Summer break does not translate into idle hours for these three UC Riverside students. For Bela Mendoza, a three-month summer internship with Riverside’s Operation SafeHouse, a youth emergency shelter, has given her an inside look at how to make a bigger — and more positive — impact in the lives...

The bedroom he shared with his parents and three siblings included a bunk bed, a queen bed, two wardrobes, and a narrow wooden table that served as his desk. That bedroom was where Alejandro Quiñones lived through middle school and high school with his family. Quiñones, 21, now a senior...