Public Service and Community Engagement Minor Opens Doors

The Public Service and Community Engagement Minor guides students to explore and analyze intersections between themselves, their communities, and pervasive social justice issues while integrating a range of opportunities to develop and implement skills for effective civic engagement.

This 20-unit minor draws on courses from across disciplines to provide a holistic learning experience that is relevant and engaging to students with diverse majors, interests, and career paths. A new 2-unit Leadership for Civic Engagement course, launched this Fall serves as an introduction to the PSCE Minor, providing a framework for analyzing the program experience, and connecting students in an intimate learning community.

Lunna Lopes, Research Associate with the Public Policy Institute of California

Lunna Lopes, a 2006 USF alumna with a PSCE Minor reflects back on the value of the Minor.

“The Leo T. McCarthy Center Public Service Minor was really a great opportunity for me to just meet a lot of really interesting fellow students who are still some of my best friends. I’ve even lived in London with one of my friends and fellow Public Service Minor where we both had the opportunity to gain international public service experience.

Back home in San Francisco, the Public Service Minor allowed us to get to know a lot of public servants, from Mayor Art Agnos to a historian, Kevin Star. They were able to come into our classrooms’ small seminars where could truly talk to them in-depth about what it’s like to work for the people of California and develop policies that could really improve their lives. Having that opportunity to sit in such a small seminar class and engage with guest speakers was useful to get some insight into what the life of a public servant actually is and the different type of public service that you can pursue in your careers.”