Riverside highlight
University of California, Riverside
Founded in 1954 with 127 students and 65 faculty members, UC Riverside grew from the earlier Riverside Citrus Experiment Station (1907) into a major research university with nearly 21,000 students today.
The University of California, Riverside has roots that run deeper than its 1954 founding date. The Riverside Citrus Experiment Station opened on February 14, 1907, built to help local growers solve agricultural challenges. By 1954, UC Riverside began operations as a full university on February 15, when 127 students and 65 faculty members arrived for the first day of classes. The university was officially dedicated later that year on October 19, and from that modest beginning—the first 20 students graduated in 1955—it expanded steadily to serve a growing region.
UC Riverside's transformation reflects the changing needs of Southern California. When the UC Regents voted in 1959 to make UCR a general campus with graduate and professional instruction, the institution began adding colleges and schools. Today it serves nearly 21,000 students across multiple campuses and academic disciplines. In 2013, UC Riverside established a School of Medicine, one of the few such programs in the nation that focuses on primary-care doctors serving underserved communities. The addition of a School of Public Policy in 2012 further expanded the university's mission beyond research into addressing real-world challenges.
For many Riverside families, UC Riverside represents educational opportunity for a child or a path to a career without relocating. Planning for education is one of the reasons families buy term life insurance: income protection during the years a child is in school, or a benefit that would help pay for education if something happened. A policy sized to your household's actual needs—mortgage, dependents' education, income replacement—is the practical way to protect the plans a family makes for its future.