As eight highly motivated California college and university students gathered at UC-Davis to begin a week of intense training in affordable housing development, Bank of America executives presented a $120,000 check to fund the innovative capacity-building program.

The Rural California Internship Program for Diversity in Nonprofit Housing Development is a complicated title for a program with a straightforward purpose: to encourage talented minority students to seek careers in affordable housing and to give them a headstart by placing them in year-long internships with nonprofit rural housing developers.

This is the third year that the California Coalition for Rural Housing (CCRH) has operated the program - and the third year that Bank of America has provided the lion's share of the funding for it. The students who are training in Davis this week will spend the rest of the summer working full-time with nonprofit agencies such as the Rural California Housing Corporation, the Rural Community Assistance Corporation and Self Help Enterprises, then continue with their agencies part-time when school resumes in the fall. Each will receive a stipend for the year, plus priceless hands-on experience in the field.

Zenia Torres, who completed an internship at the Stanislaus County Housing Authority earlier this year, says the program has given her "one more full year of work experience than other students that graduated from my class. In working with case files," she says, "applying for grants, preparing spreadsheets and maintaining a budget, I've also gained a lot of useful real world wisdom."

Michael Carroll, who manages affordable housing programs for the Bank of America Community Development Banking Group in Sacramento and also serves on the board of CCRH, says that sponsorship of the program is part of the bank's ongoing commitment to the economic development of rural California. "We're increasing the capacity of local organizations to serve the needs of their communities and increasing the diversity of rural nonprofits."

Carroll adds that Bank of America is the leading lender for affordable housing in both California and the nation, financing the construction or rehabilitation of more than 54,000 units of housing in the Golden State last year, with more than $9 billion in loans. In addition, the bank has committed to lend or invest at least $10 billion over the next 10 years to improve economic conditions in rural communities, through activities such as job creation, small business financing and loans for small-scale farms, in addition to affordable housing.

According to Rich Ciraulo, Project Manager for the Mercy California Housing Corporation, who helped design the original program and has served on CCRH's Internship Advisory Committee since the program's inception in 1998, the program is "a vital first step toward increasing diversity in the field of affordable housing development and bringing low-income communities the representation currently lacking. We look forward to our third year with excitement and with many new ideas for expanding the program and making it an even more rewarding experience for our newest group of interns."

The California Coalition for Rural Housing is a statewide advocacy organization that represents the interests of private nonprofit and public builders of affordable rural housing. Through collaboration with community leaders, low-income citizens, local officials and lenders, CCRH promotes efforts to produce and preserve affordable housing in California. CCRH seeks to educate and mobilize the public on low-income housing conditions by training community leaders and advocacy organizations on key housing issues, organizing and supporting local affordable housing coalitions and providing housing advocates with insightful educational materials.

The Bank of America Foundation directs charitable giving on behalf of Bank of America. It contributes financial assistance to nonprofit institutions and organizations that enhance the quality of life and promote public interest in the areas where the company conducts its business. In 1999, the Foundation gave more than $14.5 million in grants and other charitable gifts in support of community development.

Bank of America, with $680 billion in assets, is the largest bank in the United States. It has full-service operations in 21 states and the District of Columbia and provides financial products and services to 30 million households and two million businesses, as well as providing international corporate financial services for business transactions in 190 countries.

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