Student Programs

A little caring makes a difference

‘Pay it forward’ program hooks up students who have no parental support with the help they need — from Cal parents, staff, and student mentors — to beat the odds

By Wendy Edelstein

Campus volunteers assemble dorm-room necessities — from hair dryers to teddy bears — to start “independent students” off right. (Wendy Edelstein photo)

Winter 2007 | The windfall that awaited Quanice Hawkins when she moved into a Unit 1 residence hall last year was unlike any she’d ever experienced. Brand-new bedding, lamps, a robe and slippers, towels, a backpack, and other essentials were stacked high in the freshman’s dorm room. This veritable Christmas in August was orchestrated by UC Berkeley staff who pitched in $1,500 of their own money to help Hawkins and nine other students who arrived at Berkeley without parental financial support. These young adults, classified for financial-aid purposes as “independent students,” are or were wards of the court, orphans, or otherwise lacking support from a parent.

“I had everything I needed the first day I moved in,” recalls the soft-spoken young woman from Inglewood, in Southern California. And the freshman knew in advance exactly what she’d be getting, having been invited to select each donated item on the Bed, Bath, and Beyond website.

“It did help financially, but more important was the support I got,” says Hawkins, who was assisted by her mentor, staff member Elaine Perkins of Residential and Student Service Programs (RSSP), on everything from choosing the right shade of purple for her comforter to getting to campus from the Oakland airport.

Quanice Hawkins was made to feel at home as a Cal freshman. (Wendy Edelstein photo)

The welcoming reception Hawkins and her cohort received began as a grassroots effort that has evolved into a fledgling program, the Cal Independent Scholars Network.

Michelle Kniffin and Nancy Jurich, who both work in RSSP, spearheaded the endeavor, inspired by what they heard at a local fundraising event where Berkeley grad Kimberly Armstrong told her story. Armstrong, who had been in the foster-care system, had arrived at Berkeley by bus as an incoming freshman with just a duffel bag. She had watched her roommate unpack her many new belongings, then take off for dinner with her picture-perfect family. When Kniffin and Jurich heard Armstrong recall that she had cried herself to sleep that first night, they looked at each other and vowed, “Never again.”

Kniffin told Armstrong’s story to fellow Berkeley staff and was “flooded with e-mails from people who wanted to help” by donating money or supplies. With the help of the Financial Aid Office, Kniffin and Jurich located students in need and invited them by e-mail to participate in the program. All said yes. More than 60 staff and student volunteers picked up boxes of supplies and delivered them to the students’ residence-hall rooms before they arrived. “It is really a campuswide collaboration,” says Kniffin proudly.

More heart than money
“We did it with more heart than money last year,” says Jurich, when staff donations covered room furnishings for two freshmen and academic supplies for eight others. This year, alumnus Fred Selinger ’61, a Bay Area investment banker, donated $10,000, enough to cover room furnishings and academic supplies for 12 incoming freshmen.

Selinger, who raised a foster son in addition to his three daughters (one of whom is a Berkeley grad), has volunteered as an economics teacher in Bay Area inner-city high schools for the past 10 years. He says he was “well aware that foster children are put out on the street on their 18th birthday, and that there are students at Cal who are in need.”

Just by making it to college, independent students are beating the odds: only 40 to 50 percent of youth in the foster-care system graduate from high school, and 1 or 2 percent earn a college degree. “These students are survivors,” says Selinger. “They got into Berkeley because of their academic ability. Some of them were in adverse living situations and came through them.” Now, he says, “it’s important that they feel someone is there supporting them and caring about the issues they might have.”

That support comes from a dedicated group of mentors. Each incoming independent student is matched with a student mentor as well as a faculty, staff, or parent mentor. They check in monthly with each student and update Kniffin, the program’s de facto coordinator, on any student’s needs or challenges.

That involvement begins in early August, before students come to campus. “We want to make sure they’re not alone on their first day,” says Jurich. This past August, Jane Cullinan, a Cal parent, drove to the Oakland airport to pick up the student she was mentoring, then brought her to campus. When they arrived at the student’s new dorm room, they found the other two roommates in the student’s triple had staked out more than their fair share of turf. Cullinan went into mom mode, and soon there was space for her student’s belongings. “Kids need an advocate — that’s what parents are for,” observes Cullinan.

Staff and student mentors from Residential and Student Service Programs include Independent Scholars Network founders Nancy Jurich and Michelle Kniffin, far right. (Wendy Edelstein photo)

Spreading ‘a family vibe’
Mentors also keep tabs on student birthdays — Cal Dining is donating a cake for each one — and check on where they plan to stay during holidays and school breaks. “We help our students think through the questions that are a given for other students,” explains Kniffin, whose goal is to help the students start on an even keel with their more affluent classmates.

In exchange for the goods and support, participants agree that they will serve as mentors to future independent students. “Students understand and appreciate that this is not charity, it’s a pay-it-forward program,” explains Kniffin.

Now a sophomore and living off campus, Quanice Hawkins is already mentoring a freshman. She still consults her friends in RSSP on everything from boy problems to locating campus resources. “They’re a big part of my life at Cal. I can talk to them about anything,” she says. “When I go in there, there’s a family vibe. They help me. You want to go where you’re loved.”

For information on the Cal Independent Scholars Network,
e-mail Michelle Kniffin at kniffin@berkeley.edu.