Among the graduates this year were Naomi and Nayana Velardi, 22-year-old twins from Romoland who are both on the autism spectrum and earned certificates in Digital Media after pursuing studies in animation, video production, and graphic design with support from MSJC accommodation services and life coaches.

The ceremonies also highlighted the remarkable range of ages and experiences represented within the graduating class. Alyssa Nicole Gumms of Perris, age 16, was recognized as the college’s youngest graduate this year. Alyssa began her college journey through dual enrollment and graduated with an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts: Mathematics and Science while serving as this year’s Tassel Turner.

At the other end of the spectrum, Jacqueline M. Al-Rauf, a 75-year-old student from Hemet, was recognized as the oldest graduate in the Class of 2026 after earning her Associate of Science degree. Jacqueline has served as an emergency room registered nurse since 1982 after previously attending MSJC to earn her nursing degree. She returned to college decades later to earn an additional degree required to teach Licensed Vocational Nursing courses, reminding attendees that learning, growth, and service to others can continue throughout a lifetime.

The ceremonies also celebrated students whose educational journeys reflected resilience and determination across decades. Melissa Lopez, a 48-year-old first-generation student from Murrieta, first enrolled at MSJC in 1995 before putting college on hold while raising four children as a single mother and working full time. This year, she completed two associate degrees: one in Behavioral Sciences and another in Administration of Justice.

“Coming back to college after all these years was something I did not think I would ever accomplish,” Lopez said. “I wanted to show my children that no matter how long it takes or what life puts in front of you, you can still achieve your goals. Earning these degrees means everything to me and my family.”

Students at the Temecula Valley Campus know Lopez well through her work at the campus café, where many affectionately refer to her as their “second mom” for the encouragement and kindness she brings to campus each day.

Esteban Valdes, a first-generation college student, returning student, and DREAMer from Lake Elsinore, was also recognized for overcoming hardship and becoming a student leader, mentor, and Supplemental Instruction Leader while preparing to transfer and pursue a future in business and finance.

“MSJC didn’t give us all the answers,” Valdes said. “But it gave us the space to ask the questions. To try. To fail. To change our minds. To grow into versions of ourselves we didn’t even know existed when we first got here. And I think that’s one of the most powerful things about this place. We found parts of ourselves we didn’t even know we were missing.”

Student Trustee and commencement student speaker Claudia Walukouw, a 32-year-old returning student, also reflected on the transformative impact of her time at MSJC.

“When I think of education, I think of the night that I chose to go back to school in pursuit of a nursing degree,” Walukouw said. “Older, non-traditional student, convinced that this was my last chance and not knowing that my time here at MSJC would have such a deep impact on my personal journey of finding my passions and finding the community I never knew I was missing.”

“These students remind all of us that there is no single path to success,” said Roger Schultz.

“Every graduate carries a story of perseverance, sacrifice, growth, and hope. Watching students transform their lives through education has been the greatest privilege of my career.”

This year’s commencement ceremonies also reflected the tremendous growth of Mt. San Jacinto College and the communities it serves.

When MSJC held its first commencement ceremony in 1965, the college graduated just eight students. Sixty-one years later, the college awarded 3,881 degrees to 2,952 graduates during four ceremonies over two days, underscoring the institution’s continued growth throughout one of California’s fastest-growing regions.

During Schultz’s nearly two decades as Superintendent/President, the college experienced significant transformation, including the expansion of college facilities by half a million square feet, increasing access to higher education opportunities across the region.

From 2008 to 2026, MSJC experienced an average annual graduation growth rate of approximately 4.7%, rising from 1,681 degrees awarded in 2008 to 3,881 degrees awarded in 2026.

At the conclusion of the academic year, Schultz will retire after leading 18 graduating classes at MSJC.

“This year’s commencement felt especially meaningful,” Schultz said. “As our Eagles prepared to soar into their futures, I found myself reflecting on how far this college has come—and how much potential still lies ahead for both our students and this institution.”

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But the rise of artificial intelligence has scrambled those calculations. The basic skills she was learning in things like statistical analysis and coding can now easily be automated. “Everyone has a fear that entry-level jobs will be taken by AI,” said the 20-year-old at Miami University in Ohio.

A few weeks ago, Timperman switched her major to marketing. Her new strategy is to use her undergraduate studies to build critical thinking and interpersonal skills — areas where humans still have an edge.

“You don’t just want to be able to code. You want to be able to have a conversation, form relationships and be able to think critically, because at the end of the day, that’s the thing that AI can’t replace,” said Timperman, who is keeping analytics as a minor and plans to dive deeper into the subject for a one-year master’s program.

Today’s college students say that picking a major that’s “AI-proof” feels like shooting at a moving target as they prepare for a job market that could be fundamentally different by the time they graduate.

As a result, many are reconsidering their career paths. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, while recent Gallup polling finds U.S. workers are increasingly concerned about being replaced by new technologies.

Students seeking majors that teach ‘human’ skills

The uncertainty appears most concentrated among those pursuing degrees in technology and vocational areas of study, where students feel a need to develop expertise in AI but also fear being replaced by it. A recent Quinnipiac poll found the vast majority of Americans believe it’s “very” or “somewhat” important for college and university students to be taught how to use AI, as Gallup Workforce polling finds AI is getting adopted in technology-related fields at higher rates. Meanwhile, students studying healthcare and natural sciences may be less impacted by AI overhauls, Gallup found.

“We see students all the time change majors. That’s not new or different. But it’s usually for a ton of different reasons,” said Courtney Brown, a vice president at Lumina, an education nonprofit focused on increasing the number of students who seek education beyond high school. “The fact that so many students say it’s because of AI — that is startling.”

A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults, between the ages of 14 and 29, found increasing skepticism and concerns about AI. Although half of Gen Z adults use AI at least “weekly,” and teenagers report higher use, many in this generation see drawbacks to the technology and worry about AI’s impact on their cognitive abilities and job prospects. About half — 48% — of Gen Z workers say the risks of AI in the workforce outweigh the possible benefits.

Part of the challenge for college students is that the experts they would typically turn to for advice, like advisers, professors and parents, don’t have any answers. “Students are having to navigate this on their own, without a GPS,” says Brown.

That uncertainty was evident last month at Stanford University, where the leaders of several prominent universities gathered for a wide-ranging panel discussion on the future of higher education. Topics of concern included the AI revolution that is transforming how students learn and forcing educators to rethink pedagogy.

“We need to think really hard about what students need to learn to be successful in the job market in 10, 20, 30 years,” said Brown University President Christina Paxson.

“And none of us know. We don’t know the answer to that,” Paxson said. “I think it’s communication, it’s critical thought. The fundamentals of a liberal education are probably more important than learning how to code in Java right now.”

Anxiety also reaches computer science majors

Computer science major Ben Aybar, 22, graduated last spring from the University of Chicago and applied for about 50 jobs, mostly in software engineering, without getting a single interview. He pivoted to a master’s degree in computer science and meanwhile has found part-time work doing AI consulting for companies.

“People who know how to use AI will be very valuable,” said Aybar, who sees new jobs emerging that require AI skills, particularly for people who can explain the complexities in layman’s terms. “Being able to talk to people and interact with people in a very human way I think is more valuable than ever.”

At the University of Virginia, data science major Ava Lawless is wondering if her major is worthwhile but can’t get concrete answers. Some advisers feel that data scientists will be safe because they’re the ones building AI models, but she keeps seeing gloomy job reports that indicate the contrary.

“It makes me feel a bit hopeless for the future,” Lawless said. “What if by the time I graduate there’s not even a job market for this anymore?”

She is considering switching to studio art, which is her minor.

“I’m at a point where I’m thinking if I can’t get a job being a data scientist, I might as well pursue art,” she said. “Because if I’m going to be unemployed, I might as well do something I love.”

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This academic year marks a significant milestone for MSJC, reflecting a continued rise in enrollment and underscoring the college’s dedication to accessible, flexible, and affordable education. The college’s diverse course offerings, including in-person, online, and hybrid formats, cater to students’ varying needs, providing them with the flexibility to balance their academic and personal commitments effectively.

Dr. Roger Schultz, Superintendent/President of MSJC, expressed his enthusiasm for the new academic year: “We will continue to work together as a community of transformation for the lives of our students and for the betterment of our region.” Dr. Schultz also highlighted upcoming developments, including the grand opening of new STEM buildings at the San Jacinto and Menifee Valley campuses. These state-of-the-art facilities are designed to enhance the educational experience and support academic growth.

In addition to these advancements, MSJC is expanding its academic offerings with new and enhanced programs within the Nursing and Allied Health Department. Students can now benefit from expanded training in Nursing, Radiologic Technology, and Emergency Medical Technician programs. Dr. Schultz added, “I am so proud of our institution and the innovative learning programs and extracurricular activities curated to offer each of our students the opportunity to explore interests, develop personally and professionally, and reach their full potential.”

At the Temecula Valley Campus, the start of the academic year was marked by memorable moments. Sisters Elyssa and Naya Sim began their college experience together, while Great Oak High School graduates Aidan Savena and Owen Streeter enjoyed a welcoming breakfast as they started their college journey in their hometown. The sense of community and local pride was evident as students embraced the opportunities ahead.

The San Jacinto Campus saw an extra layer of excitement with the unveiling of the new STEM building. Students, including Diagnostic Medical Sonography major Anahi Guerra Brito, were impressed by the state-of-the-art facility. “The building is beautiful, honestly. It’s very new and very technologically advanced, and I’m happy to start classes here,” she noted.

At the Menifee Valley Campus, the Learning Resource Center tutors, including Ace Araujo, Olivia Frazier, and Katrina Bellemonte, rallied behind the students with encouraging words: “We are rooting for you, Eagles!” Their support highlighted the collaborative spirit and dedication of the Menifee Valley Campus community.

As MSJC moves forward into this academic year, the college remains committed to fostering an inclusive and innovative environment where every student can thrive. With a focus on community and academic excellence, MSJC is poised for a successful and transformative year ahead.

For Dr. Schultz’s welcome video message, please visit https://youtu.be/Gap_ElK8Z2Q.

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During back-to-back days at one of California’s largest universities, hundreds of students took to marches, impassioned speeches and megaphones to condemn the mass death that has afflicted Israelis and Palestinians: The attack by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, and the Israeli military response since then. The UCLA demonstrations last week — one Tuesday by supporters of Israel, the other Wednesday by pro-Palestinian students — were common in grief but riven by deep wounds over history and words.

This wasn’t a dialogue, but a thunderous expression of each side’s anguish.

Ever since campus protests in California erupted over the latest explosion of violence, students affected by the crisis have endured profound agony as they watch an escalation of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict not seen in decades. Adding to their hurt is a lack of public consensus over what language constitutes prejudice. At the same time, California university leaders are also struggling to strike a balance between First Amendment guarantees and civility.

And as the regents of the University of California meet Wednesday, undoubtedly students will bring their sorrow to a leadership searching to instill comity. While the regents don’t have the matter on their agenda, the morning public comment period is often an electric display of students and employees voicing concern. Late last week, the UC leadership released a statement denouncing bigotry while noting free speech protects vile rhetoric.

The discord is playing out as campus Arabs, Jews and Muslims are witnessing generational traumas that gash their identities like spears, intensifying feelings already on edge.

For Jewish students, the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, in which the Palestinian militant group Hamas murdered 1,200 people, was a grotesque reminder of past perils that have menaced Jewish communities. The massacre was the single largest loss of Jewish life in one day since the Holocaust nearly 80 years ago, which some Jewish students on campus stress is still recent history.

“We have watched as students, professors, and even friends (equate) terrorism with liberation, perpetuate antisemitism, and even celebrate the deaths of our loved ones,” said Bella Brannon, a UCLA student who spoke last Tuesday at a campus demonstration calling on Palestinians to return the more than 200 Israeli hostages who were kidnapped in the Oct. 7 assault. Brannan is president of the campus Hillel.

The event, held a month to the day of the attacks, featured a long dinner table with chairs and place-settings for all of the kidnapped hostages that stretched dozens of feet. Baby bottles taped to the tablecloth signified seats for the children taken by Hamas.

And while supporters of Palestinian freedom don’t necessarily agree with Hamas’ methods, many Jewish groups across the country were outraged that a leading campus voice for Palestinian rights didn’t condemn the Hamas attacks, instead calling them “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance” in a written statement.

Mourning thousands of lives while having to answer for Hamas is part of the frustration for Arab, Muslim and pro-Palestinian students, including Jews, as the Israeli military continues its bombardment of Gaza to topple Hamas’ rule of the area. The campaign has so far resulted in more than 11,000 deaths since Oct. 7, including at least 4,500 children, according to Gaza health authorities. For many Arab and pro-Palestine students, Israel’s latest response is viewed as a continuation of its violent control of Palestinians — prompting their fervent calls for Palestinian statehood free of Israeli intervention. (While the United Nations envisioned two countries in the region in 1947, only Israel emerged, in 1948.)

“There is no way to work with an occupation that will continue to encroach upon those borders, without addressing that their intentions are to remain annexing, remain displacing, remain ethnic cleansing,” said Mohammed Noroozi in an interview. He’s a fourth-year student at UCLA who helped coordinate the pro-Palestinian rally and march on the campus last Wednesday, a day after the Israeli hostages demonstration.

“How am I supposed to go to class without crying,” Noroozi asked.

Hundreds of students attended the pro-Palestine rally, which also called on the UC system to divest from weapons makers, and appeared slightly larger than Tuesday’s event.

Criticism of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 runs deep among international groups and many American Jewish scholars as well, several hundred of whom have called Israel an apartheid state. Critics of that allegation say it’s misleading and that Israel has a right to defend itself against militant activity.

Israel’s creation led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. Jews fleeing persecution in Europe and anti-Jewish revolts in Arab and Muslim countries made up a large portion of Israel’s early population. Numerous peace deals to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fell through in the last three decades.

Antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus

Fearing online harassment or worse, few students who attended last week’s UCLA rallies wished to speak with reporters. Others would only give their first names. One student agreed to have her photo taken but pleaded with CalMatters hours later to avoid publishing her name. “I’m receiving a lot of hate on social media right now,” she wrote.

Alqasim, a fourth-year UCLA student, wore a head scarf synonymous with Arab and Palestinian identity, called a keffiyeh, that concealed most of his face during the rally. He and other students supportive of Palestine fear appearing on a website called Canary Mission, which collects student statements that are antisemitic or critical of Israel and posts their names and images in a searchable format.

Some Jews fear being punished for Israel’s actions, a case of conflating a people and a government that doesn’t represent them, wrote Dov Waxman, a UCLA professor who leads a center on Israel studies. News reports and major Jewish advocacy groups indicate that Israel’s military response has animated a massive intensification of antisemitism domestically and abroad, further alarming Jewish students and their communities.

Muslim and Arab students and their families — and those who appear to be but aren’t — likewise are confronting hateful animus against them, rekindling the memories of Islamophobia that pervaded U.S. civil society after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Last week the Biden administration said bigotry against Jews and Muslims is on the rise at colleges and demanded that campuses stop it.

Members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus wrote a letter last week to the state’s public university leaders to “express our outrage and concern regarding the explosion of antisemitism at University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) campuses in recent weeks.” The letter noted a “barrage” of acts of violence and intimidation against Jewish students and employees. Those include a private social media post attributed to a UC Davis professor in which they threatened “zionist” journalists and UC professors who denounced system leaders for calling the Oct. 7 attack an act of terror.

Last Friday, the Veterans Day holiday and days after the legislative caucus’ public rebuke, the UC system released a statement from its 10 campus chancellors and the system president condemning Islamophobia and antisemitism.

“Antisemitism is antithetical to our values and our campus codes of conduct and is unacceptable under our principles of community. It will not be tolerated,” the letter said. “Similarly, Islamophobia is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We will work to ensure that those who advocate on behalf of Palestinians can also be confident of their physical safety on our campuses.”

CSU leadership released a statement last Saturday saying that while the system supports free speech, it condemns Antisemitism and Islamophobia.

At a recent protest off-campus, Noroozi said a counter-protester spat in his face. He and Middle Eastern and pro-Palestine students CalMatters spoke with said they’ve been called “terrorists” on campus.

UCLA groups have alleged other incidents in which seemingly non-student adults intimidated pro-Palestinian students in the past week. Media and advocacy reports have chronicled other instances of campus Islamophobia, including a driver striking a Stanford Muslim Arab student in a hit-and-run that’s being investigated as a hate crime.

Hateful speech is protected

For colleges, the free exchange of ideas is a central tenet of their existence. Balancing that mission and protecting the emotional and physical safety of students is an ongoing tension.

“The bottom line is that hateful speech is protected by the First Amendment,” said Michelle Deutchman, executive director of the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement at the University of California. Some slogans and posters at campus protests “may feel to some students extremely menacing, extremely threatening, extremely hateful, extremely demeaning, but that does not negate the fact that it is protected and allowed on campus now.”

The center points to effective campus tutorials on free speech, including those issued by UC Davis and Long Beach State.

UC’s letter reiterated Deutchman’s points, citing existing system policy. However, “persistent harassment of individuals or groups, or credible threats of physical violence,” are also examples of “behavior that crosses the line into unprotected speech,” the UC letter said.

Importantly, while speech is protected by the First Amendment, vandalism and violence aren’t.

Deutchman, who spoke with CalMatters before UC published its letter, said laws on speech cannot parse the nuance and messiness of campus debate. College administrators must find a way to do more, even if speech is protected.

The UC letter said that the system will soon “announce a series of initiatives to help us address the current climate on our campuses … and improve the public discourse on this issue.”

A separate UCLA faculty letter denounced the campus protest climate, which it said celebrates Hamas and incites violence.

Disputes over rhetoric

At the pro-Palestine UCLA rally, event organizers passed out flyers with words to chants that participants shouted during a march through campus, including “there is only one solution, intifada, revolution!” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” That last phrase is a reference to the geographic space that includes Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Students there told CalMatters they regard it as a democratic statement to support Palestinian rights, a common view held by scholars on Palestine.

The rally ended with some students beating piñatas with the likenesses of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden. The Tuesday event had aggressive displays, too. One older participant carried a sign that read: “Hamas, Islam, Death.”

Major Jewish groups say phrases such as “from the river to the sea” are associated with extremist violence against Israel, and by extension, Jews. But Jewish views are diverse on this: The group Jewish Voice for Peace opposes Zionism and has campus chapters, including at UCLA.

Waxman, the Israel studies director at UCLA, said the charge of antisemitism can be overused.

“I think it’s important to recognize that even criticism that’s unfair, or excessive or harsh, isn’t necessarily antisemitic,” Waxman said. “That also applies not just to criticism of Israel’s policies, but criticism of Israel as a country, and that includes criticism of Zionism as well. It’s not automatically or inherently antisemitic.”

He signed a 2020 declaration endorsed by hundreds of scholars on antisemitism and related fields that said criticism of Zionism — and references to the area between the river and the sea — are not antisemitic on the face of it.

Waxman cautioned that context matters when dissecting slogans. If Hamas supporters chant “from the river to the sea,” the intent of Jewish murder is clear. Others who speak the phrase in the context of a democratic movement that supports equal rights for Jews and Arabs in the region “may not be motivated by antisemitism,” he said. Denying the attachment and history of Jews and Palestinians to the region is also bigoted, Waxman added.

But at least one state lawmaker who’s a member of the Jewish legislative caucus views the existing protest language as antisemitic.

“We know what these slogans mean and it’s disgraceful,” Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, a Democrat from Santa Monica, said at the Tuesday UCLA rally. “I’m not here to tell you what you already know, that Jews have a right to self determination, that anti-zionism is anti-semitism, that the one Jewish state has the right to exist and defend itself.” His district includes a large Jewish population, as well as UCLA.

In a brief interview with CalMatters at the rally, Zbur said calling for intifada and the slogan from the river to the sea are antisemitic. “That’s a direct call for violence against Jewish people,” he said.

To others, the discourse over language misses the point.

“You just need to be able to watch and see what’s going on in Gaza to realize that that is the true horror of where we should be focused, rather than condemning students for actually advocating for justice and equality,” said Ussama Makdisi, a history professor at UC Berkeley who teaches courses on the Middle East and Palestine.

One-state or two-state solution?

A key debate in the Israel-Palestine crisis is whether the region should have two independent countries or a single united state.

Paige Martin, who’s Jewish and attended last week’s pro-Israel demonstration, said she supports peace for everyone and a two-state solution. The fourth-year UCLA student noted that “I don’t agree with everything that the state of Israel does, but I believe it’s important to have a homeland for the Jewish people.”

Alqasim, the student from last week’s pro-Palestinian rally, said that he supports two countries, as long as that means equal rights for Palestinians in Israel as well.

A Palestinian student named Amy who also attended the rally, said, “when we advocate for a two-state solution it equalizes both sides.” To her, the issue is that of “an occupied people and an occupier.”

During the event for Israeli hostages, a student shouted “free Palestine!” before walking away. The crowd jeered at him. CalMatters approached the student, who granted a brief interview but would only identify himself as Joseph.

“I feel for everyone whose family has been taken hostage,” he said. “But you cannot justify 10,000 civilians dead in exchange for 240 hostages. That’s a non-comparison.”

As he pulled away, he added, “I support a two-state solution where the Palestinians and Israelis both have viable states to live together peacefully.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Raised on welfare by his grandmother, Joseph Sais relied so much on food stamps as a college student that he thought about quitting school when his eligibility was revoked.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sais said, he missed an “important letter” and temporarily lost his eligibility in SNAP, the foundational anti-poverty program commonly known as food stamps. “There were times when I was taking a test and instead of focusing on the test, I’m focused on what I’m going to be able to eat tonight,” said Sais, who graduated from Sacramento State University with a degree in political science and journalism and is now a first-year graduate student at the same school.

Sais, whose eligibility was restored earlier this year, is part of a largely hidden group that researchers and policymakers are still trying to address: full-time college students struggling with serious food insecurity. Radha Muthiah, president of the Capital Area Food Bank, calls it a hidden crisis, “one of those issues that came out of the shadows during the pandemic.” She estimates at least 30% of college students are food insecure.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture relaxed eligibility SNAP requirements for college students during the pandemic, allowing in those on financial aid with no expected family support and anyone who qualified for work-study programs, regardless of hours worked. Researchers estimate as many as 3 million college students were added to the program as a result.

But with the public health emergency over, students already receiving SNAP benefits had until June 30 to recertify and stay in the program under the pandemic-era rules. The expanded SNAP eligibility will only last one more year, and the entire program will revert to pre-pandemic rules at varying points over the next year, depending on individual state schedules.

“In the next couple months, potentially thousands of college students could be losing access to this program,” said MacGregor Obergfell, assistant director of governmental affairs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. “It’s going to be coming in waves.”

The expanded rules won’t apply to this year’s freshmen class.

“It kind of starts this slow-rolling disaster where we’re reverting to the old SNAP rules right at a time where obviously the need around food security is only going up,” said Bryce McKibben, senior director of policy and advocacy at Temple University’s Hope Center.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that hunger among college students is rising due to inflation, said Robb Friedlander, director of advocacy for Swipe Out Hunger, which focuses on college food insecurity. “We have definitely seen a massive increase in the level of need across campuses, from red states to blue states,” Friedlander said.

Growing awareness of the scope of the problem has led to the creation of on-campus food pantries at hundreds of universities over the past decade. But many of these food pantries, including at major universities, are funded entirely by donations — which limits their size and scale.

Given the irregular hours that often define college student life, some on-campus pantries have developed 24-hour service models that don’t require constant staffing.

When Sais can’t make it during normal hours, the Sacramento State pantry enables him to order groceries online and pick them up from a locker. At Georgetown University, the donor-funded pantry is a locked room with shelves of food and toiletries and a refrigerator for perishables. Any students who request help are given the code to unlock the door and can essentially come and go as they need.

Now these pantries are bracing for a fresh wave of need as students are gradually pruned from the SNAP lists. In April, Swipe Out Hunger published an article warning universities around the country to prepare for a spike.

“Traffic at food banks and pantries is already increasing as states end their emergency SNAP benefits early,” the group warned. “When these emergency benefits end federally, be prepared to see a similar rise in student need at campus pantries and other on-campus hunger solutions programs.”

Even with the relaxed SNAP entry guidelines, many students complained of bureaucratic obstacles and general frustration in navigating the system. When Jessalyn Morales, a junior at Lehman College in the Bronx, found herself in a sudden financial crisis, it took her months and five rejected applications to qualify for SNAP. In one case, she said, her application was rejected because she wasn’t working enough hours — something that should have been impossible under the pandemic rules.

When her Lehman College dorm closed down last fall, Morales’ housing costs essentially doubled. She survived for months off of the campus food pantry and leftover food from her roommates.

“I had to choose between paying my rent and being able to buy food for the week,” said Morales, 21. “A lot of my friends didn’t know my struggle. It’s kind of hard for them to understand it, truthfully.”

She started receiving SNAP benefits in May, and says she can stretch her $260 monthly payment into two months worth of food if necessary, “because I’ve gotten so good at shopping and budgeting.”

Both Sais and Morales, in separate interviews, used the term “survival mode” to describe their daily realities. But Obergfell, of the association of public universities, warned that the stresses of that kind of survival have a secondary effect — breeding hopelessness among the specific subset of students who are seeking higher degrees in order to break the cycle of generational poverty.

“We need to help these students remain in and succeed in college,” he said. “Students need to have their basic needs taken care of before they can be fully present and active in the classroom.”

And as Sais points out, mere survival shouldn’t really be the goal.

“Sometimes I would like to thrive rather than just survive,” he said. “Fighting all your life is just tiring.”

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If you’re a student, staff or faculty member at a California community college, you’re eligible for free legal immigration services. Since 2019, California has been investing $10 million yearly in a program that provides legal services to help community college students renew their status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, identify options to apply for permanent residency or for permanent residents to apply for naturalization, among other services.

Anyone affiliated with any community college campus can sign up online for a consultation with an attorney or paralegal. Most campuses offer either in-person or online consultations, while some more remote campuses only offer online appointments. Armando Martinez Vega came to the U.S. from Mexico in 2009, when he was in third grade, after his father obtained permanent residency for the family. Martinez Vega finished elementary school, middle school and high school in Watsonville, California, and then began attending community college.

When his dad finally obtained U.S. citizenship, Martinez Vega was 19, too old to naturalize automatically through his father’s application. He knew he had to apply for citizenship himself, but he had no idea how to go about it. Then, his sister brought home a flyer about free immigration legal services at Cabrillo College, where both siblings were taking classes.

Martinez Vega made an appointment to talk with an attorney, and last month he was sworn in as a citizen. “I was really happy. It feels great, and you just feel more sure and more secure about yourself,” Martinez Vega said. “Maybe somehow I would have done it on my own, but it would have been a lot harder, I know for sure, and maybe it would have taken a lot longer.” Those offering the legal services are worried that many students aren’t aware they exist. Since the program began, about 7,600 community college students, faculty and staff members have received a legal consultation, according to Alonso Garcia, senior program manager at the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

But there are an estimated 70,000 community college students who are undocumented, he said. Many more are permanent residents, who could benefit from naturalization services to become citizens. Part of the reason behind the lack of awareness is that the program was first fully launched in March 2020, right before the global Covid-19 pandemic. “We were super excited: ‘Hey, we’re here, and we’re going to serve all these students,’ and then the world shut down,” said Kate Hinnenkamp, operations manager of the immigration project at Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, one of 10 organizations statewide that partner with the community colleges to provide legal services. “We were going to have outreach tables, and people were going to see us around, but none of that materialized.

It was a struggle for that year and a half where classes were virtual.” However, Hinnenkamp said she has seen a big spike in appointments since last summer when the program launched a website called Find Your Ally, where students can easily schedule a legal consultation from any community college campus. Offering immigration consultations to help students identify whether they are eligible for some kind of visa is particularly important now that the federal government is not processing new applications for DACA, Garcia said. DACA offers temporary protection from deportation and permission to work for about 650,000 young people who came to the U.S. as children.

Tens of thousands of people who are eligible for the program have not been able to turn in applications, because they turned 15, the minimum age to apply, after the government stopped accepting new applications in 2017. “For students who have not been able to take advantage of DACA, you don’t know what options are available to you, so coming and scheduling a consultation and talking through past experiences, that could trigger some form of relief,” Garcia said. Sofia Corona, directing attorney at the UFW Foundation, which offers services to students at community colleges in the Central Valley and Central Coast, said that her staff has found many students who are eligible to apply for visas but were not aware. “We’ve been able to find very vulnerable students who have gone through really abusive, traumatic events and didn’t know that, because of the context of that struggle, they were eligible for a form of immigration relief,” Corona said.

Even when students find they are not eligible to legalize their status, Hinnenkamp said, it’s important for them to find that out, so that they don’t end up paying notaries or other attorneys who may tell them they do have a legal pathway, when they do not. “We’re hoping to avoid people falling victim to fraud. We really want to provide that trusted information to people, whether it’s the answer they want to hear or not,” Hinnenkamp said.

The legal service providers are also able to help students who have DACA status apply for advance parole, immigration paperwork that allows them to leave the country and return. After applying for advance parole, one student from Riverside City College was finally able to travel to Mexico to visit her grandmother, right before she died, said Luz Gallegos, executive director of TODEC, another organization that provides legal services to students in the Inland Empire area. “Her grandma played a big role in her upbringing and was one of the biggest cheerleaders for her to go on with her education and achieve her goals,” said Gallegos.

Gallegos said she’s encouraged by what the program has accomplished. “Seeing the opportunity that it brings to the students and that they see the college campus not only as their educational institution, but as a community space where they are cared for and they have a support system, it does make a difference,” said Gallegos.

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A new California program to financially reward college students for volunteering has drawn national attention — but less than half of its budgeted money is going to actual student aid.

The California Volunteers College Corps program, backed by $159 million in mostly state money, promises to award up to $10,000 to 6,668 low-income students who volunteer in K-12 education, on climate action or to reduce food insecurity.

That only works out to $66.7 million for students, though. So where is the other $92 million going?

Mostly it’s going to hiring and administrative costs despite no guarantee the program will continue past 2024. Some experts think that money split makes sense because students could benefit from training and there’s a chance the program would get additional funding in the future. Other experts think the money should go directly to students, so fewer of them will have to work on top of their other responsibilities.

“I think this is a classic question of is it better to give a person a fish or teach them how to fish,” said Nora Silver, a professor who studies nonprofits at UC Berkeley’s business school and herself led a volunteer program. To her, the program does both: It gives students money directly and includes a lot of programming to train students and connect what they learned as volunteers to the job market.

Nor does she find the total costs of the program out of whack. The budget details to build out the network of colleges and nonprofits — including career, academic and financial aid advising for student volunteers — are “necessary to offer a well-functioning program,” said Silver.

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The flipside of that argument is to just give out the fish — or cash — directly to students. That’s what Robert Shireman would have preferred. He’s a higher-education director at the nonprofit Century Foundation and had a senior position overseeing higher-education policy in the Obama administration.

“I would have plowed the money directly into financial aid based on need and not a new temporary service program,” said Shireman, who noted that many low-income students already work to afford college.

The program is set to last two years, though Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested at a Jan. 18 press event that he’d ask the Legislature to expand the program “if this thing works.” Part of the money will go toward an external evaluation of the program.

Silver thinks the goal is expansion. The program reminds her of the early days of AmeriCorps, the federal volunteer service created in the 1990s. “I don’t think anybody’s going into this saying this is a two-year program,” she said.

Where does the majority of the money go? Almost all of that $92 million that’s not going directly to students is meant for program costs, according to a budget CalMatters received from California Volunteers, the state office running the program. Forty-five colleges and universities — nearly all public — will share the money.

Of that, $77 million is for a whole array of operations work to build up the volunteer program. That includes money for the colleges whose students will be in this program to develop their local programs and partner with the nonprofits where students will work. Costs include:

• hiring consultants and staff, acquiring extra office space and IT equipment;

• recruiting the actual student volunteers and funding the nonprofits where they’ll do their volunteer work;

• providing students career and academic advice plus training events;

• and an external evaluator, who’ll be hired at a later date, to assess the volunteer program.

Another $15 million is reserved for California Volunteers personnel.

Not only is the program a way for students to give back to their community but it’s also an opportunity that allows students to be “learning about a career and also earning while learning that career,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley.

But a state program for connecting students to careers already exists. Last year’s state budget injected $200 million into a new work-study program for college students, with $300 million more planned for this year.

How will students get money – and when?

Student participants will begin volunteering through the program fall of 2022. Upon completing 450 hours during the academic year, each will get $10,000.

The money is split up into two buckets — $7,000 paid out regularly and a final lump sum of $3,000 after a year of service. As students fulfill their hours, they’ll be paid as if they’re campus employees through their college or university’s payroll system. Even if students don’t volunteer the full 450 hours, they’ll receive a prorated amount of the initial $7,000. But to receive the final $3,000, students will need to complete the full 450 hours of service. Unlike the federal AmeriCorps, undocumented students may participate in the California volunteer program. State officials want 20% of the volunteers to be undocumented students who receive state financial aid. They’re eligible for the same $10,000 available to other students, but their pot will come from state dollars only, while federal funds will cover a portion of $3,000 other students will be awarded.

“State officials want 20% of the volunteers to be undocumented students who receive state financial aid. Their pot will come from state dollars only.”

But all that extra money may create a headache for some volunteers. The $7,000 volunteers work toward counts as income, which may “impact a student’s financial aid,” reads a program FAQ . Campuses are urged to work with their financial aid offices to “mitigate any impact” for students. Also, the $7,000 is taxable income, meaning taxes will be deducted each paycheck.

Only full-time students will be eligible for the service program.

The College Corps state volunteer program builds on a smaller effort California launched in 2020 , about six months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Though that smaller effort had the goal of attracting 250 students, ultimately 199 participated, according to performance review data that Julie Goggins, a California Volunteers spokesperson, shared with CalMatters. And some — 7% — didn’t complete their full hours of service and so weren’t awarded the full amount for which they were eligible. Most students — 90% — also acquired professional development skills, according to performance review assessments. Some colleges from the pilot round are also participating in College Corps.

A bigger big picture

The budget for the volunteer program makes sense, but the devil’s in the details, said Alexandra Graddy-Reed, a professor who studies nonprofits at the University of Southern California. She likes that students who volunteer will receive various layers of advising. It’s another way for the colleges and the state to expose those low-income students to opportunities wealthier students often already receive through their families’ connections, Graddy-Reed said.

All those services require more personnel and hiring people is expensive, which helps explain the program costs, she said. The mix of volunteerism and various advising “sounds good to me” as a way to spend tax dollars, Graddy-Reed added. Still, she’ll want to see the specific hiring decisions colleges will make at the local level and whether most of the operational funding will be for College Corps or for general campus operations.

Campus-level contract amounts won’t be available until the summer, according to Goggins.

Some campuses have begun advertising their programs. UC Davis and three other Sacramento-area colleges will share up to $16 million for about 1,000 student volunteers. Fresno State and Fresno City College will bring on about 120 students over two years.

Shireman, who preferred to have the money instead go directly to some of the poorest college students. pointed out that Newsom vetoed a bill last year that would have given cash awards or fully covered tuition to more than 100,000 additional college students.

Newsom and lawmakers have dramatically expanded the state financial aid program in other ways that give students aid directly, like cash and grants to fully cover tuition. But those are all ongoing programs, while the money for the volunteer program is just two years. From a publicity standpoint, it’s probably better to create a temporary program, such as College Corps, than to briefly expand access to ongoing grants only to have them disappear soon after, Shireman mused.

Mikhail Zinshteyn | Contributed

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