Ugly Cat
🚨 We're accepting applications for our Executive Team!
Art Saves Arts.
Ugly Cat is a not-for-profit, student-initiated business turning student artwork into wearable swag to support humanities departments in North Carolina high schools. Based in the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) in Durham, NC, we believe that the humanities are an ongoing and living expression of human culture, supported by both makers and audiences.All things, STEM and humanities, answer the three questions of life: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? The humanities clearly answers these; the humanities impact people by telling stories about ourselves and each other. Through grassroots organizing, designing, and advocacy, Ugly Cat chooses to tell these stories by the students, for the students.
You Design It. We Print It.
Printing designs at an easy and cheap price.Ugly Cat can print swag including but not limited to tote bags, t-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers, and hats.For example: We print 100% cotton, high-quality canvas, full-color tote bags!We are looking at you, NCSSM hall shirts and sweatshirts, club/event shirts, party goody-bags, etc.
Our Mission
Educate
Our members will organize Ugly Cat chapters at their home high schools and educate young people about the importance of studying the humanities, and how to speak out against budget cuts and outdated course curriculums. In doing so, letting them know how Ugly Cat is here to support the humanities in their education.
Design
We are committed to making positive change through direct action. Therefore our members are equipped with the ability to make their own decisions on designing something that boosts engagement and raises awareness on supporting the humanities at their schools.
Advocate
We work within civil society to raise funds for our school humanities departments and awareness about how the humanities are everywhere, within our schools, within our students, and are beautiful and much loved. We leverage social media, promotional/marketing engagements, and our diverse customer base to share the stories of those directly impacted by the humanities.
Our Values
Impact is created as a team.
Ugly Cat recognizes the importance of creating positive community impact, for high school students often out of the purpose of college applications or career-wise. It's important to realize that we do not need to compete with each other to make that impact. When individuals are in a team, we can make even more impact by utilizing each other's specialties and working towards one likeminded goal. That's why and how Ugly Cat carries out our mission in reaching schools across North Carolina and supporting humanities that way for the students.
Applications Open For Executive Board
🚨 We're accepting applications for our Executive Board!
Apply today to join the Ugly Cats Executive Board! We are expanding our team to include a larger group of young people. Current high school and college students across North Carolina are welcome to apply.The following positions are open:
🐾 Chief Operating Officer (1)
🐾 Chief Brand Officer (1)
🐾 Chief Policy Officer (1)
🐾 Directors (Chapter Leads) (no limit)About Us:
Ugly Cat is a not-for-profit, student-initiated business turning student artwork into wearable swag to support humanities departments in North Carolina high schools. Based in the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) in Durham, NC, we believe that the humanities are an ongoing and living expression of human culture, supported by both makers and audiences. Through grassroots organizing, designing, and advocacy, we raise funds for our school humanities departments and increase awareness about how the humanities are prevalent in communities and students, and are beautiful and much loved.Apply through the link below. For more information on responsibilities, check the Executive Board Overview and Responsibilities document below.Contact us at [email protected] with any questions.
Why support the humanities?
Are the humanities not just as valued as STEM? Worth cannot be determined with money, but it’s obvious what brings food to the table. There are massive disparities in recognition, therefore a difference in value: the average salary of a journalist in the US is $48k and a researcher $81k (Indeed, 2024). Public and private schools in every part of the country have announced mass layoffs, program eliminations and campus closures in response to significant budget shortfalls as a result of declining enrollment, the ending of federal COVID-19 pandemic funding, and a long-term decline in state investment into higher education -- the budget axe repeatedly falls on humanities and liberal arts programs. At NCSSM in January 2024, the budget for the school's annual humanities journal, Fifth World, was cut by 25%.In modern American high schools, the humanities appear in course curriculums as a unit each for political figures or notable writers, with brief summaries of their historical importance. In a rapidly-advancing technological world, "public impact" is defined to be immediate and in measurable quantities, hence both short-term and long-term public impact of basic science is unmistakable. The public impact of the humanities is in its ability to teach people how to think, in studying human subjectivity, human expressiveness and its fabrications in the arts, and the nature of self-understanding. As American poet Walt Whitman declared, "To have great poets, there must be great audiences too."