Chris Fiorentino, the first director of the Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning, retired on Aug. 8 after more than three decades of helping students connect with the community.

“I think that one of the most important things that I try and emphasize is I didn’t accomplish anything alone,” Fiorentino said. “From the get-go, I had incredible support from presidents, vice presidents, deans, faculty members, certainly students and staff. It was literally thousands of people who made it possible.”

Fresno State is a nationally recognized leader and model for community engagement. The campus was among the first in the nation to be recognized with Carnegie classifications for both Community Engagement and Leadership for Public Purpose. 

Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said the Richter Center plays a key role in getting students involved with community service projects that benefit Fresno as a whole.

“Community engagement pulsates life into Fresno State’s identity, and the Richter Center, under Chris’s leadership, is at the heart of the campus’ outreach and empowerment of our communities,” Jiménez-Sandoval said. 

The Richter Center is located in the University Student Union, Room 310. Under Fiorentino’s leadership, the center became a hub for student growth, academic development and community service. 

Students have contributed over 1 million hours of documented service per year for 16 consecutive years. Last year marked a record-breaking 1,608,427 hours, and an estimated economic impact of $66.5 million from the services provided through the center.

“The Richter Center is one of the main ways the university connects, interacts, impacts and engages with the community,” said Benjamin Boone, faculty service-learning scholar at the Richter Center. “It is our beating heart but also our connective tissue.”

The Richter Center’s approach to learning goes beyond traditional classroom learning. Boone and Fiorentino worked closely for over ten years to embed community service into the learning curriculum. The two organized several training sessions and workshops to engage other staff, administrators and faculty at other campuses to advocate for the impact this has on student learning. 

“Learning is more than facts in a book — it’s also learning how to be caring, giving people who will use what they learn to help make the world a better place,” Boone said. “It’s about providing meaningful experiences, including using material they are learning in real-life.”

Mellissa Jessen-Hiser, the interim director of the Richter Center, has worked with Fiorentino for 17 years and now leads the center while the search for a permanent successor is underway. 

“The staff here is amazing,” Jessen-Hiser said. “They’re such great support. I know from having worked with them, so a lot of it is just trying to find out how I can best support them to keep doing the great work they do.”

She emphasized the importance of keeping students at the center of programming during this leadership transition. The service opportunities are provided with the intent to push students to grow. Not so they can take, rather so that they are able to give back and make the world a better place.

Looking ahead, Jiménez-Sandoval said the university hopes to find a leader who will build on Fiorentino’s legacy, committing to Fresno State’s mission completely. University officials hope to fill the position by the end of 2025. 

Fiorentino expressed optimism for the center’s future. He hopes and anticipates that the support they have had will continue to move them forward in all kinds of ways.

For students interested in getting involved, the Richter Center offers a range of service-learning programs and community partnerships designed to combine academic growth with meaningful community impact, continuing the mission Fiorentino helped to pioneer.

“Both the little and the large service experiences that we’ve been able to provide students with have helped thousands of students recognize their voice, their power, the benefits that come to them when they serve others,” Fiorentino said. “It’s been a powerful experience for so many students.”