CSU students and alumni make a significant impact on California communities through the #CaliforniansForAll College Corps program.
Cal State San Bernardino College Corps fellow Juliana Garcia (left) with California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday (center) and CSUSB College Corps fellow Kenia Castaneda.
Now in its second year of operation, the #CaliforniansForAll College Corps program provides college students with meaningful work experience and helps them pay for their education while forging more equitable communities across California. The first program of its kind available to AB540-eligible Dreamers, the initiative connects students with service opportunities in fields like K-12 education, food insecurity and climate action.
California Volunteers launched the program in early 2022 in partnership with AmeriCorps and 45 colleges and universities statewide, including 16 CSUs. Through College Corps, students can earn $10,000 for completing 450 hours of service to their community. About 1,300 CSU students have participated in the program each year of its operation—making up more than half of the total number of fellows and contributing up to 1,170,000 hours of service.
“Valuable, life-changing experiences shaping the leaders of tomorrow are at the center of the partnership between the #CaliforniansForAll College Corps program and the California State University system,” says California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday. “Because CSU is a world-class institution, we are able to create models like College Corps to lift up all our communities and inspire the next generation of leaders.”
College Corps aligns with the CSU’s mission to graduate compassionate, civic-minded leaders and enables students to apply the knowledge learned in the classroom to benefit their communities, strengthen their leadership and public speaking skills and gain valuable career training.
Read about their experiences.
Encouraging a College-Going Culture
Rizarri and her College Corps fellows help organize virtual and in-person professional development workshops, engineering competitions and fun activities to encourage STEM exploration. They also host regular meetings they call “College Corner” to provide an open forum for their students to ask questions about college, and often visit their partner schools to connect with students and foster a college-going culture.
The most rewarding part, Rizarri says, is being able to pass along the knowledge and skills she has learned at CSUEB and beyond to provide the students with resources they can use in school and in their personal lives. She says the schools she works with are in underserved communities where many students don’t have the means to pursue higher education and even fewer pursue STEM degrees.
“A lot of the students from these schools need more attention because they don’t really have mentors or see themselves represented in STEM fields,” Rizarri says. “So, it’s been nice to be that person for them. I want them to think, ‘If she can do it, I can do it, too.’”
The Antioch native transferred to CSUEB from Los Medanos College with plans to become a nurse, but says she is becoming more interested in pursuing a career in health administration or advocacy so she can make a more positive impact on the community.
“I’ve been learning so much at CSUEB about public health policy, how to make new policies and improve on existing ones,” Rizarri says. “Through College Corps I have really improved my public speaking skills and grown as a leader, and I want to take on a bigger role in public health advocacy.”
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