The Public Service Center has helped students, faculty, and communities work together to create a more just and equitable world in many ways, from training the next generation of civic leaders, to inspiring and educating students, to impacting the communities we serve, and enhancing the capacity of our community partners. Here are some highlights of the PSC’s scope and impact.
Training Civic Leaders
The PSC connects leadership and academic skills to public service. In 2015–16 the PSC:
- Conducted 135 leadership trainings.
- Supported 22 student-led courses.
- Advised 25 student service organizations.
- Supported more than 40 faculty members to integrate public service into 50 courses, in collaboration with 65 community partners, through the American Cultures program.
- 90% of PSC student leaders and 82% of PSC participants rated the leadership development value of their experience as “good” or “excellent.”
Impacting the Surrounding Community
Through almost 190 service projects a year, the PSC makes an impact on communities throughout California and across the nation. Here are a few examples of the PSC scope and impact.
- Each year, about 5,000 students and 200 student leaders contribute more than 140,000 hours of service to almost 190 projects.
- For the past 10 years, PSC students have provided sustained support (at a value of more than $1.7 million) to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, from building housing to increasing the capacity of food banks (data as of 2005–2015).
- Each year through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, students assist hundreds of low– to moderate–income families file their income taxes.
Enhancing the Capacity of Partner Organizations
- A recent survey of community partners showed strong satisfaction in how the partnerships supported the organization’s progress towards achieving their goals (2014–15).
- Since 2001, the PSC has partnered closely with Berkeley and Oakland public schools, currently providing 20 schools with reading mentoring and math mentoring. PSC mentors supplement student learning in the classroom and help bring struggling students to grade level.
- As of its 52nd year in 2017, 3,808 Cal in the Capital interns have contributed 1,633,689 hours of service in over 400 professional settings, including Congressional offices, federal and other government agencies, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, media centers, private companies, and research institutions.
Inspiring and Educating Students
The PSC focuses on the intersection between student development and social change. Highlights of recent student survey results show the effectiveness of the PSC’s research-based transactional learning theory model.
- Continuing in public service: 3/4 of PSC student leaders and participants said their involvement with PSC influenced their choice to continue public service endeavors on campus, or to pursue a career in public service (2015–16).
- Ability to take action to change an unjust situation: 100% of Alternative Break leaders agreed they have the ability to take intentional action to change an unjust situation, as a result of participating in the program (2014–15) .
- Awareness of educational equity issues: 94% of BUILD mentors said the mentoring experience increased their awareness of educational equity issues (2015–16).
- Understanding causes of systemic injustice: 90% of PSC student participants agreed their involvement with the PSC helped them improve their ability to understand the root causes of systemic injustice (2015–16)