Finals Season

Dear Trojan Shelter Family,

It is finals seasons! Though the semester is coming to an end, the work of Trojan Shelter never stops. We are currently finishing the permitting process with our space with the church and have plans to start renovations this summer. Soon, we will be asking for in-kind donations such as beds, desk, chairs, couches, etc. We are excited to start the actual building process of the shelter and look forward to hosting summer volunteers to help us with renovations.

As I write my last newsletter as a USC junior, I can only see the tremendous steps we have taken together since the beginning of the semester. Our first meeting was at the beginning of the semester when our faculty advisor, Cara Esposito, told Abigail and Esther to find e-board members within 48 hours. That first meeting was a group of five individuals, including me, and by the next meeting, we grew to nine e-board members.

Just this last month, we welcomed our newest e-board member, Eileen Blankenhaus, to act as Co-Director of Staff, making our team ten. A sophomore studying business at USC Marshall School of Business, Eileen has already brought tremendous value to our team as she started planning the necessary training sessions for our shelter staff and volunteers.

In recent news, the city of Los Angeles is currently working on Assembly Bill 302. AB 302 is a bill that will require California Community Colleges to offer safe parking facilities to students who are experiencing homelessness, paying tuition, and enrolled in coursework on or before July 1, 2020. Safe Parking allows individuals sleeping in their car to have a parking space for the night. Though this does not affect Trojan Shelter directly, we are proud to see our city make strides to support college students experiencing homelessness through their education. We hope to develop a strong relationship with our city and district to further impact our ability to serve our classmates.

Lastly, I am very proud to share my Media Committee’s latest project. This whole semester we have been working on a video to introduce Trojan Shelter and our work. Special thanks to Sophomore Jay Goldstruck and Sophomore Rachel Priebe for spearheading this project. As both students at the USC School of Cinema Arts, this project could not have been done without them.

Please watch and share this video! The more visibility Trojan Shelter is able to receive, the more we can help spread awareness of the issue of college homelessness.

For those who are students, good luck on finals! Thank you for joining us in our mission on top of your busy academic schedules. We could not have done much of our work without you.

For everyone else, much thanks to your continuous support. Just reading this letter is already tremendous to our mission in bring awareness to college homelessness. We are excited to start finish classes and keep you updated on our progress this summer.

Fight on!
Matthew Lee - Trojan Shelter Director of Media