Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good

Spending a semester studying in D.C.

Caleb Banks I am so grateful that I have the privilege and opportunity to live in the United States Capitol—Washington D.C. This area is an amazing place to be a 22-year old with energy and big ideas. Despite learning from and immersing myself into the seemingly endless opportunities that are ever present here in DC, my singular source…

In Support of The McCarthy Center’s Service Learning Faculty Seminar

John Stover, Department of Sociology It was the second week of spring semester, and we were halfway through the day’s session of Sociology Capstone Seminar, the cumulative, upper division research and service-learning (SL) course required of all majors. Silena Layne, Program Director at Up on Top, and Jenna Casey, Volunteer & Development Manager at Mission Graduates, had just…

ACE Winter Retreat: Digging a little deeper

Alexis Stanley Last week my fellow ACEs and I had the pleasure of beginning our winter retreat by first stopping by City of Dreams in the Bayview district of San Francisco. This organization’s mission is dedicated to helping youth living in low-income housing build brighter futures through mentorship and youth development. We got to see…

A look back at my first semester

For the past six weeks, I have been back in New York City and away from my life as a graduate student in San Francisco. This time has given me the opportunity to reflect on my first semester at USF, and try to readjust to my old life in NYC. I cannot help but make…

Looking Back and Sharing our Journey

On the evening of November 19th, my fellow Privett Global Scholars and I had the opportunity to showcase our summer experiences abroad with friends, family, and the USF community. The event turned out to be a huge success; the room was filled with live music, the sharing of fond memories, and of course, delicious Indian and Bolivian cuisine….

Championing New Deal Public Art

Urban Affairs faculty member Rachel Brahinsky contributed to this lovely mini-documentary on the life of Masha Zakheim, daughter of a New Deal artist and protector of many of San Francisco’s New Deal murals. Zakheim, who passed away in 2014, wrote the key text on the history of the Coit Tower murals, and was a champion…

An Afternoon With MAGIC ZONE

My fellow members of Urban Cohort 2 are super humans: juggling a full class schedule, adjusting to being back in the classroom, working full time or multiple part time jobs, volunteering for incredible causes all over the Bay Area and staying (or trying to stay) positive throughout! With a packed schedule myself; it is easy…

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…