African Students Union Contact

Joëlle Dussek 

Adisa Stewart - Pan-African Students Union Contact

Adisa Stewart 

Queering CIIS

Contact:

queering@ciis.edu

Corina Seligman

Queering CIIS is a group of LGBTQIA+ identified and questioning students and community members who meet weekly in the interest of providing support for one another, discussing current issues affecting the queer CIIS community and continuing to exchange ideas for building a more inclusive organization to fulfill everyone’s ever changing needs. During quarantine,  The club meets weekly via zoom and is lead in an activity such as guided meditation, presentations or writing prompts hosted by a different member each week followed by as open check in. All are welcome.  


Spiritual Emergence

Michelle Boyle - Spiritual Emergence Student Group Contact

Contact:

spiritualemergence@ciis.edu

Michelle Boyle

We provide support, education, and advocacy for awareness and integration of Spiritual Emergence. We are a group of people who experience and/or are interested in generating awareness, discussion and integration of spiritual emergence and other extraordinary experiences/phenomena for students and the greater community.  We also give voice to, empower, and create space for people's voices that have been marginalized, silenced, and/or oppressed. 

Transformation occurs through breaking down old ways of being. This emergence of the new self sometimes manifests in ways that can be tumultuous, and often this evolutionary process is seen as 'mental illness' and is pathologized rather than recognized as a creative process of the psyche. Our intent is to educate others about this process, to help de-stigmatize, support social justice, and collaborate with other resonant communities.


Student Employees Collective

Contact:

studentemployeescollective@ciis.edu

Our mission is to make space for student employees of CIIS to be in community with one another to celebrate the joys and acknowledge the challenges of studying and working at CIIS, and to highlight key areas in which advocacy and understanding are needed. Areas of concern will be presented to the ISG, upholding the vision of the ISG being a bridge between students and CIIS administration, so that concerns will be addressed and resolved in a timely fashion, with a sense of partnership and for the benefit of all. 

 

Students for Psychedelic Inquiry

Contacts:

SPI@ciis.edu 

Maxwell Custer

Students for Psychedelic Inquiry is a student-lead organization for those in the CIIS community who are interested in psychedelics. SPI deeply values the free exchange of ideas and aims to foster an environment  for thoughtful, curious and collective exploration. 

Our group will primarily be a discussion-based endeavor, hosting local community experts in the field and utilizing various media sources as inspiration for ongoing, expansive communication. 


Study of Healing Community

Xiao Wang - Study of Healing Community Chinese Student Group Contact

Contact:

shc@ciis.edu

Xiao Wang

Our mission is to support Chinese students to build an academic and fun community with respect, caring and engagement in CIIS. 

Ni Zhang - Study of Healing Community Chinese Student Group Contact

Ni Zhang

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