How To Be a Changemaker

While we are all busy preparing for a year of in-person learning, the Center wants to remind students that they can begin to explore their roles as Changemakers for the common good. Changemakers on campus and in community become well-informed and civically engaged about social justice issues impacting society at large. Here are 10 ways students can prepare to be Changemakers.

1. Expand beyond your major. Take transformative courses focused on civic issues, social identity, and models of social change through the Public Service and Community Engagement Minor.
2. Take a community-engaged learning (CEL) course. Community-engaged learning coursework is a requirement for graduation. Explore the list of 40+ classes that fulfill this requirement and take more than one!
3. Work with community partners in and around San Francisco. Our programs work in partnership with organizations throughout the neighborhoods of San Francisco. You’ll have the opportunity to learn about the city’s residents, their rich history and help preserving the values that has made the city—a unique and vibrant environment.
4. Sign up to be a member of USFVOTES. As a USFVOTES team member, you will help register all eligible USF students, educate them about issues and candidates, and turn out registered voters at election time. First step:  Register / or make sure to update your voter registration on Move-in Day and attend an upcoming USFVOTES meeting.
5. 4. Apply to be an AmericaReads Tutor.  Learn about educational equity by becoming a tutor to SFUSD students, K-5 through Engage San Francisco Literacy, our campus community partnership with the nearby Fillmore / Western Addition neighborhodd.  AmericaReads prepares, places and supports USF students to be highly trained reading tutors through knowledge of teaching and learning to read, community history.
6. Become a Community Empowerment Activist. Students learn leadership skills for social justice through hands-on practice at their grassroots host organizations, ongoing class meetings, building with community leaders, and professional development workshops. This year-long program explores critical analysis of systems of oppression and movements of resistance while mobilizing for people-powered change.
7. Come talk to us at the Involvement Fair. Make plans to attend the Involvement Fair on campus, Thursday, September 2nd, 11:30 AM. Come meet us at our table and learn more about how you can become a Changemaker through one of our 1-semester public service intern programs. Plan early and coordinate with your major’s requirements and schedule.
8. Mentor a Rising Don. Be a friend and mentor to a young person in 6th-12th grade from one of 12 local community organizations. Learn to help others develop goals and skills through on-going, supportive one-on-one conversations and learning opportunities that lead to further education and career experiences.
9. Experience local, state and national policy making.  Become a McCarthy Fellow in San Francisco’s City Hall on in California’s State Capitol in Sacramento. Explore the opportunity to do a semester as a USF in D.C. Fellow. Do one program or multiple and acquire real-world experience in government and invaluable political knowledge.
10. Learn from other Changemakers. Read Engage San Francisco’s Changemaker book and website for biographies of San Francisco’s African American social justice leaders—featured on the Inspiration Murals at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in The Fillmore / Western Addition. Each Changemaker’s legacy is inspiration to recognize the potential impact you can have in building community.