20MM News Archive

A Year in Review: Supporting Faculty Members Teaching in Prisons, Creating and Disseminating California’s Best Practices, and Forging a Brighter Future for Justice-Impacted Individuals

In 2022, the Smart Justice initiative welcomed four Spark Grantees, disseminated resources to support higher education faculty members who teach inside prisons, and unveiled California’s Best Practices: Pathways From Prison to College—none of which would have been possible without our smart justice partners.

Public Advocates Seeks to Serve Low-Income, BIPOC, Immigrant, and Parenting Students in California by Tackling Housing Insecurity

Public Advocates will leverage a Spark Grant to increase the understanding of student housing insecurity and aim to stimulate state-wide investments in student housing with an emphasis on low-income, BIPOC, immigrant, and parenting students.

Introducing Ren Mao, Program Coordinator, The Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property

As Program Coordinator for The Michelson Institute of Intellectual Property, Ren Mao is eager to dive into the world of IP and work toward closing the education gap as we move toward a more technological future.

Welcoming Queena Hoang, Student Basic Needs Senior Program Manager

Queena Hoang has joined the Michelson 20MM Foundation as Student Basic Needs Senior Program Manager. She will lead the foundation’s Student Basic Needs initiative, which seeks to increase persistence and graduation rates through systems change, research, and technological innovations that help students meet their basic needs.

Postsecondary Education in Prison Is Inspiring Hope for Jaime Navarro, a Pelican Bay Scholar

Jaime Navarro, a student in the College of the Redwoods Pelican Bay Scholars Program, credits education as what may be the driving force behind hopefully receiving a release date in the future. He shares his experience as a currently incarcerated scholar and his thoughts on the importance of education in prison.

California Has an Opportunity to Extend the Basic Needs Mandate to Public Four-Year Universities, Young Invincibles Is Studying What That Will Take

Recognizing the significant potential to help students meet their basic needs and persist in their studies, Young Invincibles will use their 2022 Michelson Spark Grant to study what it will take to extend the basic needs mandate to the University of California and California State University campuses.

1:3 Postsecondary Students Face Food Insecurity, FRAC Is Ensuring SNAP Can Help

The federal government first provided food stamps as early as the 1930s. In August 2022, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) served more than 41 million people nationally, with nearly 4.9 million in California. Although SNAP has a longstanding history of helping to address food insecurity in America, data suggest that it has also historically failed to address food insecurity among California’s postsecondary study body. While one out of every three postsecondary students in the state are food insecure, only 18 percent of the state’s students participate in California’s version of SNAP, CalFresh, as the California Policy Lab reports. According to the Century Foundation, across public and private institutions, eligible California undergraduates leave an estimated $100 million in CalFresh benefits unclaimed every month.

One of the reasons for unclaimed benefits is due to the complex requirements for most college student SNAP applicants. Prior to December 27, 2020, students enrolled more than half the time needed to work 20 hours a week or participate in work study in order to qualify for SNAP. A temporary COVID-19 enactment, however, expanded SNAP to students with an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) of $0 and students who were simply eligible for federal or state work-study. That temporary expansion is set to expire 30 days after the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, which puts at risk continued SNAP benefits for hundreds of thousands of students in California.

Recognizing the importance of this eligibility expansion, the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), a 2022 Michelson Student Basic Needs Spark Grantee, will leverage its grant to ensure student hunger is not collateral damage of an ending public health emergency. To do so, they will lead national educational efforts and support state partners, particularly in California, in a multi-layered strategy to prevent the looming hunger cliff for students by making permanent changes to ensure equitable SNAP access for millions of students.

“With the rising costs of college and inflation, student hunger is at an unprecedented level. Students should not have to decide between putting food on the table for their families or buying textbooks and registering for classes,” Miguel Leon, Director of Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the Michelson 20MM Foundation said. “Ensuring the expanded SNAP eligibility persists beyond the pandemic would help millions of students continue in their studies and graduate, forging a brighter future for themselves and their families.”

In addition, FRAC will launch a public awareness campaign aimed at decision makers at the state and federal levels. It will focus on:

Communicating the importance of making the temporary expansion of SNAP eligibility permanent;
Producing a brief to be shared widely as part of the campaign and track audiences reached; and
Compiling student and campus leader experiences with SNAP that could help build the case for making the SNAP eligibility expansion permanent and leverage their public awareness campaign to increase understanding of SNAP in California.

Please join us in welcoming FRAC as a Michelson Spark Grantee! We eagerly await sharing the outcomes of their work.

Michelson 20MM is a private, nonprofit foundation seeking to accelerate progress towards a more just world through grantmaking, operating programs, and impact investing. Co-chaired and funded by Alya and Gary Michelson, Michelson 20MM is part of the Michelson Philanthropies network of foundations.

Eliminating Digital Discrimination with New Urgency

FCC chair calls for a renewed focus on solving the digital divide during the Michelson 20MM Foundation’s in-person town hall at The Beehive in South Los Angeles

OER Gives Students the Opportunity to Reclaim Their Education—How Open 22 Inspired a Recent Graduate

OER gives students the opportunity to reclaim their education as it is an investment in a future that won’t force students to become experts in advocacy. It’s clear that we need all hands on deck to corner the textbook monopoly, and most importantly we need to have the student experience at the center of our work as we continue to win.

A Discussion on the Inside: Impacted Leaders Consult on How The California’s Best Practices Support Incarcerated Students

During California’s Best Practices for Students Inside Prison, panelists discussed the barriers that students inside prisons face and how the Best Practices can ensure that adopting institutions break them down.