Two Fresno State students, Jazzmine White and Jose Luis Negrete, cognize firsthand the value of giving back. Though they travel from antithetic parts of the Valley — White from Fresno and Negrete from Firebaugh — some are drafting inspiration from the generations earlier and aft them arsenic they hole to postgraduate alongside their children connected Friday, May 16.
Now, they are paying it guardant arsenic portion of the Humanics Students4Giving Project, helping grant $33,000 successful grants to 3 section assemblage payment organizations focused connected younker services, restorative justness and radical and economical justice. The solemnisation volition beryllium held astatine 6 p.m. Monday, May 12, astatine Gazebo Gardens (3204 N. Van Ness Blvd.) successful Fresno. Doors unfastened astatine 5:40 p.m., and airy refreshments volition beryllium served. RSVP at bit.ly/HumanicsS4GRSVP.
White and Negrete, some graduating seniors successful the College of Social Sciences, are completing the “Philanthropy and Grantmaking” people (Sociology 183S) done the Humanics Program. Since 2007, the Students4Giving Project has engaged much than 435 students and awarded astir $308,000 to 50 antithetic organizations passim the Valley.
While some began assemblage successful the 1990s, beingness took them successful antithetic directions. They raised families, worked and postponed their acquisition — but ne'er gave up connected it. This grantmaking course, they say, offered a almighty accidental to reconnect with their communities and beryllium portion of thing larger.
“As parents, you determination into your children for truthful galore years. Now we person the accidental to absorption our giving connected the broader assemblage to assistance lend to the adjacent generation,” Negrete said.
White’s inspiration comes from her mother, Carol Bishop, a Fresno State alumna who was a vocal advocator for number students successful the 1960s and ’70s. Bishop served connected the university’s Educational Opportunity Commission and Ethnic Studies Commission, coordinated the Educational Opportunity Program’s Summer Institute and worked arsenic a counsellor and tutor. After graduating successful 1972 and earning her master’s, she became a changemaker successful West Fresno.
“I was truly arrogant of her,” White said. “My parents were some precise smart. They started a chess nine successful West Fresno and a room successful Bigby Villa. They ran peculiar programs for young radical connected the westside.”
Negrete was inspired by the graduation of his eldest daughter, Deamber, from Fresno State successful 2021 — a postponed ceremonial owed to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the event, philanthropist Lynda Resnick announced a $1 cardinal money encouraging graduates to unpaid with section organizations. That infinitesimal sparked Negrete’s extremity of graduating with his youngest daughter, Josette, and giving backmost done service.
All 3 — Jose Luis, Josette and Jazzmine — volition locomotion successful the College of Social Sciences commencement astatine 1 p.m. Friday, May 16, astatine the Save Mart Center. White’s daughter, Jadora, a wide studies major, volition enactment successful the Kremen School of Education and Human Development’s ceremonial aboriginal that evening.
Both White and Negrete accidental the Humanics Program provided them with idiosyncratic maturation and nonrecreational purpose, precocious attending a four-day fundraising league successful Seattle with classmates and their professor.
“The opportunities Humanics has provided to link with societal entrepreneurs similar Gerry Bill astatine Dakota EcoGarden, Scott Miller astatine Gazebo Gardens and Zach Valle astatine Fresno Metro Ministry person been tremendous,” Negrete said. “I person felt some empowered and humbled portion giving backmost to my community.”
This year’s Students4Giving grants include:
- Truly Reviving Our Youth (The T.R.O.Y. Center) – Awarded $11,000 for its three-phase younker engagement exemplary (Reach Out, Lift Up, Plug-In), supporting underserved neighborhoods successful Fresno. The enactment was founded successful 2017 by Fresno State alumnus Nicholas Butler.
- Fresno Skateboard Salvage – Awarded $11,000 for its restorative justness efforts. The organization, founded by Rodney Rodriguez successful 2017, collaborates with incarcerated artists to repurpose skateboards into art, with proceeds backing cogwheel for section youth.
- Valley Voices – A Hanford-based enactment receiving $11,000 for its “New Citizens Program,” which assists and financially supports Kings County residents completing the naturalization process.
“Our unique, project-based attack to learning successful the Humanics programme helps make exceptional leaders, enhanced organizations and enriched communities,” said Dr. Matthew Ari Jendian, founding manager of Humanics.
“This grantmaking people prepares students for a vocation successful the assemblage by helping them physique relationships and connecting them to a lifelong assemblage of alumni and section organizations,” added teacher Adrian Gomez, a programme alumnus.
For much information, interaction Eva Lopez astatine eva_lopez@mail.fresnostate.edu oregon 559.647.5870.
