CSUMB's Seth Pollack honored for service-learning work

Seth Pollack has been named winner of the 2013 Richard E. Cone Award by California Campus Compact Pollack in recognition of his work to promote service learning and community-campus partnerships throughout the Monterey Bay and Salinas Valley.

Pollack has been director of CSU Monterey Bay’s Service Learning Institute for more than 15 years.

“Service learning and partnerships are part of the very fiber of our being as a campus, and that is due in large part to the continued leadership on the part of Dr. Pollack,” said CSUMB Provost Kathy Cruz-Uribe.

CSUMB is the only two-time recipient of the White House President’s Award for Community Service in Higher Education (2006 and 2011), given each year to the six top programs in the nation by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

One example of Pollack’s leadership in community-university partnerships is CSUMB’s involvement in the Salinas Chinatown Renewal Project. Since 2006, more than 1,200 students and 20 faculty members have participated in this community-based effort to revitalize a long-neglected neighborhood of Salinas.

Pollack holds a Ph.D. in international development education and a master’s in organizational sociology from Stanford University, and a B.A. in international affairs from the University of Colorado.

"I am really proud to receive this award, as it honors the exceptional work we are doing at CSUMB. It is such a benefit to be working at an institution that has embraced civic engagement as a core component of the academic program,” Pollack told CSUMB press officers.

Story provided by Joan Weiner, CSUMB.