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

Meet our 2016-17 Advocates for Community Engagement (ACEs)

Advocates for Community Engagement are socially responsible, civically engaged student leaders who facilitate meaningful service-learning experiences for USF students, faculty, and their host organizations. Primarily, ACEs act as liaisons to ensure the needs and expectations of all stakeholders are accounted for and prioritized. Each ACE makes a one-year commitment to work onsite at Bay Area…

Resiliency – as an Act of Political Welfare

Nolizwe Nondabula, Youth Health Alliance Program Coordinator Engage San Francisco, USF Campus-Community Partnership Reflecting back on my journey with USF’s Master of Arts in Urban Affairs program, I definitely did not see myself continuing a relationship with the Leo T. McCarthy Center after graduation in Spring of this year. My first year in…

A Lesson from John Lewis and MARCH the Trilogy

Ayah Mouhktar B.A. Media Studies ’18 Ayah is the new social media assistant for the McCarthy Center and worked on the co-sponsored speaker’s event with Congressman John Lewis on the campus of USF on Wednesday, August 17, 2016. John Lewis was not a big part of my life growing up, he was not my…

Reflection on Tolman

As I prepare to teach “Urban School Reform,” an elective in the Masters of Arts in Urban Affairs program, I googled William E. Tolman High School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the school where I began my teaching career over thirty years ago as a student teacher. – David Donahue

7th Annual Western Addition Backpack Giveaway & Health Fair

Mo’MAGIC’s back-to-school celebration is held the first Saturday of every August, and features free backpacks, school supply kits, and books for students ranging from Pre-K to college age. There is also a health and wellness fair; families can count on vision, hearing, dental, and stress tests, and additional check-ups from medical professionals, and gather resources from other community organizations and city agencies. Healthy meals and snacks, games, a bouncy house, a reading corner, and other activities rounded out the day.

Changing Transportation: My Path from USF to Sacramento

When I started at Master of Arts in Urban Affairs program at the University of San Francisco I just knew that I was interested in understanding the opportunities to mitigate climate change through urban transportation policies and planning. To be working for the state of California as a transportation planner at Caltrans just two years later as an alumna of the Urban Affairs program is still a little crazy to me; but also very exciting. – Shannon Simonds

What Narrative Will Emerge from the National Conventions?

During my time as Communications Director for the California Democratic Party, I was responsible for developing and implementing the message and narrative for a total of five annual state party conventions, as well as for the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in 2012. This month, both of the nation’s main political parties are preparing to hold their quadrennial national conventions in Cleveland (RNC) and Philadelphia (DNC). Here’s what I can tell you about working to set and advance a narrative during the largest political event of the season: it’s not easy. – Tenoch Flores

Life is Not Linear – Learning to Fight for Equity, Diversity, and Democracy in San Francisco

I decided late last summer to apply to the Master of Arts in Urban Affairs program at the University of San Francisco (USF) in a move to change my career path. As an undergraduate at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), I studied both chemistry and sociology. While I was passionate about both fields, upon graduating I ended up working with the Environmental, Health, and Safety department at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in the chemical safety department. While the work I was doing was important, I was not doing the type and scope of work that I truly wanted to do – that is work that addresses issues surrounding social justice. – David Woo