At a time when financial pressures force many students to drive an Uber to work, or work at a local mall to offset college costs, the California government is offering $10,000 to college students in exchange for completing a year of community service work, in total 6,500 students will be eligible.
This was reported by Josh Fryday, director of California Services, during a media session conducted by Ethnic Media Serviceswhere he noted that the program is an unprecedented investment in service and opportunity for college students, especially low-income students across the state.
"What we are really creating with this program are three pathways for our low-income students to graduate and not only with less debt, but also to graduate with professional skills and professional networks that would not otherwise be available to them," the official said.
Undergraduate students can apply directly to www.cacollegecorps.com or get help from counselors at one of the 48 colleges and universities across the state that are enrolled in the #CaliforniansforAll College Corps program, a list that includes community colleges and some private colleges.
The $10,000 will go to a total of 6,500 university students who commit to 450 hours of community service - 15 hours a week. The money should go to pay for any education services, from tuition to rent, books, food and any of their basic needs, Fryday stressed.
College students accepted into the program will begin in the fall, and preference will be given to low-income students. In addition, "Dreamers" - young people from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program - are also eligible to apply.
"Student debt is a crisis that is crippling many of our young people today as they have to work at jobs that can take their focus away from school and graduating on time. So, we created this program with the goal of helping students stay in school, graduate on time, graduate with less debt, but also to really benefit the community," he explained.
The community service will focus on three areas, the first is on climate issues, where young people will do everything from planting trees to helping to make compost; secondly, there is food insecurity, so they will work as volunteers in food banks; while the third will have to do with education, as students will be tutors and mentors in low-income schools to support children and adolescents who had their learning impaired due to COVID-19.
"So our students are going to provide a very meaningful service to our community in a way that will hopefully uplift our entire state. We see this program as a win-win. Win-win-win," Fryday emphasized.
Finally, he stressed that, in the future, they will seek to expand the program to more students and a greater number of universities, "we hope that it will become a model for the entire country".
It should be noted that the program offers a total of US$7,000 in regular paychecks and, at the end of their community service, a support of US$3,000.
For her part, Lindsay Fox, president and CEO of United Way in Fresno and Madera counties, said the program will close the racial equity gap.
"This is key to our work because we are really committed not only to advancing prosperity for all, but also to ensuring generational wealth. And we believe that higher education is a pathway to that," he referred.
And that is because, he said, college admissions and enrollment rates, particularly to community colleges, are dropping, "quite significantly."
He asserted that, in Fresno, there are really significant drops in enrollment of people of color, particularly African American males.
"So a program, which puts at its core removing financial barriers to college, is what we need for our communities to make sure that we are breaking through this fog of COVID, which seems to be hanging over so many aspects of our lives, so that we can move on to the next chapter of our lives and really rewrite what will happen next."
From words to deeds in the program in which California offers 10 thousand dollars to students
Fernando Martinez is a freshman studying Applied Mathematics at San Jose State University. He transferred last semester because he found it exciting that the campus is in Silicon Valley, as it is the epicenter of the technology industry.
He grew up in Kansas, however, he said it didn't look like he had much opportunity to grow there.
"Since moving here to San Jose last year, I have found that I have grown so much more as an individual, in part because of the scholarship. For me, this program started with an email from the Civic Action Fellowship, which I applied for before coming to San Jose because I was looking for ways to be involved on my campus and within my new community. And fortunately, this opportunity provided me with both," he said.
The support, she said, provides her with the financial assistance she needs, and allows her to have more time and energy to focus on her classes, while providing computer programming enrichment for underprivileged children.
"Through this program I have learned firsthand how much local school communities lack in areas such as technology and access to those related careers. The scholarship also gives me the opportunity to help other children growing up in situations similar to mine," she said.
"For me, the most meaningful part of the fellowship is the genuine connections I've made with the kids I mentor, to inspire them to pursue STEM and get excited about college. You get to see their creativity sprout in different ways they didn't know it could. I can't imagine not applying for College Corps again," she said.
Ia Moua, no stranger to such joy, after arriving as a refugee from Vietnam when she was 9 years old, now oversees the California AmeriCorps program, the largest in the country, in her work for the California Volunteers.
"Service began as a way to give back to the community. An expression of my deep gratitude to this great nation."
"My family escaped persecution from the Vietnam War and resettled in the United States as refugees. Our early days of survival depended on welfare support and my own personal and professional growth was shaped by the selfless act of teachers and mentors who guided me as I adapted and learned to navigate life in a new country," she recounted.
She detailed that her work for the Summer Bridge program, tutoring children while in college, changed her sense of personal identity from a Hmong-speaking immigrant living in a foreign country to a full-fledged "proud American." "I gained a new sense of community."
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