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Community Centers

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We recognize that many students move great distances and/or leave their communities and networks to start their graduate programs. We aim to integrate all students, visiting scholars, and community members into our lab family, however, we also know that we cannot replace or fulfill all the needs of our students just within our lab/department communities. Below, we have linked several community and resource centers that form an integral part of our Stanford Community. We hope that you access the resources you need to form a strong support system during your time here! 

El Centro Chicano y Latino

As a vibrant student center, El Centro Chicano y Latino works to support students academically, personally, socially and culturally. We focus on creating mature, aware and socially responsible individuals who advocate and dialogue for equity and social justice. 

Within the Chicano and Latino community there is great diversity of backgrounds, aspirations and sociopolitical views that adds to the richness of our collective experience.  El Centro’s programs provide Stanford students the opportunity to explore Chicano and Latino culture, history and traditions, and to use that understanding to work with other ethnic communities in the United States and around the world.

Black Community Services Center

The Black Community Services Center embodies inclusive excellence through partnering with and educating the Stanford community about the contributions of the African Diaspora, while ensuring that students can thrive and reach their full potential. 

Native American Cultural Center

The Native American Cultural Center at Stanford derives its strength from a foundation of undergraduate and graduate students, staff, and faculty that mimics the intergenerational network of parents, grandparents, and families that exists in our home communities. From the moment students first arrive to campus to graduation, our programs aim to highlight this familial interaction and the importance of these relationships. These connections encourage students to engage with resources and events associated with a vibrant indigenous community in the surrounding Bay Area.

Asian American Activities Center

The Asian American Activities Center, A³C, is a department under the Vice Provost of Student Affairs and serves as Stanford’s primary resource for Asian and Asian American student affairs and community development.  The A³C contributes to the academic mission of the University through its partnerships and collaborative work with faculty, departments and academic programs.  Through programming and advising, the center facilitates the multicultural education of all students and the development of leaders who are able to negotiate an increasingly diverse and complex workplace and global environment.


The Markaz Resource Center

The Markaz, whose name comes from the Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Turkish and Urdu word for "center," is unique in its cultural focus and goal of serving all students interested in Africa, the Middle East, and central, south and southeast Asia, as well as the American Muslim experience.

The creation of the center is a result of advocacy over the years by faculty, staff and students. The center seeks to accommodate personal, institutional and educational needs of the campus community by promoting and enhancing cultural diversity. It serves as a safe space for a whole community of students on the Stanford campus.

The center serves the community that identifies with or has an interest, scholarly or otherwise, in Islamic culture, the Muslim world, global Muslim communities and non-Muslim minorities within the Muslim world.

Queer Student Resources

Queer Student Resources, or QSR, is a community center located on the second floor of the Firetruck House in a space that we call “QSpot.” QSR is a community center for students that are celebrating, questioning, investigating and/or struggling with sexual orientation and/or gender identity. 

In addition to our three directors, QSR is staffed by an incredibly large and diverse team of students. Together, we foster belonging and offer services and community to queer students via events and programs, many of which are still active in the virtual world during shelter-in-place!

Women's Community Center

The Women's Community Center exists to facilitate growth and engagement for Stanford students around issues of gender, equity, identity, and justice.

We do this by building community and providing innovative opportunities to explore scholarship, leadership, and activism.

Our approach is inclusive, intersectional, and welcoming of people of any background or level of prior engagement with these issues.

Bechtel International Center

Bechtel International Center

We at the believe that international educational exchange nurtures a lifelong global perspective and aspire to play a key role in increasing Stanford’s visibility around the world, strengthening Stanford’s position as a global university of consequence.

We provide information about and assistance with obtaining and maintaining legal status in the U.S. to international students, scholars and Stanford departments. 

We advise Stanford students who are pursuing scholarships for study and research abroad.

We enable international students, scholars and their family members at Stanford to receive maximum academic, cultural and personal benefit from their stays in the U.S.

We contribute to international activities at Stanford by helping to create a welcoming and supportive environment that is responsive to the needs of the international community.

We provide opportunities for Stanford students, faculty, staff, and members of our local community to broaden their horizons by interacting with people from different cultures through programs to increase international awareness and understanding.

First-Gen/Low-Income Office

The First-Gen/Low-Income (FLI) Office aims to provide holistic support for students. This includes providing them with critical resources, networks, and services that ensure their success.

Advocacy is one of our four pillars which honors students' agency and their desire to advocate for themselves and those around them. The FLI Staff are active advocates for FLI students on campus and beyond. Through our own networks and campus allies we strive to create safe, empowering, and creative spaces for our students. 

Abilities Hub

The Abilities Hub, also known as the A-Hub, is a community space, that was launched in October 2017 after years of student advocacy for a community center. While it remains a space without a permanent location, A-Hub provides a place for disability-related student groups to gather, share information, hold events, and further their advocacy for access and inclusion on campus. To read more about the A-Hub and the movement for a disability community center on campus, read this.

Disability @ Stanford is a website featuring the achievements, events, and work of the disability community and its allies at Stanford University. It is maintained by The Stanford Disability Initiative, a working group launched in 2017 by a coalition of students, faculty, and staff who aim to push forward the ongoing need for access rights and disability equity at Stanford University through community-building and academic scholarship. 

Lastly, the Diversity and Access Office oversees compliance with federal and state civil rights statutes, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and provides disability-related access information to faculty, staff, students and visitors in the Stanford community. Additionally, the Diversity and Access Office is responsible for ensuring all Stanford facilities and programs meet all federal, state and local laws regarding equal access for individuals with disabilities. 

Office for Military-Affiliated Communities

The Office for Military-Affiliated Communities (OMAC) focuses on the administration and management of VA financial benefits, coordinates and supports educational opportunities for military-affiliated communities, and conducts outreach to faculty regarding engagement and support for faculty grants or other funding specifically identified for military and veteran communities.

Office for Religious & Spiritual Life

The Office for Religious & Spiritual Life (ORSL) guides, nurtures, and enhances spiritual life at Stanford University.

Understanding education is both a spiritual and intellectual endeavor, ORSL attends to the whole student as together we explore the joy and challenges of being human. Here at ORSL, we foster dynamic and caring communities for religious and interfaith engagement, welcome and belonging, and spiritual wellness.

A home for people of all religious and non-religious traditions, we cultivate meaningful spaces to explore who you are and want to become for the sake of the world.

Whoever you are,  wherever you are on your journey, we are here for you!