Sarah Imani Mola, Our Saviour Center
Bringing Global Experiences to Local Community
College Corps fellow Sarah Imani Mola has been volunteering for much of her life. Through her service at Cal Poly Pomona, Sarah is giving back while gaining a sense of connection and belonging within her new community.
What life experiences inspired you to become a College Corps fellow?
I was raised to see that we’re all in this together. Around late middle school, early high school, I started to get more politically active and aware of what was going on around me. My family is from Kenya, I did robotics in high school and was invited to China to help develop a competition, and I worked with an international youth climate advocacy group, allowing me to travel to Palau. I met lots of different people in a lot of different spaces that really made me feel like I wanted to get involved in volunteer social justice work. Nothing we do is isolated from anything else. I feel like I have a responsibility to give back to my community.
How does your service tie into your education or career goals?
I’m a psychology major, minoring in political science and physiology, aiming to graduate winter 2026. My focus area is social cognition, multicultural and political psychology – my goal is to get a Ph.D. and then I would love to get into city or state government and be able to work in policy development or find other ways to use psychology background.
At Our Saviour Center, I’m working with people from a lot of different cultures or perspective or states of mind. I’ve learned that de-escalation is key and building relationships helps make people more comfortable, even if you don’t speak the same language. Being able to recognize that a lot of the people serving at the food pantry or receiving services are the people who I would be working for as a policymaker is valuable experience.
Sarah Imani Mola along with other College Corps Fellow Ambassadors at the Los Angeles Mid-Year Leadership Workshop. Right: Sarah Imani Mola supporting food distribution at her host site.
Do you have a particularly good memory from your service?
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest day of year for my host site, Our Saviour Center. That day I went to site, had a family lunch with my colleagues — there was so much going on and it felt so good to socialize. My own family is spread out, so being able to eat and celebrate with the people who work there gave me a sense of belonging and community.
What advice would you give to an income fellow or someone considering College Corps?
Be realistic about how much time you have and how much work you’re going to do. It’s difficult to manage a full course load along with College Corps – it’s ok to admit to yourself that it’s not a good fit for now, there’s always another chance.
