The College of Ethnic Studies has applied for a $100 million grant in hopes of expanding the College’s reach and impact.
The 100&Change grant, provided by the MacArthur Foundation, is open to any organization and has received an estimate of 10,000 applications from all over the world.
“I heard about it on NPR, and I was totally excited,” said Amy Sueyoshi, associate dean of Ethnic Studies. “I talked to the dean and we had a conversation about whether we should submit something or not.”
This is the first year of the 100&Change grant and the College of Ethnic Studies has sent in their bid including a youtube video describing their action plan.
Judges will score the 353 applications based a rubric that looks at the feasibility, durability, purpose, and whether a solution to the problem has resulted in or can result in concrete evidence.
In order to apply to the grant an organization must first pose a problem, in this case the College has said it’s racial inequality. Sueyoshi believes that education is a vehicle to fight against racial and economic equality which is why their solution is to boast the College’s current programs.
“What we’ll be doing is solidifying and expanding the things that we have here at state that are working really well for student success and community partnerships,” said Sueyoshi.
Sueyoshi, as well as College of Ethnic Studies Dean Kenneth Monteiro, worked with Bryan Pangilinan, senior director of SF State’s Corporate and Foundation Relations, in order to submit the application on behalf of the College of Ethnic Studies.
“I was able to work with the dean of Ethnic Studies and Amy and really draft like a value ad of the College of Ethnic Studies,” said Pangilinan. “For the first time we wrote the framework and it was great to hear the dean’s plans for replicating it across the CSU systems and nationally.”
Some of the programs the College has created within the community are the Clinica Martin Baro as well as the Pin@y Educational Project. These projects integrate the teachings of the College and apply them into real communities.
Clinica Martin Baro, a free clinic in San Francisco’s Mission district, provides healthcare to families in need that may not otherwise be able to receive medical services. The clinic was created in 2005 by SF State alumni Caro Monico and Zoel Quinonez, with the help of Latina/Latino studies professor Felix Cury.
The Pin@y Educational Project, founded by Asian-American Studies professor Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, is a citywide community program created in order to support education through minority communities, specifically Filipino.
PEP takes student volunteers from the College of Ethnic Studies and places them in classrooms around the city where they teach Filipino American studies to students in public schools. The goal of PEP is to create a cycle that encourages teaching as well as education to both SF State and other San Francisco Unified School District students.
“Since our College has been historically and presently underfunded the grant would be a good resource for us to expand and do what we already do, but much better and more efficiently,” said Moses Omolade, a graduate student getting his Masters in Ethnic Studies.
With the grant, SF State plans to take the methodology of their community work and apply it to various different schools in order to replicate that same type of community. By applying their teachings to other schools the College hopes to overcome racial inequality in other parts of the world.
The College of Ethnic Studies will find out in December if the MacArthur Foundation has accepted their bid and allowed their progress towards the 100 million dollar goal to continue.
