California State University students who volunteer for public service hours at 16 campuses can soon earn money to help pay for college, thanks to the #CaliforniansForAll College Corps, a $146 million investment through the 2021-22 Governor's California Comeback Plan.
In its first round of funding, the Office of the Governor's California Volunteers selected 45 colleges and universities statewide—which includes 16 CSU institutions—to serve as College Corps partner campuses: CSU Bakersfield, Chico State, CSU Dominguez Hills, Cal State East Bay, Fresno State, Humboldt State, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State LA, CSU Monterey Bay, Cal Poly Pomona, Sacramento State, Cal State San Bernardino, San Francisco State, San José State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Stanislaus State.
For the 2022-23 academic year, up to 1,355 CSU students from the partner campuses will benefit from this unique opportunity to gain valuable work experience and make a positive impact in their communities, while simultaneously earning money to help pay for their education. Students who complete a year of service will receive $10,000 ($7,000 stipend/living allowance, plus a $3,000 Education Award). In addition, #CaliforniansForAll College Corps is the first statewide service program available to AB540 eligible Dreamers.
Each participating university will receive a 19-month grant to support first the planning, and then the program implementation for the first year of the College Corps on their campus. Service opportunities will include critical issue areas such as climate action, K-12 education and COVID-19 recovery.
The new College Corps program is very much aligned with the CSU's own mission of public service and decades-long commitment to providing opportunities for impactful community engagement for students, particularly those from historically underserved communities. In fact, in 2019-20, 64,000 CSU students—13% of the total student population—contributed 934,000 hours of service to their communities through service-learning.
The College Corps was modeled after a pilot program launched in 2020 called the Civic Action Fellowship. Three CSU campuses (Los Angeles, San José and Stanislaus) participated in the pilot, and Civic Action Fellow Ian Chavez, a third-year computer science major at San José State, spoke during the California Volunteers press conference on January 18, describing his service experience as life changing.
“When the Civic Action Fellowship became available, it was a great way for me to receive a living allowance and education award for my service, which includes providing access to computer science to underserved kids, which is really important to me," Chavez said. “The SJSU Civic Action Fellows are opening doors for young people who might never have found their love of coding or other STEM topics because of their circumstances. So if someone pursues a STEM major and helps diversify the industry at the expense of several hours of my time, I think that's an amazing exchange and so worthwhile." Chavez is in his second year as a Civic Action Fellow, and this year is serving as a Lead Fellow.
The CSU looks forward to exciting opportunities for students selected for the inaugural year of the new College Corps.
A growing body of research shows that volunteerism not only improves the lives of those served, it enriches the lives of those who serve. And integrating academics with community service results in greater student engagement, supporting more timely college completion and advancing student success.
The CSU joins with the University of California, California Community Colleges and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) in collective commitment to uplifting communities and empowering the next generation of diverse, civic-minded and compassionate leaders.
For more information about service-learning, visit the CSU Center for Community Engagement website. For specifics on each campus' forthcoming #CaliforniansForAll College Corps program, please contact the campus directly.