Beginning last fall, 55 Concordia students participated in the newly-created #CaliforniansforAll College Corps program, launched by the State of California to encourage community service among young people. Students serve 15 hours a week or so in a local non-profit or community-oriented entity and receive as much as $10,000 in financial assistance. “Concordia values service, and this is an opportunity for us to embrace that in our community,” says Jenny Sheek ’04, College Corps coordinator. “It helps our students live into their identity and calling, and use the gifts God has equipped them with to share the love of Christ in word and in deed.”
Evelyn Galvan, a junior behavioral science major from Lake Forest, liked the idea of tuition assistance and was assigned to work at South County Outreach, a non-profit food bank which functions like a grocery store. Having never volunteered before, Galvan was apprehensive at first, but quickly became comfortable with her team, her assignments, and the people they serve.
“You grow a connection with people because they come every month,” Galvan says. “It’s really surprising how many people are struggling to buy groceries near where I live. It’s been an eye-opener. If I hadn’t joined the College Corps program, I wouldn’t have seen this side of where I live.” At the food bank, clients push shopping carts down aisles full of canned goods, and receive fresh foods like meat, eggs, vegetables, and dairy products. Galvan rotates between the three perishable food stations and often listens to clients talk about their day.
“I’ve had people come in super-happy because they got a mobile home and want to stock up their kitchen,” she says. “Other clients come in for the first time, and they’re anxious because they lost their home and don’t have any place right now.” The experience has been so positive that Galvan intends to serve next year as well, and continue to volunteer after that.
In a completely different context, sophomore theological studies major Laura Gibson, who is also part of the director of Christian education program, found herself assigned to Tanaka Farms, within walking distance of Concordia’s campus.
“I work in the barnyard and spot clean the animals’ pens, feed them and give them water,” Gibson says. “We take some animals on walks. We have tons of goats, four sheep, two mini-horses, a pony, two miniature donkeys, a mule, a miniature cow, turkeys, and twenty-five chickens.”
Back home in Modesto, Gibson “loved serving with my church and community while growing up,” she says. She ran sound and on-screen projections at church, also playing lead guitar in the praise band and singing background vocals. Her family often prepared homeless care packages and Operation Christmas Child boxes and assisted with fundraising dinners for the Modesto Gospel Mission.
“Serving others before serving yourself is something my parents instilled in me as very important,” she says. Tanaka Farms practices and promotes sustainable farming rather than mass harvesting, and that includes hosting visitors for an on-site, get-your-hands-dirty experience of farming.
“They believe it’s important for people to see where the food comes from,” Gibson says. “They promote the love of agriculture and farming.”
Early in her time there, Gibson’s supervisors saw she was good at interacting with guests and educating them about animals in the barn — so they asked her to teach groups of visitors about sustainable farming before they took wagon tours to pick kale, carrots, onions, green onions, blackberries, and strawberries.
In an hour-long “Chicks and Sprouts” class for kids, Gibson teaches about the life cycle of a plant. Then visitors plant sunflower seeds to take home with them. Then she teaches on the life cycle of a chick, from egg to hatchling, and talks about what adult chickens do. Then she takes visitors into the coop to “hang out with the chickens.”
“I love when kids who have never seen where their food come from realize that it doesn’t magically appear at the grocery store. There’s hard work that goes into it,” she says. “That makes them a little more grateful for their food. Seeing how much their worldview can change in that amount of time is amazing.”
College Corps “is a blessing to me because it gave me the opportunity to immediately be placed in a host site,” she says. I didn’t have to go looking for a place to serve. It instantly clicked. I can’t imagine my life at Concordia any differently. I adore being around the animals and being with the staff at Tanaka. It’s such a family atmosphere. We love and support one another.” Gibson plans to serve again next year and has recruited others to do the same.
“I recommend it to every single person,” she says. “It’s a win-win situation. You get a ton of experience, and you have new connections with supervisors who can help you get a job later on down the line.”
College Corps requires 450 hours of service. Cumulatively, Concordia students have already served nearly 9,000 hours with eight partner institutions. Some students were featured on the Good Morning L.A. show for participating in College Corps.
“Host sites we’ve been working with have seen measurable improvements,” says Sheek. “For example, students who are tutoring at-risk students share stories of kids’ test scores improving, and their being more open in communication. Our students see they can make a measurable impact in someone’s life.”
Sheek points out a deeper benefit of participation — one that helps heal the gap in experience left by COVID shutdowns.
“Many students weren’t allowed to get their first jobs during the pandemic, so this is a way to learn those soft job skills you normally learn in a safe environment with supportive people,” she says. “Things like how to connect with supervisors, how to advocate for yourself, showing up on time, what to do when you need to call off, what it’s like being part of a team, and so on.”
Concordia’s community of College Corps participants meet and talk through their experiences weekly, discussing real-life situations such as: What happens when people at a food site are angry? Or it rains and gets muddy at the farm? Or a kid on an online tutoring session puts his head down and won’t talk to you when you’re teaching?
“It gives them a place to process and to do some self-evaluation about how they can improve the way they serve,”
Sheek says. “They also develop professional opportunities.” Students receive $7,000 in regular living allowance installments and $3,000 in an education award after the completion of 450 hours of service. Concordia has been approved for the first two years of grant funding and is re-applying for years three and four. The university participates in a consortium with Vanguard University and Irvine Valley College, created so smaller schools have access to the program.
“It’s been a gift to our students and to the community,” says Sheek.
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