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

My Unexpected Journey

This week’s blog comes to us from the McCarthy Center’s new Americorps VISTA, Thea Karakalos! We’re excited for what her skill set and personal experience will bring to the position as she completes her Master of Arts in Higher Education and Student Affairs here at USF! My name is Thea Karakalos, and I am the…

Nurturing Literacy Tutors

Dresden Smith joined the McCarthy Center as an intern, and has come full circle in less than a year – taking on the role of Literacy Program Coordinator. She discusses this experience and her trabsition in this week’s blog. I’m very excited to take on the role of Literacy Program Coordinator for Engage San Francisco….

Our Fulbright Scholar Heads to Cali

Fernando Enciso-Márquez is celebrated by former students and staff before he heads off to Cali, Columbia for as a Fullbright Visiting Scholar. The McCarthy Center is thrilled to announce that our Assistant Director of Community-Engaged Learning, Fernando Enciso-Marquez, has been awarded a Fulbright visiting scholar fellowship through the U.S. State Department to partner with Javeriana University‘s Peace and…

The Paths of Esther Madríz Diversity Scholars

The Esther Madríz Diversity Scholars (EMDS) is a living-learning community that explores issues of diversity, inequality, social justice, and social change. Named after the late Esther Madríz, beloved USF professor of sociology who embodied the Ignatian ideals of education of the whole person as a means toward social justice, Esther Madríz Diversity Scholars examine and challenge these…

Our Civic Action Plan

In the current era of political vitriol, intolerance of diversity, misguided fear of the “other,” and civil unrest, higher education institutions must hold fast to the civic purpose of education and seek innovative ways to guide and support students to become “leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world.” We can no longer…

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

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