Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Altadena Libraries Among Host Sites as 35 Pasadena City College Fellows Begin Fire-Recovery Service

Fellows will serve eight months with more than 15 community partners under a state wildfire-recovery grant

Thirty-five Pasadena City College students will pledge to spend eight months serving groups that help communities recover from the Eaton Fire, with Altadena Libraries among the program’s listed partners.

They are the first fully funded class of a College Corps chapter created for fire recovery, paid for by a California Volunteers grant of more than half a million dollars, the college said in a June 3 press release. The fellowships run from this month to May 2027, at 12 to 15 hours a week, with more than 15 local partners taking on the students, according to the college’s College Corps program page.

Each fellow commits to 450 hours of service over the academic year and can earn up to $10,000 in combined living allowances and educational awards. Fellows also receive a stipend and take a leadership course at the college, for which they earn college credit, the college said in the release.

Altadena Libraries is on the partner list for the 2026-27 fellowships, along with Friends In Deed, the Flintridge Center, the Pasadena Unified School District, San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity, Union Station Homeless Services and the Tournament of Roses. The college’s first group of fellows was placed with 14 organizations, the Altadena Library among them, in the months after last year’s Eaton Fire swept Altadena.

Those fellows contributed more than 5,600 service hours, said Jacqueline Sacoto, director of the college’s Freeman Career Center and founding director of its College Corps, in the release.

“It’s a natural fit,” Sacoto said. “After witnessing so much destruction, our students want to be engaged and to serve. They want to be a part of the solution, and our community needs them.”

The chapter grew out of a program the college paid for itself. In the fall of 2025, Pasadena City College launched its own version of College Corps, becoming the first affiliate program in the state, operating with funding from the Pasadena City College Foundation. The state grant now places the chapter on public funding. The award creates the state’s first College Corps chapters dedicated to rebuilding communities damaged by the Eaton and Palisades fires, according to the release.

Applications for the fellowships opened May 22 and closed June 30, though the college is keeping a waitlist for students who may still get a spot. The service year concludes in May 2027.

Program Launch Event, Pasadena City College College Corps. Tuesday, Sept. 22, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Creveling Lounge, Pasadena City College, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. For more call (626) 585-3377 or visit https://pasadena.edu/academics/career-center/students/college-corps-program.php