Year: 2020

The Neighborhood Academic Initiative realized early in the pandemic that innovative learning tools would be needed to educate its scholars, leading a new team of “tech innovators” to make lightboards a top priority. When the Los Angeles Unified School District closed its campuses due to COVID-19, no one anticipated that L.A. students would be learning…Continue Reading To make online learning easier, USC’s college prep program gets tech-savvy

Partly funded by a grant from the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, the Digital Promotoras program helps students tell the local stories that matter to them. In line with the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words,” the Las Fotos Project and its Digital Promotoras program are helping young women in Boyle Heights and South…Continue Reading Through photojournalism, young women document the essences of their communities

The Health Sciences Campus is playing a special role in the 2020 general election as a vote center for the surrounding community. The five-day vote center will be located on the first floor of the Soto 1 building at 2001 N. Soto St., at the site of the former Seeds Marketplace. This is the first…Continue Reading Health Sciences Campus to serve as a voting center in the general election

With less than a week to go until the election, the university is turning two buildings into voting centers and is encouraging the entire Trojan community to exercise their civic duty. by Grayson Schmidt For months, multiple organizations at USC have been encouraging students and community members to register to vote. Now, with less than…Continue Reading USC community making final push to get out the vote

Ivan Garcia is among the first graduates of USC’s expanded college-prep program, and now he’s a first-year Trojan. But he almost missed his chance. by Rachel B. Levin IVAN GARCIA HELD court whenever his family visited Chinese Friends, their favorite restaurant in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. Garcia’s mother, Laura, remembers how the little boy brought smiles to…Continue Reading His Journey to USC Started with a Tough Choice

The grants support local nonprofits and programs focused on food and housing insecurity, along with closing the digital divide for remote learning students. The international pandemic has hit the communities surrounding USC’s campuses hard. Food and housing insecurity and the digital divide are among the issues affecting the university’s neighbors. At the onset of the…Continue Reading Good Neighbors Campaign awards $1.3 million to community programs combating COVID-19

Public high schools and first-generation students create an outstanding fall class — USC’s largest incoming class ever — with South L.A. and the Eastside leading the way. by Ron Mackovich With a significant boost to financial aid and a push for more access, USC welcomes a  fall 2020 class  with more first-generation students than ever before.  First-gen students…Continue Reading In a year like no other, the USC Class of 2024 stands out

When the coronavirus hit, neighbors’ need for food donations grew dramatically. So has St. Agnes’ distribution program, which now helps hundreds of families each week. The Rev. Luis Espinoza and St. Agnes Catholic Church have been helping fight food insecurity in the West Adams district for decades. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the church was…Continue Reading St. Agnes Catholic Church, with USC help, distributes hope to residents of South L.A.

The university has partnered with 53 community organizations to distribute more than 7,500 kits full of face masks, antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer to local residents. The need for personal protective equipment in the communities surrounding both USC campuses has grown throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, University Relations has partnered with USC Auxiliary Services…Continue Reading USC staff members help deliver critical COVID-19 supplies to neighbors in need