CSUMB has strong legacy of community support

By Mark Muckenfuss

Jasmine Brownlee admits she was not thrilled when she discovered she would have to do volunteer work as a Cal State Monterey Bay student. She pictured herself picking up trash along a roadside, no doubt a worthwhile contribution, but a strain on her already busy academic schedule and something she didn’t see adding to her educational experience.

But then she found out she could volunteer for work applicable to her major.  

“Once I saw all the opportunities, I was very excited,” Brownlee said. 

She’s one of thousands of students who have not only engaged in activities that often helped clarify their career paths, but whose work has also strengthened the surrounding community by contributing hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours since CSUMB first opened its doors.

As an environmental studies major, Brownlee was able to work with Bureau of Land Management officials, monitoring and managing plant populations in the Fort Ord National Monument. The experience changed her career focus. 

“We did a whole lot of hands-on field work,” she said. “I’m much more into that than sitting at a desk. I’ve always been an outdoorsy person. Having the opportunity with BLM kind of opened more possibilities in my head.”

Instead of expecting to spend her career in an office, she’s now looking at something where she can get her hands dirty. 

That kind of change is not unusual, said Jennifer Lovell, interim director of the Service Learning Institute. She said students often tell her their service-learning experiences have been transformative.

“I’ve heard some of them say, ‘This changed what I want to do,’” Lovell said. “About 80 percent report service learning helped them gain insight into their career objectives.” 

CSUMB has had a service-learning requirement from the start. One of the pillars of the university is a commitment to contributing to the community, a commitment voiced in the founding vision statement, which promises collaboration beyond the university boundaries and a call for “coordinated community service.”

"Service learning has been a defining part of Cal State Monterey Bay’s curriculum since the university’s founding,” said CSUMB President Vanya Quiñones. “Over the past 31 years, our students have contributed thousands of volunteer hours in support of the local community. Through this sustained commitment, CSUMB continues to serve as a vital community partner, making a meaningful impact on residents’ lives, strengthening connections and fostering positive change.”

Lovell said the founding message and its reference to service drew her to CSUMB eight years ago. The campus, she said, is unique in that respect.

“We’re one of only a few universities nationally that have a requirement for service learning for graduation,” she said. “It’s part of what makes us distinctive.” 

She believes others are attracted to that element of the university as well. 

“I think it helps bring in students,” she said. “They choose us because of our commitment to the community and the social justice aspect of the university.” 

All undergraduate students are required to take the Service Learning course and volunteer for 25-30 hours. With 31 years of such outreach, the impact on the community is massive. 

In the 2024-25 academic year alone, CSUMB students contributed 85,000 hours to local community organizations, with an estimated value of $2.85 million. Over 400 agencies in the tri-county area participate in the program.  

Naia Concepcion, of Tracy, is a junior majoring in kinesiology. Her volunteer hours were spent working at a gym dedicated to providing therapy to patients with Parkinson’s disease. The program, Power over Parkinson’s, encourages specific types of strength training to help slow the disease’s progression. 

“I feel like I got a lot out of it,” Concepcion said. “I want to be a physical therapist, so it’s closely related to what I’m going to do. I think it will help tremendously.”

Since her service learning experience, she began a job with Montage Orthopedics. In her entry-level role, she manages the reception desk and provides some basic client services. She’s hoping to transition into more active patient care once she completes her degree. When she does, she said, she will have a different perspective than she did prior to her service learning course. The experience has given her “a better understanding of people as a whole,” she said. 

“If you are aiding someone, you think, ‘I’m helping them,’” Concepcion said. “But these individuals need service. In reality, I’m serving them.”

For Jorge Cantarero, service learning meant getting a better handle on what he wants to do professionally.

“I’m very grateful for the journey,” said Cantarero, a senior from Oxnard majoring in psychology. “It really solidified what I want to do and I met a lot of cool people along the way.”

He had toyed with the idea of becoming a school psychologist, but was fearful of going down that road. That is, until he chose a service learning stint shadowing a public school psychologist in a K-12 setting.  

“It was an eye-opening experience,” he said. “It really gives you hands-on experience to kind of see – whatever field you’re going into – if you can succeed and thrive and make a difference.”

He hopes making that difference will come for him through working as a counselor at the college level. 

“I want to give back all the help I received when I was in community college, and help students who are struggling,” he said. “I’m looking into a master’s program for counseling at the college level to be an academic advisor.”

Such clarity is one of the goals and benefits of the program, Lovell said. So too is how that impacts the community at large.

“We make a human difference,” Lovell said. “Our partners rely on CSUMB students to increase service capacity and to share good energy and ideas. Students often continue serving beyond their required hours, and 37% of our partners report hiring service learning students. For many of those partners, CSUMB is an essential element in sustaining their organizations and serving our region.

“We’re graduating people who want to be in community with others and make a positive change,” she added. “I had one student tell me recently, ‘This is why I came.’”