“My goal is to help create systems where students don’t need heroics — just support systems that allow them to thrive.”
Photo courtesy of Devon Hernandez
Devon Hernandez loves challenges and dislikes the mundane — an ideal mindset for someone leading student support efforts amid growing economic pressures. As director of Trojan Success Initiatives within USC Student Life and a student in USC’s Doctor of Social Work (DSW) program, Hernandez helps shape how the university responds to students’ most immediate needs.
That drive recently earned him selection as one of just 20 fellows nationwide in the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Doctoral Student Policy Fellowship. Through the two-year program, Hernandez will conduct policy-focused research, participate in national mentorship, and develop a policy brief centered on reducing economic inequality and strengthening systems that support student stability before crises arise. CSWE serves as the national accrediting body for social work education, shaping standards and policy for the profession nationwide.
Hernandez’s policy aims are grounded in practice. For example, he oversaw the expansion of the Trojan Food Pantry, which serves a growing number of USC students facing food insecurity.
The pantry opened in its new location in King Hall on the University Park Campus in September 2024. There, students can obtain groceries, clothing through Tommy’s Closet and connections to broader basic needs resources. Hernandez helped oversee the transition from earlier pop-ups to a centralized operation able to meet rising demand while preserving personal dignity.
“The goal was to create a place where students feel comfortable walking in,” Hernandez says. “Food insecurity already carries enough stigma. The space needed to signal care, not crisis.”
Teamwork is the pantry’s watchword. Hernandez oversees a team of professional staff who manage day-to-day operations across multiple student support spaces, alongside nearly 30 student employees and dozens of volunteers who help staff the pantry, organize distributions and support training.
“The students who work and volunteer here are really the backbone of what we do,” he says. “They care deeply about supporting their peers, and they bring insight we wouldn’t have otherwise.”
That collaborative spirit extends across Student Life, where Hernandez works with colleagues to help support students in navigating academic pressure, financial stress and uncertainty beyond campus. “We’re constantly learning from each other,” he says. “No one person holds all the answers, and that’s why collaboration matters.”
Photo courtesy of Devon Hernandez
Hernandez’s commitment to this work is shaped by his own experience. A first-generation, low-income student from Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley, he saw early on how structural barriers limit access to education and stability. College offered opportunity, but it also clarified his interest in
work focused on social and economic mobility — particularly for students navigating financial uncertainty.
Since joining USC in 2022, Hernandez has taken on increasing responsibility within Student Life, supporting basic needs initiatives alongside the Veterans Resource Center and the First Generation Plus Success Center. On any given day, he and his team may help students navigate internships, financial aid questions, or immediate concerns such as housing and food access.
Those conversations now take place against a broader backdrop of anxiety affecting many students nationwide. Hernandez notes that students are arriving with heightened stress tied to economic pressures, family responsibilities and uncertainty about events outside the university’s walls, including immigration enforcement activity occurring in communities across Los Angeles.
“Students don’t experience these issues in isolation,” he says. “What’s happening in the world shows up in how they’re feeling, how they’re sleeping and whether they’re eating.”
Hernandez emphasizes that his role is not to speculate or advise on matters outside his scope, but to ensure that students know where to turn for support. “Our responsibility is to provide stability where we can,” he says. “That means making sure students have access to food, referrals and trusted staff who can help them navigate resources.”
That responsiveness is paired with long-term thinking. Hernandez is pursuing his DSW from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work online, a format that allows him to remain fully engaged in his professional role while deepening his research and policy expertise. He describes the program as designed for scholar-practitioners — people who want to test ideas in real systems, not just analyze them from a distance.
“The questions I’m asking in class are the same ones I’m dealing with at work,” he says. “How do we move beyond emergency responses and build sustainable basic needs infrastructure?”
Hernandez’s inquisitive and collaborative nature will also guide his CSWE fellowship as he explores funding models, program design and the long-term sustainability of student support systems.
He cites the Trojan Food Pantry as an example. “I’m proud of what our team has built,” he says. “And I’m focused on how we keep strengthening it — so students can focus on learning, not survival.”
Such focus connects Hernandez’s doctoral research, policy fellowship and daily work with students. “If I can help create conditions where students are supported early and consistently,” he says, “then that’s meaningful progress.”
Learn more about how you can support the Trojan Food Pantry.
Learn more about the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work’s Online Doctor of Social Work.