As a public university, the University of California’s fundamental missions are teaching, research and “to serve society as a center of higher learning.” None of these endeavors are possible without public service. And yet, the importance of the public to the university is not always obvious to the public that we engage with the most frequently on campus — our students.
Through College Corps, students who serve 450 hours — or 15 hours a week — over an academic year receive monthly stipends totaling $7,000 and, upon completion, a $3,000 education award.
UC Davis researchers found that implementing a basic income program for impoverished mothers in Yolo County resulted in reduced depression and increased quality time with their children. This suggests that basic income could be a transformative solution to combat child poverty in California.
In 2022, Yolo County began providing a guaranteed basic income to 67 families with children under age 6 — 90% of them led by single women. It was enough money to raise the families’ incomes one dollar above the California Poverty Measure over a two-year period.
In prisons, archives and libraries in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Panama and even at Harvard University, Benjamin Weber spent 10 years learning how today’s prison system in the United States began centuries ago outside of its borders.
The Klamath River runs over 250 miles (400 kilometers) from southern Oregon to the Pacific Ocean in Northern California. It flows through the steep, rugged Klamath Mountains, past slopes of redwood, fir, tanoak and madrone, and along pebbled beaches where willows shade the river’s edge.
When COVID-19 isolated incarcerated people, Assistant Professor Ben Weber and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners launched a writing group to facilitate communication among individuals both on inside and outside of prison walls.
Project Optimism is one of 54 host sites for Sacramento Valley College Corps fellows. In this interview, cofounder Ishmael Pruitt shares his insights about working with SVCC student fellows.
