Global Poverty and Practice is the fastest-growing minor at UC Berkeley, expanding from 50 students who declared the minor in 2007 to 96 who declared this fall.

The interdisciplinary minor, offered through the Division of International and Area Studies and the Blum Center for Developing Economies, has seen a boom in class enrollment since the program began two years ago.

There are currently 160 global poverty minors at UC Berkeley from over 30 majors, and the number will likely increase before the April 1 declaration deadline, according to Ananya Roy, associate dean of academic affairs at the Division of International and Area Studies.

The minor is funded through a portion of a $10-million donation to the Blum Center by Richard Blum.

Faculty members say students have become interested in the minor due to the opportunity for interdisciplinary study and travel grants offered through the Blum Center, which allows global poverty minors to initiate charitable projects at home and abroad.

"I'm excited that it's a growing minor," said International and Area Studies lecturer Edith Ng. "I think people want to minor in it because it's something you can do."

Tsung Mou, a sophomore molecular and cell biology major, said he chose the minor because it allowed him to be more interactive in his studies.

"They encouraged students to do hands-on work, which doesn't happen very often," he said. "They usually just ask you to read and memorize things."

For the minor's practical experience requirement, Mou said he plans to go to Guatemala this summer with 20 other students to help alleviate dysentery and malnutrition.

"It's what private East Coast colleges do for their undergraduates and what we're often unable to do for our undergraduates at Cal," Ng said.

The Blum Center will give $100,000 to be split among 45 students to help them fulfill the practice experience requirement this summer. More than 60 students will be volunteering through the program in locations ranging from Oakland to as far away as Sierra Leone, Roy said.

The minor was created in 2007 due to student interest in International and Area Studies 115.

One-hundred thirty-five students enrolled in the class in 2006 and 400 enrolled in 2007 when it became a core requirement for the minor, according to Roy, who teaches the course. Next fall the course will be taught at Wheeler Auditorium, and she expects about 700 students to enroll.

Alexis Bucknam, director of student programs at the Blum Center, said the minor may become more popular as the recession makes poverty issues more relevant to undergraduates.

"Whether it's their parents getting laid off, or a family friend getting laid off, it's going to become a lot more salient within their own lives," she said. "We'll continue to see an uptick in the number of students who really want to understand these issues more."

Tags: INTERNATIONAL AND AREA STUDIES, GLOBAL POVERTY AND PRACTICE