State educational leaders kick off volunteer college corps recruitment in Riverside County

Officials from Sacramento and several Riverside County colleges, including College of the Desert, joined Wednesday at Riverside City College to kick off the state's recruitment effort for a new volunteer college corps.

The California Volunteers College Corps program will provide up to 6,500 college students across California with a $10,000 stipend for educational expenses in exchange for completing a year of service in their communities. COD and Cal State University San Bernardino are among 45 partner college campuses participating in the inaugural program this fall.

"(The stipend) provides our students with the ability to care for themselves financially, and financially to support our communities," said California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. 

More:College of the Desert students can get $10,000 for year of public service

More:CSUSB-Palm Desert students can earn $10,000 to participate in statewide volunteer corps in fall 2022

California's Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday said the program is investing nearly $8 million in the Inland Empire.

"We think that this region has the potential to be a real model for service learning," Fryday told The Desert Sun. 

Some are concerned that the new college corps, backed by $159 million in mostly state money, is spending about half its budget on overhead with less than half of the budget going directly to student aid. 

Running a program of this magnitude takes resources, Fryday told The Desert Sun when asked if he was confident in the structure of this program and the way the aid is distributed between administrative costs and to students directly.

"We're proud that we get to help students graduate in less debt, we're proud that we get to give them the chance to gain leadership skills and job skills and we're proud that we get to uplift communities along the way," Fryday said. "And to run a program like that takes resources, which is why we're grateful to the legislature and the governor, that they're so committed to this program, and we're excited that the whole community is going to get to see big impact."

However, there is no guarantee the program will run beyond 2024.

Fryday said the state will be monitoring data to see if and how much the program leads to better outcomes for inaugural volunteer corps members, including graduating with less student debt, success finding a career path and feeling a greater sense of  community.

"So we're going to be measuring this along the way," Fryday said. "We're going to be doing ongoing surveys of the students, we're going to be, obviously, gathering the data on whether they are graduating with less debt or not."

"But our goal here," he continued, "is to basically say to the next generation of Californians: if you serve, we're going to invest in you, in your career, invest so that you graduate with less debt, and we're gonna know along the way whether we're achieving those ends or not."

The college corps is also monumental because the aid is accessible to Dreamers. 

"The college corps is the first time that we're giving state-funded service opportunities to AB 540 eligible students, and that's something we're very, very proud of," Fryday said. AB 540, the California Dream Act, allows certain nonresident or undocumented students to receive some types of financial aid. 

COD to focus on food insecurity

Some college corps members will focus on climate change, others, including CSUSB-Palm Desert, will focus on K-12 mentorship and still others, including COD, will focus on regional food insecurity.

COD is committed to 50 student volunteers per year for a two-year project period. 

Student volunteers will have the opportunity to partner with FIND Food Bank, OneFuture Coachella Valley and Growing Inland Achievement, a regional impact organization, to take on projects related to food insecurity and civic engagement.

Students who invest a total of 450 hours in the program over the academic year will receive $7,000 and qualify for an additional $3,000 state scholarship. 

The full annual cost of attendance for a local student living at home equates to approximately $15,807, according to the college's website. That figure includes approximately $1,300 for tuition, $1,100 for books, $3,200 for miscellaneous costs and $9,000 for food and housing. The college estimates students living away from home should budget about $17,000 for food and housing.

Amanda Phillips, dean of counseling services at COD, said the volunteer corps will help operate two full-time food distribution sites — one at the Palm Desert campus and another at the Indio campus.

She said students will work with FIND Food Bank to gain experience in warehousing and operations, as well.

"FIND will be providing the food and will be training the students and providing the volunteer opportunities, and the college will be providing the space and the coordination for the grant, so there's a real dependent relationship between us and FIND on that, but again, to address specifically food insecurity in our valley."

Applications for the college corps opened April 1. Students can learn more and apply by visiting: www.californiavolunteers.ca.gov/californiansforall-college-corps.

Jonathan Horwitz covers education for The Desert Sun. Reach him at jonathan.horwitz@desertsun.com or @Writes_Jonathan.