May 5, 2014
#IServeLA will provide up to 3,500 Cal State L.A. student volunteers a year
for non-profit organizations across the Los Angeles region
LOS ANGELES – President William A. Covino opened the Cal State L.A. Center for Engagement, Service, and the Public Good today. The center will serve as the university’s mechanism to affect positive change in the Los Angeles region, and link students with community organizations.
“Community engagement is one of our top priorities at Cal State L.A.,” said President William A. Covino. “The Center for Engagement, Service, and the Public Good will develop a stronger nexus between the university and our community partners. Through this center we will create vibrant partnerships, deliver much-needed resources to our neighbors, and help students pursue enriching service learning opportunities.”
At the opening, President Covino announced the formation of #IServeLA, a university-wide service-learning program that will provide up to 3,500 student volunteers to the city each year. The program is the centerpiece of Cal State L.A.’s new general education requirement that students take at least two service-learning courses before graduation.
“The center is here to give back to Los Angeles. Service learning is an important part of that and we could not be more excited to launch #IServeLA,” said Senior Director Taffany Lim. “This program is going to transform the educational experience for Cal State L.A. students and make a meaningful difference in hundreds of neighborhoods across Los Angeles. Our students are going to be out there pounding the pavement.”
The center has several additional programs in the works, including service-learning agreements with organizations, such as: the Weingart YMCA, Plaza de la Raza, El Centro de Pueblo, the American Red Cross, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. On Thursday, the center will announce the formation of GO East LA, a collaboration between Cal State L.A., East Los Angeles College and the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide “cradle-to-career” support for the students of unincorporated East L.A.
The senior director of the Center for Engagement, Service, and the Public Good is Taffany Lim. Prior to running the center, Lim served as the associate director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A.
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Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 230,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to the Honors College for high-achieving students. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
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