By Jennifer K. Morita

January 26, 2026

Sacramento State has earned the prestigious Carnegie Community Engagement Classification for the fourth time since 2010, a national designation recognizing the University’s long history of serving the Capital region while providing students with hands-on learning experiences. 

On Jan. 13, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education (ACE) released the 2026 list of U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrated exceptional commitment to community engagement, including ones receiving the designation for the first time and those that earned reclassification. 

“Community engagement is vital to who we are here at Sacramento State,” University President Luke Wood said. “Partnering with community leaders and organizations to share resources and ideas not only strengthens the surrounding region, but it also offers students opportunities for experiential learning and research that will help them while they’re at Sac State and serve them in their future careers. 

Sacramento State is one of 277 U.S. colleges and universities that currently hold the Carnegie classification, which has served as the leading framework for institutional assessment and recognition of community engagement in higher education for the past 19 years. 

The Community Engagement Center (CEC) has been Sac State’s hub for experiential learning for 30 years, facilitating partnerships with 1,279 area schools, community groups, and nonprofit organizations to serve the region and give students real-life work experiences. 

Sac State students participate in more than 914,000 hours of community work each year, including community service, academic internships, clinical and school credential practicums, fieldwork, service-learning courses, and community engaged research projects. 

Schools must apply for reclassification every five years to maintain the community engagement designation.

“We’ve institutionalized community engagement at Sacramento State.” -- Professor Chong Choe-Smith

This is the fourth time Sacramento State has earned the classification. Professors Chong Choe-Smith and Erin Rose Ellison, working with the CEC, spearheaded the rigorous, two-year reclassification process that included a 110-page report detailing community engagement activities. 

“Community engagement is a pervasive part of the work we do at this campus,” Choe-Smith said. “Every department, every college, every center participates in some sort of community engaged work. There are so many examples of the way faculty, students, and staff are doing community engaged work. 

“We’ve institutionalized community engagement at Sacramento State.” 

Some of the partnerships and community engagement programs included in the reclassification report were: 

• Math Tutoring Buddies - Hornets provide tutoring to middle and high school students helping them gain better proficiency in math and making them aware of higher education opportunities while enhancing their own teaching skills and gaining hands-on experience. 

• The Counseling Consortium - Students fulfill their training requirement by working with the Health Education Council to provide culturally appropriate mental health counseling for people in the community who may not otherwise have access to services. 

• Writing Partners - This 20-year pen pal program between Sac State students and fourth through twelfth-graders from throughout the Sacramento region enhances literacy skills and builds the children’s interest in attending Sac State. 

• California Energy, Power, and Innovation Collaborative - Faculty and staff partner with clean energy and technology companies, giving them a place to conduct research and development and puts students to work in private sector companies. 

• Barrio Art in Communities - Students lead culturally relevant art lessons at Washington Elementary School. 

“The community engaged work we do ultimately enhances student success,” Choe-Smith said. “There’s a correlation with higher persistence rates and higher graduation rates, as well as a connection with student success beyond graduation because it helps students make connections that may lead to future job opportunities.” 

CEC Director Samantha Blackburn said engaging in community service helps students develop career ready skills. 

“They offer students the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real life situations in the community,” Blackburn said. 

Maintaining community partnerships and opportunities for students has been challenging in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and cuts to funding for both the campus and local organizations.  

“Sacramento State has withstood significant federal policy and funding shifts to reaffirm our deep and abiding commitment to our region,” Blackburn said. “We have been resilient in maintaining and rebuilding partnerships post COVID, as well addressing current and future threats to funding.” 

Faculty and staff work behind the scenes to establish partnerships, place students at sites, as well as keep track of their hours. 

“We really see it as integral to student success while they’re here and beyond, but it also takes a lot of effort,” Ellison said. “After seeing all this data, I’m just so impressed with our colleagues and all the work they put into making Sacramento State a standout campus for community engagement, which is so crucial to our identity as a campus.”