Fresno State and City College students could earn $10K for school. Here’s how it works
A new initiative will give some Fresno-area college students $10,000 each for volunteering in their communities – and applications are now open for the first cohort of students.
Fresno State and Fresno City College are among 45 colleges across California to benefit from the state’s new College Corps to help low- and moderate-income students pay for schooling. About 6,500 students overall will benefit from the program, including undocumented students, who don’t qualify for federal aid.
In addition to academic credit, real-world job experience and access to training and networking opportunities, students will receive a $7,000 living allowance stipend and a $3,000 education award.
‘California’s GI Bill’
The 70 Fresno State and 50 Fresno City students chosen to participate will volunteer 450 hours of their time over a year working with community organizations in three areas — K-12 education, climate action, and food insecurity.
Those are the “big challenges that the governor is trying to take on,” according to Josh Fryday, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to run the California Volunteers Office, which manages the program. Fryday was recently in Fresno to announce the city’s One Fresno Youth Job Corps, which will train young people with a $7.4 million grant from his office.
For College Corps, applications are still open for organizations that would like to take and train volunteers. But so far, students could be doing literacy tutoring at Fresno Unified, tending to community gardens or working at the Central California Food Bank, Fryday said.
He calls the program “California’s GI Bill, because the idea is that if you’re going to serve — if you’re willing to give back and contribute —then we’re going to help you pay for college.”
The focus, Fryday said, is to give students debt-free pathways to complete college, “give them really valuable career skills, introduce them to new professions, build social networks and social capital, and then help lift up the communities in important ways.”
He met with Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval in March to work on the program’s details. Jiménez-Sandoval told The Bee on Wednesday he was “thoroughly excited that the Central Valley College Corps program will strengthen Fresno State’s impressive legacy as a fully engaged university with the communities it serves and empowers.”
How to apply to College Corps
To apply, students must be full-time and enrolled in Fresno City College or Fresno State for the 2022-2023 year and be in good academic standing. AB 540 students, or Dreamers, are eligible. There are certain income requirements, too.
The priority deadline to apply is April 30, and applications can be filled out at centralvalleycollegecorps.com.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Fresno State and City College students could earn $10K for school. Here’s how it works."
