Press Release May 18, 2006

San José, CA — San José City College’s Project SHINE (Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders) has been granted $10,000 in extension funds, which will be used to support the work of students in San José City College’s Service Learning program. Project SHINE volunteers tutor San José’s elderly immigrants to learn English and navigate the complex path to U.S. citizenship in a true community and college partnership.

Project SHINE is a national service learning initiative that builds partnerships among community colleges, universities and community-based organizations to benefit older immigrants, refugees and college students. It is one of 50 other partnerships that the Service Learning Program has established.

Established in 2001 when San José City College and San José State University collaborated to secure a $106,000 grant from the Intergenerational Center at Temple University to establish SHINE in San José, San José City’s Project SHINE is part of a nationwide consortium that now includes 18 colleges and universities in 14 cities. In 2003, SJCC secured its first $10,000 extension grant and with the newly-awarded extension grant, bringing the college’s total award to $73,000.

According to Ronald Levesque, San José City Colleges’ Project SHINE coordinator, “Project SHINE has grown into our largest program within the overall Service Learning Program, with anywhere from 25 to 50 students participating each semester. Since the fall of 2001, 344 students from San José City College (and about 20 from Evergreen Valley College) have tutored 3,437 elderly immigrants for 6,127 hours. The vast majority of these students take great pride in their work in SHINE, and the community has been very welcoming and grateful.”

This latest grant will be used to foster stronger links between service and academic coursework. 4 mini-grants of $300 will be available to faculty with students participating in Project SHINE, which numbers 10 instructors in the Spring 2006 semester. To earn this award, an instructor will be asked to teach a lesson that addresses the needs and lives of elderly immigrants as this relates to the overall course objectives. In addition, instructors will be encouraged to collaborate with their SHINE students in presenting this lesson. Grant funds will also support the invitation of SHINE community partners to come and address a class.

“I am pleased that Project SHINE will be able to continue with its good work,” says San José/Evergreen Community College District Chancellor Rosa Pérez. “It has been instrumental in engaging over 3,000 of our newest elderly immigrants, helping them gain their citizenship and instilling pride in their new community. I am looking forward to a workshop to be held this summer that will inform more faculty members and our community partners about Project SHINE.”

For additional information on Project SHINE, please visit http://www.projectshine.org/. For more information about San José City College’s Service Learning Program, please visit http://www.sjcc.edu/StudentServices/SLP/Educational_Philosophy.shtml, and for information about Evergreen Valley College’s Service Learning Program, please visit http://www.evc.edu/ss/service_learning/.

Contact: Charles Montgomery, Marketing
San José/Evergreen Community College District
Phone: 408-590-4548
E-mail: Charles.Montgomery@sjeccd.org