Oakland Student Service

In late 2021, two students at Oakland Technical High School were looking for organized ways to serve the Oakland community. However, there were no community-facing clubs or programs geared towards students: Ben Stone and Matteo Salvadei decided to fill that gap themselves, founding and incorporating Oakland Student Service in January 2022.

Since its inception, OSS has had an immeasurable impact on both the city of Oakland and the students who led and worked with the program. Our community work includes hosting distributing thousands of pounds of healthy food to elementary students and their families, revitalizing multiple parks in low-income areas of the city, providing college mentorship and guidance for over a thousand students lacking access to private college counseling and more.

On the administrative side, OSS created a blueprint for a student-geared charity model. Our work citywide with groups such as KitsCubed, the City of Oakland, and 100 Black Men, as well as our partnerships with organizations such as Target, Whole Foods Market, and Kaiser Permanente, showcased the viability of our model and style of charity, something that has been replicated not only by other students in Oakland, but by us in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, with more locations to come.

What started as a club application quickly became Oakland’s fastest growing nonprofit organization, and one that was able to change the landscape of service, effectively fostering a new generation of community leaders and public servants. To learn more about our work in the community, click below. To keep updated with our current work, follow us @oaklandstudentservice on instagram, or subscribe to the newsletter on our site for updates on events, initiatives, and more.