Farber students lead Fresno Unified in civic engagement honors

Farber Educational Center turned semester-long civic projects into Fresno Unified’s strongest showing for the California State Seal of Civic Engagement, with 92 seals earned this year. That total put the Fresno campus ahead of every other district school and pushed it past Edison High School, last year’s leader, which had 82 students receive the seal.

The recognition reflects more than a line on a diploma. Farber students and teachers worked with the Civic Education Center on projects tied to local organizations and community issues, building assignments that connected classroom learning to real-world problems across Fresno County. The school’s own civic engagement page says those projects are meant to be meaningful, and the seal itself is placed on a student’s diploma and recognized at graduation.

Farber Principal said in a June 2026 message that the campus ranked No. 1 in Fresno Unified for State Seals of Civic Engagement and nearly doubled last year’s count. School officials also said the campus added 38 more students to the recognition list than the prior year, a gain that suggests the work reached far beyond a single class or standout student group.

Teacher Gross said she was proud of the students’ commitment and persistence as they stayed with the projects through the entire semester. That kind of sustained effort matters in a district where civics can sometimes feel abstract. At Farber, the projects appear to have produced concrete outcomes, from student leadership to community service that continued after the schoolwork ended.

One student, Martinez, said the experience helped her grow and led her to keep volunteering at the zoo while also applying for a paid internship. That transition, from a school project to ongoing service and work, gives the honors a more tangible meaning than a certificate alone. It shows the campus was not only teaching civic participation, but also helping students translate it into habits and opportunities they could carry into adulthood.

The broader framework for that work was set by California’s State Seal of Civic Engagement, which the California State Board of Education adopted on September 10, 2020. State criteria call for excellence in civics education and participation, plus understanding of the U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution and the democratic system of government.

Farber’s reach appears to be built for scale, not one-off success. A 2025 profile said the school had identified more than 100 local partners and had 12 teachers in a civic engagement cohort, suggesting Fresno Unified’s top seal totals were the product of a campuswide strategy that is now producing measurable results.