Classified employees like you educate, guide, and nurture California’s students. But the time commitment and financial burden of continuing your own learning can make it difficult to prioritize those things for yourself.
CSEA is here to help, and each year over $135,000 is awarded in scholarships and grants to members pursuing degrees, including $1,000 member career grants to help ease the burden of higher education.
The difference that a higher education degree can make for your career and earning potential can be life changing and CSEA wants to ensure you have help on that journey.
Allyssa Ybarra of Chapter 535 started working when she was 16 and didn’t realize the value that higher education holds. When she was laid off as a result of the 2008 recession, she had no idea what her options would be.
“My educational goals are to inspire and teach people just like me who came from a low-income, welfare family to seek education to better their lives and learn the impact an education provides.”
- Allyssa Ybarra, Ybarra of Chapter 535
She decided to attend Riverside City College to earn her associate degree, which led to her becoming a full-time instructional department specialist with the college. Now, after receiving assistance from CSEA for her bachelor’s degree, she plans to pursue a master’s degree to teach at Riverside City.
“My educational goals are to inspire and teach people just like me who came from a low-income, welfare family to seek education to better their lives and learn the impact an education provides,” she said.
Kenya Morales, a paraeducator in the San Bernardino City Unified School District and San Bernardino 183 member, received assistance for the Speech Language Pathology Master’s Preparatory Certificate Program at California State University, San Bernardino she will complete this spring.
