The Brief

For college students seeking a job that fits around their academic schedules, and the opportunity to do meaningful work in their communities, a popular state program offers both.

Since it launched in 2022, the state program known as College Corps has been paying college students for community service work. And it has become so popular that only 30% of students who apply get a position.

The program helps college students, including those who are immigrants lacking permanent legal status, pay for college while serving in community-based organizations.

Students are dispersed across California tackling diverse needs. Fellows were key, for instance, in helping food banks meet a surge in demand during last year’s government shutdown, said Josh Fryday, director of California Service Corps. And during the wildfires in Los Angeles last January, fellows were there to support, he said.

“When the government shut down and there was a huge shortage or huge demand at the food bank and they needed support, it was our College Corps members that got deployed. Same thing after the fires,” said Fryday.

The program has recruited more than 3,000 students each academic year since it started, some serving multiple years. Students serve 15 hours a week for 30 weeks and receive monthly stipends totaling $7,000 for the academic school year. At that time those who complete 450 service hours receive an additional $3,000 educational award.

Student volunteer Yongjie restocks shelves with canned goods at the UC Berkeley campus food pantry on Oct. 25, 2019.

(

Anne Wernikoff

/

CalMatters

)

College Corps is just one program within California Service Corps, a statewide service initiative that consists of three other paid service programs sending members into communities around the state.

The state gave College Corps $83.6 million for 2026-27 in addition to a one-time $5 million allotment this academic year to help expand the program to additional campuses. The program currently has 45 participating campuses, 41 of them across California’s public community college and university systems. For the next cohort, they’re planning to expand to 52 campuses and recruit about 4,000 students. Some of the new partner sites include Cal State Northridge, Monterey Peninsula College and UC Santa Barbara.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office had recommended rejecting the request for more funding, and it was cut from the budget proposal in June. However, it was reinstated in the final Budget Act.

The program started as a pilot, intended to run through 2023-24 while receiving one-time funding each year. Now, according to the LAO budget overview for 2025-26, the intent is to continue with the $84 million in annual funding permanently starting in 2026-27. Of the $84 million, $45 million would go towards program support and administrative costs for the program while the rest would go toward aid for students.

The College Corps program is open to students at participating campuses, including those who qualify for AB 540, a state law that allows eligible students without legal status to qualify for California in-state tuition and aid. The state has about 100,000 immigrant students without permanent legal status who don’t qualify for federal work-study programs and many lack the necessary permits to work other jobs, according to the Higher Education Immigration Portal.

“I wanted to make sure that we gave an opportunity to our Dreamers to be part of [College Corps],” said Fryday. “We’ve had unbelievable success stories of AB 540 students… [by] having this program change their lives and giving them opportunities that they, quite frankly, have been excluded from for far too long.”

Officials with California Service Corps did not provide numbers on how many spots are filled by immigrant students eligible for in-state tuition and aid under AB 540.

Rafael, an immigrant student and College Corps fellow, came from Mexico to the United States at the age of 14. He requested that his full name not be used due to concerns about his legal status.

Job opportunities do not come easy for Rafael due to his lack of a Social Security number.

“For undocumented students, there are not a lot of things that you can apply to be part of,” he said. “So that was also kind of like my only opportunity.”

Within the program, fellows can choose to serve in K-12 education, climate action or food insecurity. Students often help with tutoring at school sites, work with food banks, and serve at their campus gardens and food pantries.

Eligible students must be full-time undergraduates and study at one of eight participating University of California campuses, 17 California State Universities, 23 community colleges, and four private colleges.

Fellows get sworn in by Gov. Gavin Newsom during a ceremony in Sacramento on Oct. 7, 2022.

(

Rahul Lal

/

CalMatters

)

“We have students from all different backgrounds and our students are also getting different perspectives of diversity and empathy and learning how to see how other people live in their community,” said Katrina Gilmore, director of College Corps at Cal State Bakersfield.

Rafael, an English major, currently volunteers at a history museum in his community, a role he holds close to his heart. When he visited a museum for the first time in Mexico, he was amazed by the exhibits and the curiosity they sparked. He is now helping the museum develop an audio tour guide of the exhibits in English and Spanish to help more people feel included.

“It was really touching because my first language is Spanish and I remember having a hard time learning a lot of things,” he said. “I have been in that position. I know how it feels.”

Fellows are chosen based on their interest in service and availability to juggle the service hours with their academics. Eligible students must be full-time undergraduates, have good academic standing and demonstrate financial need.

Currently, UC Berkeley has 98 College Corps student workers. More than 200 students applied, said Ashley Kelly, a supervisor for the program at UC Berkeley.

“That just demonstrated to us that there's a huge desire and demand to do this program, that the program is working, it's impactful, and we just need to keep working to create more opportunities for students to be part of programs like this,” said Fryday.

California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday speaks at the College Corps fellows swearing-in event in Sacramento on Oct. 7, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters For Lori Dominguez, a College Corps fellow at Cal State Bakersfield, the program has helped her pay for school. She said that if it wasn’t for the program, she would probably have to drop out of college.

“I have loans for my education, and, like, I’m broke, and I barely have job experience,” said Dominguez.

Dominguez struggled with school last year after leaving her job at her local library to take care of her mom who had surgery. She sought out College Corps as a way to pay for school with a program that understands that her education is her priority.

She currently serves with Habitat for Humanity ReStore, a secondhand store whose profits go towards building affordable homes in the community. Dominguez processes donated items such as clothing, toys and furniture.

The program is flexible with students' schedules, allowing Dominguez to make up missed hours at different work sites and giving her the opportunity to earn money while still being able to pursue a biology degree. She hopes to become a clinical lab scientist.

DJ Nunley and his wife, Lynn Nunley, in Albany on Feb. 27, 2026.

(

Manuel Orbegozo

/

CalMatters

)

Djuane "DJ” Nunley, a senior at UC Berkeley, has been a College Corps fellow since its pilot year. He joined the program at College of the Desert in Coachella Valley, before transferring to UC Berkeley.

He served in both campus’ food pantries and also worked at a food warehouse in Coachella Valley where he sorted food before it spoiled to see what could be preserved.

“I would see how families would just be so excited to get the food that they were getting,” said Nunley. “It was a humbling experience.”

He currently serves with UC Berkeley’s Incarceration to College program, tutoring incarcerated youth — and youth whose parents have been incarcerated — at Alameda County Juvenile Hall and with Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, a community-based organization.

Nunley’s wife Lynn attended College of the Desert and joined College Corps at the same time with a desire to help the community. They were both accepted and transferred to UC Berkeley, where they moved with their eight kids ranging in age from three to 16.

“[College Corps] helped us out a big deal… We have a lot of children and raising kids is not easy. And financially, it's a lot on us,” said Nunley.

For Nunley, the hardest thing about being a College Corps fellow is juggling his service hours, school and family. But he manages with the support of his wife and his older kids.

Nunley was in the entertainment business for 12 years, making music and working as a freelance writer. He started college as an English major hoping to brush up on his writing skills. Joining College Corps shifted his career aspirations away from his original plan and towards helping children.

He is now double majoring in psychology and social welfare with plans of going to graduate school and becoming a psychologist that specializes in talk therapy for youth with traumatic experiences. He wants to open a nonprofit organization in Coachella Valley with his wife to assist kids from underrepresented communities.

“Once I became a part of College Corps, my perspective in life changed, like I had a great epiphany… I realized how my words could actually uplift,” said Nunley.

Brittany Oceguera is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Held by the Los Angeles Review of Books since 2019, LITLIT, or The Little Literary Fair, started out as a way to introduce students from workshops to the publishing industry.

It has since grown into a gathering of independent West Coast publishers from Seattle to Santa Monica. This year’s iteration on June 6 and 7 is the biggest yet, with more than 50 publishers participating in the event at Sci-Arc in Downtown L.A.

People look through a small library of used books from "A Good Used Book," a Los Angeles based book pop-up, during LITLIT 2024.

(

Los Angeles Review of Books

)

It’s ‘small’ lit

The fair aims to get the public in front of books that don’t originate from the so-called “Big Five” publishers — behemoths like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins.

“They really get to control what people get to see, and so we hope LITLIT lets people see more of what is out there and what they can support directly,” said Emily VanKoughnett, public programs and engagement director for LARB.

One of VanKoughnett’s favorite independent publishers will be there. Two Lines Press, the publishing arm of San Francisco’s Center for the Art of Translation, deals specifically in translated works.

Two Lines Press, which specializes in translated works, show off their books to attendees of LITLIT.

(

Los Angeles Review of Books

)

They’ve published authors from across the world, translating books from more than 100 different languages into English.

“ We do our work in quiet rooms, so it's really nice to be able to meet readers and talk to them about what's interesting them. These festivals are really valuable to us in that way,” said CJ Evans, publisher and editor-in-chief of Two Lines.

Pressed locally

Local favorite Angel City Press, which operates under the auspices of L.A. Public Library, will also be there with one of their newly published titles, Los Angeles Central Library POPS, that celebrates 100 years of the Central Library.

People at LITLIT 2024 look through different small presses.

(

Los Angeles Review of Books

)

You’ll also find LA-based Errant Press, which specializes in books that break the traditional form — like a poem printed on measuring tape or a matchbox sized poetry collection.

“It’s really cool to see the kinds of risks that people are able to take, the kinds of communities they’re able to serve and really highlight here on the West Coast,” said Irene Yoon, executive director of LARB.

Panels, printing presses, and workshops

The two-day fair also hosts various panels and workshops, including one on the art of comedic writing and another on how to tell the stories of Los Angeles through archival materials.

“This is, I think, the most panels we've ever done,” VanKoughnett said.

People sit down for a panel discussion at LITLIT 2024.

(

Los Angeles Review of Books

)

Workshops on how to navigate the literary world with a completed manuscript and making your own comics and zines are also on the itinerary.

And Carson’s International Printing Museum will demonstrate how to screen print your own bookmark.

“It's not until we're all in the same room with all our best books literally out on the table that you get to see kind of what a phenomenal publishing culture Los Angeles truly has,” said Terri Accomazzo, editorial director of Angel City Press.

Running a small business is tough under normal circumstances. Running one in a wildfire burn scar can feel nearly impossible.

That's the reality many Altadena business owners are still navigating nearly a year and a half after the Eaton Fire destroyed the community and the local economy. Businesses are grappling with how do you stay open when so many of your customers are gone?

At Wet Paws, a pet grooming business along Lake Avenue, that question recently came to a head.

The shop reopened in January but business remained slow. Wet Paws co-owner Stephanie Trujillo estimates the fire had displaced up to 90% of their customers.

Marley, a Cane Corso from Pasadena, went for her first grooming session at Wet Paws in more than a year.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Then came a conversation with their landlord several months ago that forced a decision.

"He reached out and said, 'Are you going to re-sign your lease?'" Trujillo recalled.

The answer wasn't obvious.

"I said, unfortunately, we're not even making it. We're paying out of our own pocket," she said. "So he said, 'I'll give you until June 1.'"

The deadline meant Trujillo and her mother, Linda Alashti, who have owned the business together since 2023, had only a few months to figure out whether Wet Paws had a future in Altadena.

Wet Paws is hardly alone. As businesses struggle, Los Angeles County recently launched a program offering free marketing assistance and storefront improvements to fire-affected businesses. The deadline to apply is June 8.

A flag banner and sandwich board on the sidewalk outside Wet Paws advertises its services.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

The county also operates a gift card program to encourage residents to spend money at fire-impacted businesses.

But relief has not arrived quickly enough for many businesses.

One particularly slow April Sunday at Wet Paws drove home how dire the situation had become, when they had only one customer.

As she drove home to Fontana, Trujillo began composing a social media post.

"So this isn't easy for us to share," the post began, "but I wanted to reach out with an open heart and hope."

In the message, Trujillo asked the community to book appointments and spread the word to help their business survive.

Before posting it, Trujillo showed it to her mother.

Wet Paws groomer Elizabeth Ranes takes care of a basset hound client.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

"We're very prideful, and it's very hard to ask people for help," she said. "I felt embarrassed that we had to ask the community for help."

Her mother's advice was simple. "Just post it," she told her. "The worst that's going to happen is nobody sees it or nobody cares."

Instead, the opposite happened. By the next day, the post had been viewed and shared hundreds of times across Instagram and Facebook.

The phone started ringing, said Wet Paws groomer Elizabeth Ranes.

"I got well over 50 calls," Ranes said. "We booked out for the last three weeks of the month when we made that post.”

Customers told Alashti that they “didn't know you were back, because they don't come this way anymore.”

Decor inside Wet Paws embraces a playful canine motif.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Among those who returned was Penny Dahlstrom, a Pasadena resident whose 113-pound Cane Corso Marley had been a Wet Paws regular before the fire.

Dahlstrom had tried taking Marley to a large pet store chain while Wet Paws was closed.

"My husband went in to pick her up, and he hears crying, and it was her," Dahlstrom said. "That's not just her nature."

The social media appeal didn't just bring back former customers. It also introduced the business to new ones, Trujillo said.

But recovery remains uneven.

Some days are still slow. And the shop continues to deal with lingering fire-related electrical damage in the back of the building.

Wet Paws is operating on a temporary electrical system, limiting how much power it can use at any given time.

"If we run our AC, and the neighbors run their AC, we lose power," Trujillo said.

As the June 1 lease deadline approached, Trujillo and her mother weighed their options. They could walk away and cut their losses. Or they could commit to rebuilding alongside a community they had come to love.

Ultimately, they thought about the response to their post and the customers who had shown up when the business needed them most. And they had faith that Altadena would rebuild to its full strength.

They chose to renew the lease for another three years.

"I can't imagine what the community is going through, losing their homes and losing everything that they had," Trujillo said. "Yet they're still coming back."

And as long as they do, she said Wet Paws will be there for them and their fur babies.

On a recent Monday, students at Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights started their day like no other — with a tour of the murals hand-painted over the weekend across the playground.

It’s the latest of seven elementary schools in and around L.A. to get the treatment. Over 70 murals in the last 13 years, brought by a collective of artists to students in under-resourced neighborhoods with little access to art education.

“The kids were so excited,” said Stefanie Barbee, a math teacher at Breed. “Just pure joy.”

The students snaked through the paintings on handball courts and school walls: cartoon animals, bright orange flowers, a circle of meticulously painted lines. The works span genres and sensibilities.

Mural by artist hi-dutch.

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

“It's grassroots. We're not getting money from anyone,” said Erik Caruso, the fifth-grade teacher in Paramount who's the group glue. To them, they are just an assembly of like-minded friends — and friends of friends — who spend one weekend out of the year hanging out and painting murals for school kids.

But the collective is anything but typical. It includes artists like the late Rich Jacobs, who died from leukemia this year; Tim Kerr; pro skater Ray Barbee; and Japanese artists Yusuke Hanai and hi-dutch. The vibe's always low-key, and somehow they've managed to stay under the radar.

Mural by artist Yusuke Hanai.

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

Mural by artist Yusuke Hanai.

(

Sandy Yang / James Hamblin

)

“The kids have no idea that they show in huge galleries or have pieces hanging in museums,” said writer Martin Wong, co-founder of the pioneering Asian pop culture magazine Giant Robot. "Or they're famous in the skateboarding scene or surf or music."

Their reward is the Monday morning after, seeing the happiness on the kids’ faces.

“The artists are waiting all weekend — it’s that moment,” Caruso said.

Mural by artists Sandy Yang and James Hamblin.

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

James Hamblin was at Breed for the meet-and-greet earlier this month. He painted a mural designed by his partner Sandy Yang on one of the handball walls.

“Sandy's design is pretty abstract, so it was interesting because the kids were [asking], you know, ‘ What is it?’” Hamblin said. “It was great because I could tell them I had no idea and like, ‘What do you guys think it is?’"

Bring the art museum to the school

Erik Caruso.

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

The idea came to Caruso in 2011, after he took about two dozen students from his Paramount school to MOCA and discovered that only four had ever been to an art museum.

“I wonder if there's a way we can bring the art museum to the school,” he said.

Caruso, a 24-year veteran, was no stranger to bringing art — and artists — directly to his students. In 2009, he launched a monthly art project for fifth-graders that culminated in a year-end show where they met and shared work with living contemporary artists.

Caruso's 5th grade art project, featuring works by artist Tim Kerr.

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

The murals were next.

They painted their first ones at his school in 2012. Soon, the project expanded to the rest of Los Angeles.

Crew at work

Mural by artist Chris Johanson.

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

Mural by artist Chris Johanson.

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

The painting takes place between Friday and Sunday, but planning takes months.

At Breed, the connection was made through math teacher Barbee — wife of Ray — who is on a two-year stint at the Boyle Heights school to help students catch up on the subject.

“I had sort of planted that seed that at some point I would love for a school I was working at to be the recipient of the beautiful work,” she said.

Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights.

(

Sandy Yang / James Hamblin

)

She brought Caruso out for a site visit last September.

“He has a really amazing kind of vision about where to place the artists … based on just their artwork and where it is in relation to the street view,” Barbee said.

Next came an introduction to the principal and the approval process.

“One of the biggest challenges with what we are doing is, you know, they want flipping dolphins and stuff like that,” Caruso said. “But we want to cross over into fine art pieces.”

Mural by artists Lookout & Wonderland

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

Mural by artists Lookout & Wonderland

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

Paying it forward

Caruso estimated that as many as 40 artists and musicians have joined the effort.

The core group now, he said, is about 11 people, and friends and families often tag along to help out, given they have just 16 hours over three days to finish the job.

Mural by artist Oitama.

(

Sandy Yang / James Hamblin

)

Mural by artist Lori Damiano.

(

Operation Creative Freedom

/

Operation Creative Freedom

)

Among the regulars: Wong and his wife, Wendy Lau, who once organized DIY punk shows to fund music education at their daughter's Chinatown school. In Caruso, they saw a kindred spirit.

Caruso later brought the collective to paint at that school and eventually invited their daughter, Linda Lindas bassist Eloise Wong, to join his fifth-grade art and music project.

“All of these kids on the blacktop were all just screaming their hearts out,” Eloise said. “It's cool how Erik — Mr. Caruso to them — shows them, like, raw ways to express themselves through cool art.”

Reggae star Ziggy Marley has spent decades carrying one of music’s most celebrated legacies. But until now, he had never written a song directly about his father, Bob Marley.

That’s changed with “Many Mourn for Bob,” a track on Marley’s ninth solo album Brightside, his first release recorded in his new studio in North Hollywood.

Marley was just 12 when his father died of cancer in 1981. Now 57, Marley says the song instinctually emerged after years of life experience and producing the biopic One Love, which revisited his father’s struggles like an assassination attempt amid political violence in Jamaica.

“He went through some things that was really tough on a human being – and just understanding him in that light is to have a little bit more emotional, deeper connection to his experience,” Marley said in an interview at his studio.

Searching for the bright side

The deeply personal track is part of a splashy return for Marley, who's touring behind Brightside and will perform at the Hollywood Bowl on June 21.

The new album blends political themes, optimism and musical experimentation.

Its lead single, “Racism Is a Killa,” featuring Big Boi, pairs the heavy topic with an upbeat groove that he hopes will make the song more accessible to young people.

“We just wanna come out straightforward, like I never want to come out tiptoeing,” Marley said. “I want to say something that can catch your ears or catch your thoughts.”

That tension between darkness and hope runs throughout Brightside. Marley described the album as a reflection on enduring difficult periods – from the pandemic to the Los Angeles wildfires – without losing sight of optimism.

“Sometimes we get lost in that so much that we don't realize that there is always a bright side,” Marley said.

The 432 Hz experiment

The album also experiments sonically: Marley recorded Brightside using 432 hertz tuning instead of the standard 440 hertz in most mainstream music. Advocates of 432 hertz believe it produces a warmer, more meditative sound better synced to the natural world. (You can hear the difference for yourself here.)

“It's a lower musical frequency, but it's a higher frequency in a next sense of your spirituality and emotion,” he said. “So even though the numbers go down, the frequency actually go up.”

Marley sees the move as part of a larger search for new creative approaches.

“I'm very open-minded and always trying to evolve and just experiment with life and music,” Marley said.

The Grammy winner, who joins James Blake and Ed O’Brien of Radiohead as the most high-profile artists to record at the lower frequency, floated the idea of a larger movement among artists.

“Let's just have a revolution in the music industry,” he said. “Let's change the frequency.”

Building a dream

Marley works out of his Rebel Lion Studio in North Hollywood, its name a nod to his 2018 album Rebellion Rises while also a play on the word “rebellion.”

He described the studio as an extension of the independent spirit his father built with Tuff Gong Studio in Jamaica.

Musicians set up for rehearsal ahead of the next leg of Ziggy Marley's tour.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

“My father had a dream, and I had a dream too,” Marley said.

Like with Tuff Gong, Marley also plans to expand the studio operation to include vinyl pressing as records continue their resurgence in the streaming era.

“There’s always gonna be a vinyl present going on,” Marley said. “A thousand years from now, people that we're still gonna need vinyl records to listen to music.”

Ziggy Marley in the hallway of his new studio in North Hollywood.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

For years, Marley said, he worked out of smaller home setups and rented facilities before deciding to build a larger permanent space in L.A.

Marley said the city has become central to his own creative evolution over the last two decades of living and working here.

Drawn initially by music, friends and the city's small but tight-knit Jamaican community, he says being surrounded by creatives from different backgrounds helped push his artistry in new directions.

“I left my safety and my community, my tribe, and come out by myself to L.A.,” he said. “But it's a great experience. It really helped my growth as a human being being here.”

What’s next

Fresh off the release of Brightside, Marley says he’s already working on another album – a notably quicker turnaround since his last album, the family-music release More Family Time in 2020,

“We're doing back to back,” he said.

Ziggy Marley will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on June 21 as part of a tour supporting his new album Brightside.

(

Astrida Valigorsky

/

Getty Images

)

He’s also busy writing a children’s book based on his feel-good hit anthem “True to Myself” and eyeing opportunities in front – or behind the camera – inspired by his time working on One Love and making the video for “Racism Is A Killa.”

“Same philosophy, same message, but within visuals, you know?” Marley said excitedly. “I want to create some stories and try out. I feel it coming. I can feel it.”