Community Engagement Center<\/a>\u00a0(CEC) has been Sac State\u2019s hub for experiential learning for 30 years,\u00a0facilitating\u00a0partnerships with 1,279 area schools, community groups, and nonprofit organizations to serve the region and give students real-life work experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\nSac State\u00a0students\u00a0participate\u00a0in more than\u00a0914,000 hours\u00a0of community work each year, including community service, academic internships, clinical and school credential practicums, fieldwork, service-learning courses, and community engaged research projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schools must apply for reclassification every five years to\u00a0maintain\u00a0the community engagement designation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve institutionalized community engagement at Sacramento State.\u201d\u00a0— Professor Chong Choe-Smith<\/p>\n
This is the fourth time Sacramento State has earned\u00a0the\u00a0classification. Professors Chong Choe-Smith and Erin Rose Ellison, working with the CEC, spearheaded the rigorous, two-year\u00a0reclassification\u00a0process that included a 110-page report detailing community engagement activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunity engagement is a pervasive part of the work we do at this campus,\u201d Choe-Smith said. \u201cEvery department, every college, every center\u00a0participates\u00a0in some sort of community engaged work. There are so many examples of the way faculty, students, and staff are doing\u00a0community engaged\u00a0work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve institutionalized community engagement at Sacramento State.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of the partnerships and community engagement programs included in the reclassification report were:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Math Tutoring Buddies – Hornets provide tutoring to middle and high school\u00a0students\u00a0helping them gain better\u00a0proficiency\u00a0in math and making them aware of higher education opportunities while enhancing their own teaching skills and gaining hands-on experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Counseling Consortium – Students fulfill their training\u00a0requirement\u00a0by working with the Health Education Council to provide culturally\u00a0appropriate mental\u00a0health counseling for people in the community who may not otherwise have access to services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Writing Partners – This 20-year pen pal program between Sac State students and fourth through\u00a0twelfth-graders\u00a0from throughout the Sacramento region enhances literacy skills\u00a0and builds the children\u2019s interest in attending Sac State.\u00a0<\/p>\n
California Energy, Power, and Innovation Collaborative – Faculty and staff partner with clean energy and technology companies, giving them a place to conduct research and development and puts students to work in private sector companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barrio Art in Communities – Students lead culturally relevant art lessons at Washington Elementary School.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community engaged work we do ultimately enhances student success,\u201d Choe-Smith said. \u201cThere\u2019s a correlation with higher persistence rates and higher graduation rates, as well as a connection with student success beyond graduation because it helps students make connections that may lead to future job opportunities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
CEC Director Samantha Blackburn said engaging in community service helps students develop\u00a0career ready\u00a0skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey offer students the opportunity to apply what they\u2019ve learned in the classroom to real life situations in the community,\u201d Blackburn said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maintaining community partnerships and opportunities for students has been challenging in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and\u00a0cuts to\u00a0funding for both the campus and local organizations.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSacramento State has withstood significant federal policy and funding shifts to reaffirm our deep and abiding commitment to our region,\u201d Blackburn said. \u201cWe have been resilient in maintaining and rebuilding partnerships post COVID, as well addressing current and future threats to funding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Faculty and staff work behind the scenes to establish partnerships, place students at sites, as well as keep track of their hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really see it as integral to student success while they\u2019re here and beyond, but it also takes a lot of effort,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cAfter seeing all this data, I\u2019m just so impressed with our colleagues and all the work they put into making Sacramento State a standout campus for community engagement, which is so crucial to our identity as a campus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
About Jennifer K. Morita<\/p>\n
Jennifer K. Morita joined Sacramento State in 2022. A former newspaper reporter for the Sacramento Bee, she spent several years juggling freelance writing with being a mom. When she isn\u2019t chauffeuring her two daughters, she enjoys reading mysteries, experimenting with recipes, and Zumba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jennifer K. Morita January 26, 2026 Sacramento State has earned the prestigious Carnegie Community Engagement Classification for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-150429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}