Support Emerging Public Service Leaders at the University of San Francisco
The Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good is the center for programs and scholarship supporting community engagement and public service at University of San Francisco. It is grounded in USF’s tradition of service and educating men and women to create a more humane and just world, and furthers the mission of intellectual rigor and social justice. Through robust program offerings, students have opportunities to explore and pursue community engagement and public service while attending USF.
The Community Empowerment Activists is a yearlong program that prepares students as transformative justice warriors through critical analysis of systems of oppression and movements of resistance while mobilizing for people-powered change through placements with grassroots organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area combating various arms of injustice.
USF students spend 12 weeks in full-time summer internships at the state capital with institutions that contribute to the California policy-making process through the McCarthy Center Fellows in Sacramento.
McCarthy Fellows in San Francisco is a semester-long program that integrates a part-time internship with the City & County of San Francisco alongside a rigorous academic seminar course. This unique program is in partnership with the USF Politics Department and the SF Department of Human Resources. In this semester program, a select group of fellows have the unique opportunity to study political economy and culture with a local government agency according to their interest area.
USF in Washington DC is a semester-long program that integrates a full-time internship with relevant coursework taught by USF faculty and University of California Washington Program faculty. Students spend either the fall or spring semester engaging with peers from across the country in the heart of the capital, where they will live, learn, and explore all that DC has to offer.
USFVotes aims to register all eligible USF students, educate them about issues and candidates, and turn out registered voters at election time. This student-led initiative seeks to ensure diverse voices are heard and represented in halls of power.
The Equity Interns summer program for college students is a partnership with the University of Delaware’s Biden Institute and YMCA of San Francisco that provides learning opportunities to K–8 students in San Francisco.The 8-week summer program aims to reduce the achievement gap and prevent COVID-19 learning loss in under-resourced communities through the YMCA of San Francisco’s Power Scholars Academy.
The Rising Dons mentorship program, a joint endeavor with the athletic
department, begins this spring. USF students, staff and faculty will mentor sixth through
12th graders who are part of the Boys & Girls Clubs and the Hutch Center.