UCLA will continue to support students and the greater Los Angeles community through its #CaliforniansForAll College Corps fellowship, thanks to a second grant to the university from Gov. Gavin Newsom for the service program.
Since its launch in fall 2022, the program has helped make a college education more affordable for underrepresented students of color, further increasing access to a UCLA-quality degree. The $4,783,260 grant will ensure the burgeoning campus program can keep supporting about 150 fellowships per year, with $10,000 in scholarships available to each student.
The announcement comes several weeks after AmeriCorps leaders and California legislators visited campus for a roundtable with UCLA College Corps fellows to discuss ways in which service agencies can better mobilize and support U.S. volunteers of different backgrounds.
UCLA’s program, one of nearly 50 across the state’s college and university systems, was selected to host the College Corps leg of the listening tour, giving Bruins the opportunity to share their personal stories.
“I bring greetings on behalf of President Biden,” AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith said at the Jan. 24 roundtable. “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to be here to hear your stories … so we can take everything that we hear today and inform our strategies for the rest of the nation.”
He was joined by Sonali Nijhawan, director of AmeriCorps State and National Service; Josh Fryday, California’s chief service officer; and other senior AmeriCorps staff members at UCLA’s Olympic Hall.
What sets UCLA apart
“Our students deserve an opportunity to give back to their community, learn skills and get scholarships for it,” said Amanda Finzi-Smith, director of UCLA College Corps. “That’s what this additional two years means for us. More students will get to experience this wonderful program!”
Two years ago, Finzi-Smith secured a $2.55 million grant to launch the program at UCLA, putting the university at the center of the biggest state-level investment in a college service program in California’s history. College Corps is one of only a few vehicles in which undocumented students can receive financial aid for their education.
UCLA’s program structure is unique in its recruitment of minority and undocumented Bruins, creating a college pathway and support system for students who might otherwise not have the resources. Finzi-Smith reserves 40 fellowship seats each year for undocumented students; the rest go to Pell Grant recipients accepted into the program. Students can apply to the program multiple years.
Bruins in the program volunteer across 32 host sites, which mostly serve minority populations, in Los Angeles County. The sites range from an organization that bridges the digital divide for K–12 Latino students to UCLA’s food pantry and café, which tackle food insecurity on campus. In return for 15 volunteer hours at a designated site each week, fellows receive $7,000 for living expenses and a $3,000 one-time scholarship after completing 450 service hours.
Finzi-Smith, who currently oversees 143 fellows and five full-time staff members, emphasizes the need for a “holistic” approach. Her team, which also includes five graduate and three undergraduate student employees, works to ensure at least three weekly touch points with students through career coaching, college counseling, mentoring or emotional support.
Graduate career coach Elisa Nesi Rocha says that sometimes means ending a session early so a student can sleep. This level of attention isn’t lost on second-year political science major Khale’ Jackson, who participated in the roundtable.
“It’s their support and their care — they just allow me to pour my heart to them when things are tough,” he said. “They’re a really, really big help.”
Jackson, who holds an on-campus job in addition to conducting research on the conditions of Black life with a Bunche Fellowship, was an inaugural fellow in last year’s UCLA College Corps cohort. He traveled roughly 30 miles every week from Westwood to Pasadena City College, where he volunteered at a program for formerly incarcerated students as well as those affected by the incarceration of a close relative or guardian.
“I was able to balance it (all) because of the amazing staff that we have here at UCLA,” he said. “I call them my second family.”
Finzi-Smith and her team have also made UCLA the first among college corps programs to host a retreat. For the last two years, fellows have unplugged for a multi-day experience were they hear from UCLA leadership and work with social justice trainers to practice self-discovery and collaboration with others.
Zainab Nicholas, leadership and development coordinator, calls it an honor to oversee the program’s service-based learning opportunities while also contributing to students’ personal and career development. “It is our goal to cultivate and encourage our unique, dynamic fellows to tap into their limitless potential,” she said.
Purpose and community
Students at the roundtable noted the program’s scholarship money as the key to unlocking the opportunity for low-income and underrepresented students to donate volunteer hours, which otherwise would be taken up by additional part-time jobs and other responsibilities.
Tarissa Almeida, a first-generation Mexican American fellow in her second year with UCLA College Corps, said money was an incentive at a time when finding a paying job in the STEM field as an undergraduate was nearly impossible. Almeida, a fourth year methodology, immunology and molecular genetics student, says the program also held the promise of purpose and community.
“I was able to see that this program actually catered to people like me, and that I was going to see people like me (in it),” she said. “So that had all the incentive that I needed.”
The other students echoed Almeida’s comments, with several adding how important it was to be able to serve Los Angeles after growing up in immigrant households and neighborhoods where service was the bedrock of the community. To be able to serve while navigating the pressures and expenses of studying at a place like UCLA was the ultimate value proposition.
“If there’s one thing I leave you all with, it’s that you have to fund (these programs),” Finzi-Smith said. “To be able to support students of color, they have to feel like they’re getting the same access and the treatment as everyone else.”
