Elementary school students play a running game with a young adult Latino man who appears happy and supportive.

Corre la Voz isn’t just an after-school program…or just a course…it’s a strategy. CLV develops spaces, community, and capacities–toward justice & change.

a university mentor and a boy, both wearing bright green jerseys, are editing an i-movie in a computer lab. The mentor looks at the screen and the boy tilts backward and looks at the camera upside down.
At the table in the foreground, a youth wearing a safety mask draws or writes on a paper. On one side, a university student wearing a mask also draws with a marker. On the other side, a mentor wearing a hoodie faces them, laughing. There is a camera, a phone, and markers on the table. In the background, two mentors sit with their heads together. One has turquoise dyed hair.
two youth wearing sweatshirts sit side by side in a library. One is holding a microphone and a notebook. They are laughing.
A student places a ballot inside a Corre la Voz voting shoe box held by a mentor

CLV is:

  • dedicated to building inclusive learning communities, and to working in partnership to advance the potentials of dual-language, immigrant, and diverse communities in Santa Cruz
  • made possible through grants and an undergraduate course: OAKS/EDUC 151 A/B, “Community Literacies”
  • a professional development pathway, with student staff and research positions
a mentor in a Yankees cap works on a laptop with colorful stickers alongside two boys, one in a ball cap. A graduate student with long hair wearing headphones and holding a video camera stands behind them recording their work
…we are a digital project “maker-space:”

each day we work on a creative project together, using photography, video, computers…along with drama, stories, interview…

… and we are a continually-changing space, depending on who is there.
Please join us!
3 undergraduates lead a game inside an empty circle of chairs
Find out more about CLV AFTER SCHOOL
How DO I enroll?
PARTNERSHIPS & OPPORTUNITIES
Corre la Voz logo with microphone

The course: how to enroll

Two students looking at a computer.

Oakes/EDUC 151A/B Community Literacies

Oakes/EDUC 151A/B Community Literacies Seminar & Field Study are taken concurrently by new mentors in Corre la Voz, for a total of 5 units. 

To enroll, you need permission codes.
Fill out this Interest Form or
email instructor Leslie Lopez: lesliel@ucsc.edu

151A is a 2-unit training seminar required for all new mentors.

151B is a 3-unit field study. It satisfies the PR-S requirement, and may be repeated for credit for those who want to continue in the program.  Continuing mentors are also eligible for paid staff jobs as Program Assistants.

“Corre La Voz was the reason I didn’t drop out of college.“

CLV Mentor & Program Assistant, 2014-16

School Arts Program Coordinator in Los Angeles, Accepted to UCLA Master’s Program in Teacher Education, Fall Cohort 2020

a row of 5th grade girls holding bouquets of flowers stand next to a school mobile unit

Undergraduates participate in CLV their first quarter by enrolling in 5 units of course-work: OAKS/EDUC 151A/B, “Community Literacies Seminar & Field Study.”

Spring 2025 Course Schedule

151A (on-campus training seminar): T 3:20-4:55

151B field study
on-campus program prep: W 2:20-2:25
Branciforte Middle School: Th 3-5:30

Enrollment & Clearance Process

  1. Check the course/program schedule and your availability! The T/Th field site (the CLV afterschool program) will not appear on the course registration and that space will not be held in your schedule when you register for 151A/B.
  2. Fill out this Interest Form starting the week before enrollment. Our team will send out permission codes twice a week during enrollment week, and will keep adding until spaces are full.
  3. Please begin assembling your paperwork for school district clearance as soon as possible: TB results and government ID.
    • You should be able to find your latest TB results on your UCSC health portal. These are valid for 4 years.
    • Please start looking now! Missing, expired, or invalid TB results (and insurance/clinic access issues) are the cause for most of the barriers students experience.
  4. After you have enrolled, you will receive the CLV-SCCS Volunteer form and go-ahead to contact the district’s HR office. You will need to complete your no-cost fingerprint clearance a week before the afterschool program starts.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can first-year UCSC students enroll?
    • The course is upper-division because it requires significant academic and organizational skills, as well as self-knowledge and commitment to kids. But some of the most outstanding mentor-leaders have started in their first year of college, because of the paths they’d already traveled. Talk with us about your goals.
  • Why is the course called “Community Literacies?”
    • The popular education and participatory action research tradition we enact teaches us to more effectively “read the world” we’re in–in various codes and languages–so that we can author our own lives, and work together to revise our conditions. We need mentors who are interested in learning about the communities, current circumstances, ways of communicating, and dreams of the kids we work with.
  • Do I need to be fluent in Spanish?
    • No. We do always need more Spanish speakers, especially to work with kids who have just arrived in the US, and we are committed to building a space that values and develops both Spanish and English.
    • Our teaching-learning community is “dual-language,” and we believe in translanguaging. Some kids speak only or mostly Spanish; some prefer English. Most speak a great beautiful range of Spanish-English in combination. All of us understand we are always learning language.
  • Do I need to be an Education Major or an Oakes Affiliate to participate?
    • No. CLV mentors from diverse disciplines like LALS, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology Linguistics, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, join the program. 151A/B can be counted as a major elective by petition. Ask your adviser!
    • 151A/B counts automatically toward the Education, Democracy, and Justice major, and toward the Oakes CARA (Community-based Action Research & Advocacy) Certificate.

four university students using laptops are grouped casually in a seminar room at desks. Two are looking at their screens and the two closest to the camera are in conversation. One uses their hands to explain their idea.
Mentors meet on campus in OAKS/EDUC 151B to plan activities…
A university mentor wearing headphones stands behind a video tripod, hands clasped behind their back. In front of the camera, two youth sit side by side, one holding a microphone. In the background, a university mentor sites at a table covered with equipment
…and then enact them at the site
Find out more about CLV after school

Our critical literacy approaches are rooted in popular education and participatory action research traditions (see EDUC 110) that build critical agency, confidence, and leadership in diverse communities. The techniques we use are great for school-age kids, and can also be adapted to different curricular areas, classrooms, and age groups.