Campus Connections (CC) is a multidisciplinary service learning course at CSU where undergraduate students serve as mentors to youth. Students from all majors work one-on-one with youth ranging from 11-18 to tackle a broad range of challenges. Youth are referred from schools, the juvenile justice system, human services, or directly from family members, and work with their mentors to establish goals for positive growth.

Among CC participants, the vast majority of students (82.5%) participate in CC for 1 term.  Compared to CSU demographic rates overall, first-generation and racially minoritized students are overrepresented among CC participants while nonresidents and males are underrepresented among CC participants.

CC participation appears to be positively associated with student success outcomes. Students who participate in CC have higher persistence rates, higher graduation rates, faster time to graduation, higher cumulative GPAs, and a positive association with several NSSE constructs compared to students who do not participate in CC. These positive associations, however, do not control for other factors that might influence this relationship like demographic attributes or prior academic preparedness. It is important to note that while CC participation appears to be related to positive success outcomes, it is unclear whether participation promotes these outcomes or whether high-performing students are more likely to participate in CC in the first place.