2024 Awardees
Call to Service grants support SF State faculty and staff in providing service-learning, community, and civic engagement opportunities to students and in disseminating service-learning knowledge, research, or findings. The vision of this grant program is to cultivate and sustain strong, collaborative partnerships designed to model excellence in University and community engagement.
It is with great pleasure to announce the awardees of other 2024 Call to Service Initiative grants. Below are the awardees, listed by category. Congratulations to all recipients!
Our office serves as a bridge between SF State and the surrounding San Francisco communities, emphasizing partnerships that value and respect the assets and diversity of both. We are grateful for the continued annual funding provided through the CSU Chancellor's Office Call to Service Initiative.
Civic Engagement, which is part of ICCE's mission and statement of shared values, focuses on the opportunity to make a personal connection to complex social problems in our communities.
Community Service Learning (CSL), in particular, is recognized as one of the high-impact practices for student success, which also aligns with the University’s strategic plan. CSL also creates or enhances campus-community partnerships, uses civic involvement to meet specific learning objectives of an academic course, engages students and invigorates teaching, and creates research and publishing opportunities for faculty.
Faculty Review, Tenure, and Promotion (RTP): These opportunities include the pillars of Teaching, Service, and Research through the scholarship of engagement. An ICCE grant award can support outcomes and results of faculty/staff, and student experiences that generate, transmit, apply, and preserve knowledge for the direct benefit of varied audiences in ways that are consistent with SF State and department RTP objectives across disciplines. The culture of service-learning and community-engaged scholarship can enhance faculty RTP in ways that are both rigorous and impactful.
Luella Fu, Assistant Professor, Mathematics Department|
Math 699 “DataJam: Big Data for Community Good”
Funding will support the redesign of Math 699 “DataJam,” as a community engaged learning course, training students to mentor high school counterparts for an international data analysis competition. The course structure involves mentor training in the Fall, emphasizing statistical skills and community sensitivity. In the subsequent Spring semester, mentors collaborate with high school students on projects addressing local community issues using data analysis. Beyond immediate goals, this course engages with the community by partnering with local colleges, collaborating with nonprofits like Glide, and implementing a mentorship program. This community-engaged learning addresses major community needs, including high school students identifying and addressing local issues, learning practical data skills, SF State students reinforcing their learning through teaching, exposing high school students to college experiences, and providing practical skills for future employment.
Navi Kaur, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice Studies |
CJS 230: Crime, Data, and Analysis
Funding will support the redesign of the major course and general education requirement, CJ 230: Crime, Data and Analysis, as a community engaged learning course - focusing on collaboration and connection with local community-based organizations (CBOs). Students in the course will actively engage with CBOs such as Data for Black Lives, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, and No Tech for Apartheid. The aim is to analyze how tech companies, academia, and media collaborate to propagate fear of crime and develop technologies for social control. Students will provide valuable support to political advocacy organizations, aiding them in expanding their impact through the creation and dissemination of media.
Carina Gallo, Professor, Department of Criminal Justice Studies |
CJS 300: Criminal Justice: A Cross Disciplinary Perspective
The funding will facilitate the redesign of CJ 300 into a service-learning course, focusing on analyzing and critiquing the contemporary criminal justice system. This includes field observations and guest speakers, providing students with a hands-on and experiential learning approach. Community partners will play a key role in planning and designing the course, ensuring that service-learning activities address community-identified needs and organizational goals. Specific community engagement activities will combat misinformation about crime, aligning with the goals of criminal justice reform organizations, including Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). The use of service-learning as a pedagogy in studying crime and crime policy is emphasized for its effectiveness in enhancing critical thinking about privilege and inequality through reflection on experiences.
Dilara Yarbrough Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Justice Studies |
Community-Based Participatory Action Research: Abolitionist Care: transformative responses to poverty
Professor Dilara Yarbrough's extensive work on Abolitionist Care, spanning decades, explores the intersections where individuals experiencing poverty are categorized either as criminals for punishment or as patients for remediation, revealing how these interventions reinforce poverty. Leveraging over a decade of experience in Community-Based Participatory Action Research, providing direct services to unhoused individuals, and engaging in political advocacy, Yarbrough's manuscript draws insights from ethnography and interviews with both unhoused individuals in the sex trade and social service providers. "Abolitionist Care" proposes transformative responses to poverty, including radical harm reduction and grassroots anti-criminalization and housing justice organizing. Grounded in examples from San Francisco organizations like the Saint James Infirmary, San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, and Transgender Gender-variant and Intersex Justice Project, the manuscript explores the role of harm reduction and grassroots organizing in resisting poverty governance. The project advocates for policy solutions addressing housing, gender and racial justice, and the decriminalization of homelessness, sex work, and drug use.
Funding will support Professor Yarbrough in completing this long-term project, extending the reach of community-based research and policy advocacy through an outstanding SF State GWS graduate student, and maintaining a community advisory team with representatives from partner organizations and an editor.
Jeannie Woo, Lecturer, Department of Asian American Studies
AAS 512 “APIA Biography Project: APIA Heritage Kickoff Event”
Funds will support the AAS 512 course, a community engaged learning course that involves collaboration between AAS faculty, SF State students, and community partners to develop APIA biographies, curricular activities, and resources. The course project “APIA Biography Project” aims to address the lack of Asian American/Ethnic Studies representation in K-12 education and the community by creating free educational resources focused on social justice. The project includes an annual APIA Heritage Month Celebration at the San Francisco Main Public Library and a dedicated resource website for K-12 students and teachers. Community partners, including The Association of Chinese Teachers (TACT), Square and Circle Club, and the San Francisco Main Public Library, align with SFSU's academic and civic learning goals of social justice and Diversity Education and Inclusion (DEI). A planning group, comprising students and community activists, organizes the annual APIA Heritage Month Kick-Off Event at the San Francisco Main Library. The student-driven APIA Biography Project website (apiabiography.sfsu.edu) showcases students' findings, artwork, and creativity, with minor input from community partners.
Michael De Anda Muñiz, Assistant Professor, Department of Latina/Latino Studies
LTNS 680 “Community Symposium on Policing, Surveillance, and Criminalization”
Funds will support the LTNS 680: Latina/o/x Community Organizing and Career Futures course, which involves organizing a free community symposium at Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore in San Francisco's Mission District. The day-long symposium will unite activists, educators, artists, and community members to discuss issues of policing, surveillance, and criminalization (PSC) in the Bay Area. The event will comprise four 90-minute sessions, with three led by community organizations focusing on PSC issues and the fourth led by LTNS 680 CEL students in a teach-in/workshop format. The symposium will also showcase a gallery exhibition featuring artwork about PSC from Bay Area artists. Light food and refreshments will be provided, and ASL and English-Spanish interpretation will be available upon request. The overall goal is to empower community members to engage in the movement against police violence and explore alternatives to enhance community safety.
Tiffany Caesar, Assistant Professor, Department of Africana Studies
ARFS 466-02 “K-12 Students of Color Learning Initiatives in the Bay Area: Shared Experiences of Educators, Artists, and Activist in The Bay Area Impacting”
Funds will compensate guest speakers for the AFRS 466-2 course project, titled "K-12 Students of Color Learning Initiatives in the Bay Area: Shared Experiences of Educators, Artists, and Activists," which aims to shed light on endeavors in the Bay Area that positively impact education for students of color. These events will be open to both the university community and the broader public, providing an opportunity for engagement with local initiatives in social justice. The overarching goal is to foster discussions and awareness regarding ongoing efforts to enhance the educational system for students of color in the Bay Area.
Bronwyn Dexter, Lecturer, School of Art
Queer Futures Community Event Series & Art Exhibition
The funds will support community-engaged learning and scholarship in conjunction with the ART 456: Studio X topic "Queer Futures," focusing on LGBTQIA+ students. The initiative empowers students to explore intersections of their identities and address critical social issues in their creative practice. The project involves curating and implementing an art exhibition and events benefiting the LGBTQIA+ arts community. Collaborations with local entities such as Root Division, Queer Cultural Center, GLBT Historical Society, Bay Area Society for Art & Activism, and Queer Life Space aim to foster meaningful relationships. ART 456 students, working with community partners, will design and curate the art exhibition, creating a comprehensive Engaged Learning Component for the "Queer Futures" section.
Kate Hamel Professor, Department of Kinesiology/ Assistant Dean, Faculty Development & Scholarship
Becoming a Publicly Engage Scholars
Funds will support the workshop "Becoming a Publicly Engaged Scholar,” featuring trainers from the Scholars Strategy Network (SSN). This collaboration aims to enhance the public impact of SF State faculty's research and contribute to informed policy decisions. This workshop will provide training for faculty members at SF State on becoming publicly engaged scholars, equipping faculty with the skills needed to effectively communicate their research and scholarship to the public, thereby expanding the impact of their work and showcasing the high-quality scholarship conducted at SF State. The focus is on building relationships with policymakers, civic intermediaries, and journalists to influence policy decisions at various government levels. Following the workshop, there will be a conversation with Dr. Diana Greene Foster, a renowned professor at UCSF, recognized for her groundbreaking 'Turnaway Study' on the consequences of denied abortions. Dr. Greene Foster, a 2023 MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" fellow, will share insights on how she utilized her research to inform policy decisions.
Grant funds may be used to support the following expenses (varies by grant category). All disbursements must comply with established campus policies for purchasing, procurement, reimbursement, travel authorization and claims, and tax reporting/withholding. Upon notification of an award, both grant recipients and their department budget officer will have an opportunity to meet with ICCE to review disbursement procedures, as needed or requested.
Additional Faculty Pay
Depending on the grant category, funds may be used to compensate the faculty member who develops and implements the grant-funded activity. View grant category criteria and eligibility for cap amount. Compensation is subject to taxation and tax withholding. ICCE will process this compensation.
Partner Services
Funds may be used to compensate the community partner that works with faculty to develop and implement the grant-funded activity. Funds will be transferred to the applicant’s department/program. The applicant will have to work with their department/college to ensure the Partner Agency has filed a Vendor Data Record, provided a brief scope of work (including estimated costs) and provisional approval from SF State Procurement has been obtained. Faculty must ensure that the community partner completes these details and any subsequent disbursement requirements.
Supplies & Materials
Funds will be transferred to the applicant’s department/program for supplies and services necessary for the implementation of the CSL course and/or civic engagement-related activities.
Hospitality
Reimbursement expenses for hospitality are allowed, if official guests are present, which includes employees visiting from another work location, students, and community members. Funds will be transferred to the applicant’s department/program.
Travel (relating to civic engagement and/or service learning)
Funds will be transferred to the applicant's department/program. Please review the university and your College Travel Processes and Resources (some colleges provide their own travel summary and deadlines).
Student Assistant(s)
(classification: regular student assistant)
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Service Learning Course: Funds can be used to hire a student assistant(s) to facilitate partnerships with service-learning placement sites and support faculty and students enrolled in the course in completing the service-learning assignment. Student Assistants must be currently enrolled at SF State and must be directly supervised by the faculty member. Funds will be transferred to the applicant’s department/program and the administrative staff will set up payroll accordingly (please see related accordion tab: Use of Funds for Service Learning Assistants).
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Civic Engagement/Civic Learning: Funds can be used to hire student assistant(s) to support the capacity building (e.g., planning, organizational development) leading to the implementation of the proposed service-related project. Funds will be transferred to the applicant’s department/program and the administrative staff will set up payroll accordingly.
The SLA will assist in the development and growth of community partnerships, the development of service-learning support materials, and the facilitation of service-learning opportunities.
Examples of student responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:
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Delivering presentations to communicate the purpose, logistics, and context of service learning
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Leading in-class and on-site orientations with the community partner
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Assist with the coordination of student placements
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Ongoing problem-solving, mentoring, and logistical support for student peers
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Collection and documentation of relevant service-learning course documents (acknowledgment forms, completion of hours, risk management, etc.). ICCE staff are available to answer questions.
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Assist with planning and facilitating reflection activities
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Analysis of community partner, student, and faculty mid and end-of-semester evaluations
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If the SL experience is remote/virtual, assist with monitoring and tracking successes and challenges.
Service Learning Assistants are not:
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Teaching Assistants
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Allowed to grade papers or reflection assignments
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Expected to enroll in the service-learning course (but optional)
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Allowed to approve new partners or activities without instructor consent and ICCE risk management & liability processes completed
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Permitted to help develop special projects outside of the scope of normal course coordination
Important to note:
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Applicants must indicate in the budget proposal the desired hourly pay and number of hours to justify the requested award amount.
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The SLA (regular student assistant classification) must be a currently enrolled undergraduate or graduate student at SF State and can assist for up to 20 hours per week for one term (maximum of 16 weeks). (Note: Standard pay range is $18.07-$18.50 per hour and the rate for student hire through this grant can be decided by faculty members but cannot be below the SF minimum wage ordinance).
Non-allowable costs for all grants
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Faculty course release time
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Alcohol, receptions, entertainment costs (e.g., tickets to recreational events, gift cards, ball games, etc.), and/or banquets
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Scholarships, gifts, or other prize monies, raffles
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Paying participants to complete a service experience
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Travel Insurance
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Lease of facilities
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Campaigning or political mailings
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Equipment (e.g., printers, laptops, monitors, cell phones)
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Tuition of any kind
PAST GRANTEES
It is with great pleasure that ICCE announces the awardees of the 2022 Call to Service Initiative grants. Below are the awardees, listed by category. Congratulations to all recipients!
Add Service Learning to a Course
Dan Curtis-Cummins, Lecturer Faculty, Department of English Language & Literature | ENG 104/105: First-Year Composition
Funding will support the redesign of English 104/105, First-Year Composition "Stretch," to offer a community service learning option starting in Fall 2022. "Stretch'' English 104/105 is a year-long General Education course serving the same cohort of students over the academic year. As such, the 'Stretch' Writing Course is ideally suited for this first ever pilot, particularly for building meaningful and invested community service learning experiences for students over an extended period. In this course, students will identify an issue related to literacy (Early Childhood, Digital, Visual, Code-Meshed and Academic Literacies) and choose an organization to work with, one that expands their understanding of the issue through first-hand experience with community members. Students will address the needs the partners have already identified.
Jolie Goorjian, Lecturer Faculty, Department of English Language & Literature | ENG 216: Explore Your World, Your Identity and Your Future
English 216 is a basic GE course foundation course for first-year students and is an Area E Lifelong Learning and Self-Development course. Framed in an academic context with discussions, readings, research, and writing about a CSL opportunity and partner, this course section will offer students the opportunity to create a collaborative community to work with a CSL partner online, face-to-face or both. In doing so, students will learn the benefits of CSL, cultivate an understanding and partnership with their CSL partner and conduct research to learn about the organization's mission, goals, and social justice issue.
Amy Latham, Lecturer Faculty, Department of English Language & Literature | ENG 216: Cultivating Curiosity Through Research and Community-Engaged Writing
Funding will support the incorporation of the CSL option into this English 216 course section. Students will focus on a semester-long research topic exploring education and literacy (including digital and information literacy) in the surrounding communities.
Jingyi Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Computer Science | CSC 699 Learning by Teaching
Funding will support the development of a Teaching Assistant service-learning session to assist middle and/or high school San Francisco Unified School District Computer Science (CS) teachers from CS supplementary authorization programs and students in their CS classrooms.
Civic Engagement/Civic Learning
School of Cinema│Greta Snider, Professor, Faculty Advisor, The Archive Project│Archives and Activism Series
The San Francisco State University School of Cinema collects a treasury of classic features, documentaries, animation, experimental, and student short films. The Archive Project is a group of faculty, students, staff and alumni who work to make this collection discoverable, accessible, and exemplary. These films originate from numerous countries and span decades of style and technology– including student films dating back fifty years. The Archive Project follows the School’s commitment to fostering diverse voices, preserving cinematic history, and encouraging exploration by all students. Funding will support the implementation of a series of webinars and workshops that highlight the work of community archivists and activists. The Archive Project will partner with Queer Cinema Project, Black Film Club at SFSU, and Feminist Filmmakers Fellowship to provide event leadership opportunities and to center student perspectives in these events. Students, staff, and faculty will be on stage with our guests. The Archives and Activism Series connects students to community-based archiving projects and invites student and community members to explore The Archive in the School of Cinema as well. There will be four events for Spring and Fall 2022 and each of these events will include a student group partner and a community partner.
Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship
Jae Paik, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Psychology | Bridging Service-Learning and Community-Based Research: Impact of Community-Based Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) During COVID-19 Pandemic
Working collaboratively with members of the local and international school communities, Dr. Paik has developed social-emotional learning (SEL) programs (typically for PreK to Grade 2) that can be implemented in school settings. For the last 4 years, Dr. Paik been actively directing both local and international community-based research and service-learning projects. SEL Programming and SEL Research is more important than ever. Holistic approaches to education promote success in school, work, and life (Zins & Elias, 2007). SEL programming has been deemed to support holistic approaches to education and has grown in popularity over the past 20 years (Weissberg et al., 2015). The unfortunate event of the COVID-19 pandemic has further accentuated the dire need to build non-academic skills such as adaptability, emotion regulation, empathy, compassion, and resilience in order to successfully navigate through life. Locally, Dr, Paik and students have been going into the classrooms in the Bay Area to provide SEL programs to young students, engage in professional development and parent workshops, and run community events that brings SF State students, faculty, children and families together. Last Spring 2021, for the very first time, Dr. Paik taught an online psychology service-learning course where trained undergraduates (children call them “SEL Coaches”) offered a remote SEL program via zoom breakout room sessions. More than 200 local elementary students received weekly online SEL lessons for 12 weeks, filled with activities that were designed to foster social and emotional skills specifically identified by the school leaders and teachers.
Funding will support Dr. Paik's work with local schools/centers by implementing SEL programs and conducting much needed efficacy testing (e.g., collecting pre- and post-program data from teachers, children, and parents). With community-based research findings, Dr. Paik will be partnering with one of the school districts and will submit a 2022 NoVo Foundation grant with the goal of expanding and adopting the SEL program at the district level. This will allow Dr. Paik to conduct community-based research and serve children more widely and extensively.
Piryaei Shabnam, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts | BECA 580 Media in Community Service
Every day, thousands of asylum seekers recount their trauma to border agents, hoping for the opportunity to forge a new in the US. In an effort to draw attention to these stories, Dr. Shabnam has been working with Professor Dario Valles in the Chicano and Latino Studies Department at CSU Long Beach, and the Amplifying Sanctuary Voices project in Berkeley, CA to produce the documentary NO SEPARATE SURVIVAL. This feature-length film, which is still in production, is unique in that migrants co-authored and co-produced the film with donated equipment and training. Specifically, Dr. Shabham has developed a curriculum for, and facilitated, free media art workshops with community partners for migrants to produce videos that tell their stories from their own perspectives. Some of these videos will be integrated into the documentary film. The art therapy workshops for current and former asylum seekers have allowed Dr. Shabnam to build community relationships as well as CSU-wide campus relationships. While the project has long been rooted in a partnership with Amplifying Sanctuary Voices through the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Dr. Shabnam also collaborates with the Public Defender Immigration Representation Project at The Office of the Alameda County Public Defender, Youth UnMuted, and other immigrant-serving organizations to identify and build trust and relationships with participants and ensure a firm grounding in the historical, cultural, political, and economic context of recent migration to the US.
Funding will support Dr. Shabnam to build a unique curriculum to facilitate two additional media art workshops through a BECA 580 Media in Community Service course. This way students will have the opportunity to work directly with migrants and community partners in a hands-on learning environment. In the course, students blend theory and practice, through video production as well as critical thinking papers. This blended curriculum will advance students’ creative portfolios while also contributing to the body of knowledge in their field of study. Through videos the asylum seekers produce themselves, this project elucidates the nuanced interiority of all refugees as they grapple with their past, present, and future. Dr. Shabnam's research explores comparative media—specifically, applying interdisciplinary critical analysis and collaborative research across a variety of media arts, forms, and practices. Dr. Shabnam considers how media influences the way we communicate, exchange information, offer representations, chronicle and resist violence, and produce and exhibit art. Dr. Shabnam's work also considers how media can variously catalog, map, and elaborate strategies that challenge hegemonic representations of individuals and historical narratives.
It is with great pleasure that ICCE announces the awardees of the 2021 Call to Service Initiative grants. Below are the awardees, listed by category. Congratulations to all recipients!
Add Service Learning to a Course
Paige P. Viren , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Dept. of Park, Recreation, and Tourism | RPT 205: Adventure Travel
Dr. Viren will be adding a service learning component to RPT 205 and set to be implemented fall 2021 to 1) develop a Diversity in Adventure Travel Speaker Series to include a diversity in current adventure travel curriculum; 2) develop remote/virtual assignments that focuses on community-based sustainable development that will build on existing assignments and expand adventure community partnerships. Currently the course includes an Adventure Speaker Series which allows students to learn from people with different backgrounds and experiences, including scholars, entrepreneurs, and practitioners working in adventure tourism. Dr. Viren is currently establishing partnerships with adventure community partners. RPT 205 students will serve their hours by collaborating with these site/s. Funds will also be used to support a community service learning student assistant to support the implementation.
Jae Paik, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Psychology | PSY 300 Current Issues In Psychology Remote Service-Learning: Providing Social-Emotional Programs to Young Leaders
Due to COVID-19 young children’s social, emotional and academic experiences have been impacted immensely and broadly. In response to the pandemic and subsequent school closures, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education has launched “Advance SEL in California” initiative to elevate Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) practices and to address the social and emotional needs of students over the long haul (California Office of Governor, 2020). To achieve this goal, partnerships among the community organizations and members are paramount. Dr. Paik has been working collaboratively with Millbrae School District (MSD) in creating SEL program that could be offered remotely for their students. Dr. Paik will be adding a service learning component to PSY 300 that involves organizing, training, and supervising PSY 300 undergraduate students who will deliver SEL program remotely in form of live zoom classes.
Leyla Ozsen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, | BUS 895 Research Project in Business
Funding will support the re-envisioning of BUS 895 to include service learning with an emphasis in advancing community identified needs and supporting the mission and strategic initiatives around inclusivity, diversity, sustainability and innovation. BUS 895 is a required culminating experience project course for the MS in Business Analytics Program. The students in this course have been and will be given the option to select from a wide variety of project topics in partnership with primarily organizations, whose mission is centered around solving environmental and societal issues and/or which are founded and led by people of color and/or women.
Partnerships in Service Learning
Abigail Lapin Dardashti, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Art History | Community Partner: Galería de la Raza
The new collaboration between SF State’s Art History department and the grassroots activist Latino/a/x art gallery Galería de la Raza engages with San Francisco’s muralism practice both historically and in the present. It focuses on social and racial justice issues related to access to space, Latina/o/x representation, and resistance. Since 1970, Galería has created a space to foster Latino/a/x creativity and activism as well as securing public places for mural practice. Through the course ARTH 516 Mexican Muralism and its Legacy in the Americas in Fall 2021, students will learn about the art history of modernist muralism and large-scale painting, with a focus on Latino/a/x and Latin American art. They will also work with Galería to catalogue and conduct research in the archive, contributing to making this essential repository available to the broader public and publicizing its essential historical value through research. This partnership will support Galería's efforts and introduce students to archival research and cataloguing, preparing them for graduate school and careers in the art world.
Civic Engagement/Civic Learning
School of Public Affairs & Civic Engagement│Jennifer Shea, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Master of Public Administration Program│Co-Director, Willie L. Brown, Jr. Fellowship Program
Funds will support the development of a robust mentoring program in the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Fellowship (WBF) Program, which includes undergraduate and graduate student components. Established in 2008 and housed in the School of Public Affairs & Civic Engagement (PACE), the WBF Program places students who have faced barriers to pursuing higher education in high-level internships in the City & County of San Francisco (the City) agencies, with the goal of instilling a commitment to public service and providing students with corresponding professional development. The fellows come from under-represented communities, bringing diversity across many intersectional identities to the public sector. The WBF Program is built on a long-term partnership with the City and aims to support the City's racial equity goals in the short and long-terms in compliance with the citywide Racial Equity Framework (Ordinance No. 188-19).
School of Cinema│Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Ph.D., Professor Director, School of Cinema
The School of Cinema at San Francisco State University, in partnership with the Division of Equity & Community Inclusion, Black Unity Center, Asian American and Pacific Islander Retention and Education, and Latino Center, will implement a series of webinars throughout the spring semester of 2021 that will highlight the work of women of color in Hollywood as part of a year-long series focused on Race, Rebellion and Resistance. The Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity of Stanford University will also be co-sponsor to the events. They will also be working with the following student organizations affiliated with the School of Cinema: Animation Society, Black Film Club, Cinema Collective, Feminist Filmmaker Fellowship, Delta Kappa Alpha, and Graduate Student Association in order to center student perspectives during these webinars. School of Cinema, along with their partners, are all committed to diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry. UCLA’s 2020 Diversity Report showed that film executives and directors are still overwhelmingly white men. The hope is to demystify who gets to work in Hollywood by inviting women of color from different sectors of the entertainment industry to speak and share their paths. Funding will support the efforts and aspiration to create thoughtful discourse that will lead to the development of civic-minded cinema students and to the elevation of student leadership in cinema-focused student collectives.
Service Learning Student Assistant(s)
Michael De Anda Muniz,Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Latina/Latino Studies Department | LTNS 680: Latina/o Community Organizing
Funds will support a service learning student assistant (SLA) for LTNS 680 to provide high quality community service learning (CSL) experiences during remote learning and offer the SLA a unique opportunity to build a strong mentorship relationship and gain valuable remote project management experience. In Latino/Latina Community Organizing, students collectively examine the history of Latina/x/o community organizing in the United States; the social, economic, and political structures that impact Latina/x/o community organizing; and contemporary Latina/x/o community organizing efforts. In addition to learning from readings, videos, podcasts, and guest speakers, students have the opportunity to participate in a CSL project that advances a local community-based organization’s immediate and long-term goals. In fall 2020, students worked remotely with local and national organizations that address issues including farmworkers’ rights; racial, social, environmental, and economic justice for Bay Area communities of color; voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds in San Francisco; and a sense of community among SF State students during remote learning. Partner organizations included the Alliance for Fair Food, Black Organizing Project, Communities for a Better Environment, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and Yes On Prop G Campaign.
Bridget Gelms, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, English Language & Literature | ENG 618 Individual and Team Writing
Funds will support a service learning student assistant (SLA) for ENG 618 to provide more support for the student teams as they embark on their community partnership. In this course, Professional Writing & Rhetoric majors work in teams to provide community partners with professional writing services they need to sustain their mission. For example, a past partnership with the Pacifica Beach Coalition enabled students to craft social media content, a press kit, and promotional flyers for the Coalition’s Earth Day events and yearly educational programs with local high schools. ENG 618, then, gives students practical experience with community-based writing projects while they learn about effective modes of collaboration and teamwork.
Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship
Anoshua Chaudhuri, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Economics
Dr. Chaudhuri has been awarded the Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship for her work and continued efforts with the SF Small Business Commission through a community-based participatory research project about COVID-19's impact on small business in San Francisco. San Francisco being one of the high cost of living areas has seen an exodus of residents and big businesses (mostly tech companies). Small businesses that supported this population have seen a drop-in clientele. Apart from social distancing rules, pandemic related closures, there have been demand-driven reasons for the hugely negative impacts on small businesses. Through this collaboration a survey instrument was designed and implemented to capture these reasons in order to inform pertinent policy-making and that would adequately capture local struggles, barriers and opportunities. Currently, in the second phase of implementation, funds will be used to analyze the data and help disseminate the research results, as well as continue the collaborative partnership with SF Small Business Commission to allow on-going and future placement of SF State students in community service learning projects with this partner.
Below are the awardees, listed by category. Congratulations to all recipients!
Add Service Learning to a Course
Yessica Garcia Hernandez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Latina/Latino Studies | LTNS 400 Latina Girlhoods
Dr. Garcia Hernandez will be adding service learning to a new course that she is developing and will be taught for the first time fall 2020. The learning outcomes of this practicum-based course are threefold: 1) teach an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of girl studies, which is defined as the study of girlhood and girls cultures; 2) teach students community-based participatory action research and art-based methodologies to work with girls of color; and 3) teach students how to write fieldnotes and autoethnographic entries. This course will be linked with the Rebel Quinceañera Collective (RQC), a participatory action research project currently under development here at SF State. Dr. Garcia Hernandez is currently establishing partnerships with the Chavez Branch Library in Oakland and the Mission Branch Library in SF to provide new programming for already existing programs for young adults. Her LTNS 400 students will serve their hours by collaborating with these sites to provide additional programming.
Jae Paik, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Psychology | PSY 455 Cross-Cultural Psychology
PSY 455 is tied to a Psychology Faculty-Led Study Abroad program, which involves an international fieldwork component in Sichuan Province, China that engages students in various educational and psychological field services for local children, family and teachers. For the upcoming 2020 summer program, Dr. Paik will revamp PSY455 Cross-Cultural Psychology and offer the course as a registered SL course. This would be the first time PSY455 will be offered as a registered SL course. Students will collaborate with the local universities and community centers to facilitiate events and activities that will best serve the needs of the community (e.g., cultural lessions, family events, sports events).
Partnerships in Service Learning
Casey Nesbit, PT, DPT, DSc, PCS, Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy | PT 899
Dr. Nesbit will use funds to deepen relationships with St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Malawi for a project in a high-quality service-learning course, Malawi Service Learning for Doctor of Physical Therapy students (PT 899). This service-learning course includes developing and implementing a rehabilitation training program for Home-Based Palliative Care Community Health Workers who care for patients with disabilities and chronic illness in the villages.
Civic Engagement/Civic Learning
Katie M. Hetherington, J.D., LL.M., Assistant Professor, Dept. of Accounting
Funds will be used to pay for an SF State graduate student Site Coordinator of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. VITA is a national program sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). VITA provides free tax return preparation services to low-income, elderly, limited English proficiency and disabled individuals. The SF State VITA program has averaged well over 1,000 returns prepared each year.
Service Learning Student Assistant(s)
Jennifer Shea, Associate Professor, Public Adminstration, School of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement | PA 746 Organizational Learning and Nonprofit Management
Dr. Shea will use funds to support her community-service learning designated course, PA 746 in the Master of Public Administration (MPA) Program. As a client-based course, PA 746 positions student teams as external resources for community-based nonprofit organization partners. The graduate student assistant will assist in the development of course-specific service-learning support materials, including updating content for the logic model workshop and the list of nonprofit management resources available to student teams.
Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship
Pavlina Latkova, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Park, Recreation, and Tourism | RPT 470: Travel with Purpose
Dr. Latkova has been awarded the Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship for her work and continued efforts to further enhance community-based collaboration between the RPT and HH Department and Altruvistas, through RPT 470 service-learning curriculum assessment.
It is with great pleasure that the Institute for Civic and Community Engagement announce the awardees of the 2019 Call to Service Initiative grants. Below are the awardees, listed by category. Congratulations to all recipients!
Add Service Learning to a Course Grant
Sarah Crabtree, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of History, HIST 405: Martime History
Dr. Crabtree will increase the scope of prospective project(s), grow the number of students involved, make community partnerships sustainable moving forward, and use the data gathered from course assessment metrics to implement a department-wide program for history majors.
Oscar Guerra, Ph.D., Dept. of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts, BECA 360
Dr. Guerra will expand upon BECA 360 Virtual Reality: 360 Video Production with Community Service. This production course will provide the students with an advanced experience in VR:360 production with the opportunity to produce immersive experiences with a strong focus on community service. In collaboration with participating community partners, students will produce 36 immersive experiences, in their efforts to promote their mission.
Jae Paik, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Psychology, PSY 558 Field Service Seminar / PSY 559 Psychological Field Service
PSY 558/9 is tied to a Psychology Faculty-Led Study Abroad program, which involves an international fieldwork component in Sichuan Province, China that engages students in various educational and psychological field services for local children, family and teachers. Dr. Paik will revamp PSY 558/9 Field Services Seminar/Psychological Field Service and offer the course as a registered service learning course.
Aritree Samanta, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, ENVS 224
Dr. Samanta will modify ENVS 224 to include a service learning component. The service-learning component of ENVS 224 in Spring 2019 will be the first step of a multi-semester joint project to conduct a structured program impact evaluation for City Surf Project between Dr. Chaudhuri (Department of Economics) and Dr. Samanta.
Partnerships in Service Learning
Anoshua Chaudhuri, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Economics | Community Partner: City Surf Project
Dr. Chaudhuri will to continue to develop the mental health impact-evaluation partnership that she started with community partner City Surf Project (CSP). She will use funding to hire a research assistant to help prepare a publishable article based on the data collected during Fall 2018 and help train a new group of students in her Spring 2019 Econ 640/840 class to continue with the data collection from CSP participants.
Jesus Ramirez-Valles, Ph.D., MPH, Health Equity Institute | Community Partner: TurnOut
Dr. Ramirez-Valles and the Health Equity Institute will use grant funding to support development of a new partnership in service learning with local nonprofit, TurnOut. A partnership with TurnOut presents a rich opportunity to develop a strong, high-quality service learning program focused on LGBTQ+ issues at SF State. Leveraging TurnOut’s partnerships with such a diverse array of nonprofits across the city, SF State will be able to offer students the opportunity to volunteer with and learn from with front-line activists and community organizers working on the most urgent issues facing LGBTQ+ communities right now.
Civic Engagement / Civic Learning
Katie M. Hetherington, J.D., LL.M., Assistant Professor, Dept. of Accounting
Funds will be used to pay for an SF State graduate student Site Coordinator of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. VITA is a national program sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). VITA provides free tax return preparation services to low-income, elderly, limited English proficiency and disabled individuals. The SF State VITA program has averaged well over 1,000 returns prepared each year.
Karen Boyce, LCSW, Director, Health Promotion and Wellness
Health Promotion and Wellness will use funds to provide compensation for Lead Ambassadors in their Ambassador Program, a volunteer program that provides opportunities for SF State students to be peer health leaders. The Lead Ambassador position was created out of the need for leadership with the expansion the Ambassador Program experienced last academic year.
Department/Program/School Level Service Learning Grant
Jason Gurdak, Ph.D., P.H., Associate Professor, Dept. of Earth & Climate Sciences
Dr. Gurdak will use funds to advance SFSU student service learning in groundwater sustainability for San Francisco and Malawi communities. The Call to Service Initiative Grant will be used to support two related service-learning projects within the new S2H2O (Students for Sustainable Water) initiative and in coordination with UNESCO GRAPHIC. S2H2O brings together student leaders, faculty advisors, and community partners to create practical solutions for local, regional, and global water sustainability through interdisciplinary research, education, service learning, community engagement, and capacity building.
Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship (New category, first time recipient!)
Jae Paik, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Psychology, PSY 558 Field Service Seminar / PSY 559 Psychological Field Service
Dr. Paik has been awarded the Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship for her work leading the Psychology Faculty-Led Study Abroad program in Sichuan Province, China where students engaged in various curricular and extracurricular activities in real-world service settings (e.g., teaching in preK-12-classrooms, mentoring students, family cultural events, conducting observational assessments of children). Funds will be used for Graduate Research Assistants to transcribe and code qualitative data, travel costs to chair and present at the International Convention of Psychological Science, and research materials.
Conference Travel
- Jerome Schwab, Dept. of English Language & Literature
- Jolie Goorjian, Dept. of English Language & Literature
- Amy Love, Dept. of English Language & Literature
The above faculty teach CSL writing courses in the Department of English Language and Literature and have been accepted to present “Performing Composition: Writing Poetry in Service to the Community” at the College Composition and Communication Conference in Pittsburgh, PA on March 15, 2019. This is the premier academic gathering in their discipline, accepting only 15% of proposals submitted. As part of the community service cluster, they will share the way they use poetry writing to help students prepare, process and reflect deeply on their service experience.