California State University, Monterey Bay

Seaside, CA
Dr. Dianne Harrison, President
3,773 Students

California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) has used service as a tool to more closely align its academic program to the needs of the region's underserved populations, especially its youth, and has come to be seen as a valuable contributor to the overall community development efforts in the region.

Learn and Serve America played a key role in the university’s service programs, providing funding shortly after the university was established to institute service-learning programs. Today service-learning is a requirement for all undergraduates. Half the student body is enrolled in service-learning courses each year, 41 percent of them as tutors and mentors for thousands of students in under-performing local schools. Lower division students take the required course, “Introduction to Service in Multicultural Communities,” and then a second course in their major that integrates concepts of civic engagement and social responsibility into the core of their academic program.

As part of an effort to revitalize the blighted Chinatown area of downtown Salinas, 64 CSUMB students from 13 service-learning courses provided 2,370 hours of service to address the needs of the homeless and other marginalized members of the Soledad Street/Old Chinatown neighborhood. Students’ diverse service projects included preparing meals at the local soup kitchen; leading storytelling and drama activities with homeless people and others; conducting a survey of job-training needs and interests of homeless people; establishing a computer lab in the neighborhood; supporting the development of the county’s first shelter for single women; and organizing a Soledad Street Beautification Day and a Soupline Forum to build community awareness and support for the revitalization effort.

The Service-Learning Institute worked with the Monterey County Office of Education to help four school districts link their existing community service programs more closely to the academic curriculum and successfully address standardsbased outcomes. Three CSUMB faculty provided technical support for K-12 teachers, including curriculum development and evaluation workshops to enable them to link community service to both English, history/social studies, science, and math standards-based curricula. More than 40 teachers attended the workshops.

CSUMB also hosted service-learning fairs at the beginning of each semester to help students from Carmel High School and North Monterey County High School meet prospective community partners and develop learning outcomes for their service experiences. At the two fairs, each attended by more than 200 high school seniors, CSUMB Service-Learning Student Leaders conducted team-building exercises and reflection sessions to help the high school students develop goals and learning outcomes for their experience.