Advocates for Community Engagement | Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good

Dispelling Stereotypes and the Importance of Memory: A Walk Through the Fillmore District

As an alumnus of the Esther Madriz Diversity Scholars (EMDS), a living learning community on campus that strives to embody the Jesuit ideals of education and social justice, I was naturally ecstatic to have the opportunity to blend my role as an Advocate for Community Engagement (ACE) with my experience in the EMDS program. – Mary Cruz

Future Advocate for Community Engagement

Nichole Vasquez USF Student, Incoming ACE 2015-2016 In my second semester of my freshman year, I became involved in the non-profit organization Generation Citizen, which has since become a recognized club here on campus. Generation Citizen works to civically engage youth, by having college volunteers act as democracy coaches in classrooms around the Bay area. After…

Election Day Reflection: Supporting Stevon Cook’s Campaign for Board of Education

“”Our campaigns have not grown more humanistic because candidates are more benevolent or their policy concerns more salient. In fact, over the last decade, public confidence in institutions- big business, the church, the media, government- has declined dramatically. The political conversation has privileged the nasty and trivial. Yet during that period, election seasons have awakened…

The Single Stories: An ACE Reflection

Advocate for Community Engagement Aundraya Martinez had her final reflection with Professor Evelyn Ho’s “Ethnography of Communications” class last week. Students wrote the “single stories” and preconceptions they had about the Tenderloin prior to engaging in service at the St. Anthony Foundation Tech Lab and placed those inside the box. Then, thinking “outside the…

A Conscious Leader

Hello my name is Brandon Oldham, and I am currently working as a project manager at Quesada Gardens Initiative in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. As project leader, I’ve been working with multiple USF service-learners to launch the Quesada Gardens General Store. Working with USF service-learners greatly connects to my former role as an Advocate for Community Engagement…

From ACE to Americorps VISTA

My name is Carly Smith. I recently graduated from USF in May 2013 with a degree in Communication Studies and a minor in Public Service and Community Engagement. I participated in several of McCarthy Center programs including the Public Service minor, the McCarthy Fellows program c/o 2011 and the ACE program from 2010-2013. After graduating…