2026 CAPPS Excellence in Community Service Award
Bellus Academy Earns Bronze at the 2026 CAPPS Excellence in Community Service Awards
Giving back has always been part of Bellus Academy’s identity. It’s built into the training, the culture, and the way students understand their craft. Now, that commitment has earned statewide recognition.
Bellus Academy is proud to announce that our Chula Vista campus has been named the Bronze Award winner in the 2026 CAPPS Excellence in Community Service Awards, presented by the California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools (CAPPS). This award recognizes CAPPS member schools that have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to their local communities through service learning, civic engagement, and community impact.
This recognition is a reflection of what happens every week at Bellus Academy. Students and educators show up, serve their neighbors, and discover that beauty and wellness training is about far more than technique.
About the CAPPS Excellence in Community Service Award
The CAPPS Excellence in Community Service Awards have recognized outstanding private postsecondary schools across California since 2016. Each year, CAPPS evaluates member schools on the scope of their service programs, the depth of their community impact, and how meaningfully those programs are integrated into student learning.
The award is presented in two categories: Large Schools (four or more campuses) and Small Schools (one to three campuses). This structure ensures that schools of every size have the opportunity to compete and be recognized for the impact they create.
Earning a place on this podium means more than a trophy. It means a school’s commitment to its community has been evaluated, verified, and recognized alongside some of California’s most dedicated educational institutions. Bellus Academy has now appeared on the CAPPS community service multiple times, earning Silver in 2024 and Bronze in 2026.
A Year of Service: By the Numbers
Community service at Bellus Academy isn’t occasional. It’s continuous. Over the past year, here’s what that looked like across San Diego County:
- Participated in 46 community service and fashion events across San Diego County
- Events taking place two to four times per month, throughout the year
- 836 student participations and 138 educator participations across all events
- 1,657 professional beauty and wellness services delivered to more than 1,000 individuals
- An estimated economic value of $27,560 to $46,640 in services provided
Those services included haircuts, hairstyling, makeup applications, waxing, esthetic treatments, and manicures, delivered by students across cosmetology, barbering, esthetics, and spa nail programs. Behind every number is a person who received professional care they might not otherwise have been able to access
The Partners Who Make It Possible
Community service at Bellus Academy is built on long-term partnerships with organizations throughout San Diego County. This past year, students and educators worked alongside Alpha Project, the San Diego Rescue Mission, Veterans Village of San Diego, Alpha Family Shelter, TEDxSanDiego, high school cadet programs, and a range of nonprofit organizations and community events.
At the San Diego Rescue Mission’s Christmas Outreach Meal, Floyd Carmona and the Bellus Academy team provided 75 haircuts alongside a holiday meal served to 936 neighbors, 41 showers, and the distribution of 580 resource bags. Peyton Abramson, Manager of Volunteer Programs at the San Diego Rescue Mission, shared:
“Their dedication made a meaningful difference, providing haircuts that offered far more than a fresh look. It restored confidence, dignity, and a sense of being seen during a season that can feel especially difficult.”
Peyton Abramson, Manager of Volunteer Programs, San Diego Rescue Mission
At TEDxSanDiego, Bellus Academy students and educators styled nine speakers and 55 performing artists for the event. Audrey Jacobs, TEDxSanDiego Chief Connector and Curator, described the Bellus Academy team as “a true partner in excellence.”
A resident served through the Alpha Family Shelter captured the deeper meaning of these moments simply and directly:
“I am grateful for Bellus Academy because they not only provide haircuts and manicures, but they truly care about us.”
Service Learning That Goes Beyond the Classroom
What sets Bellus Academy’s community service apart isn’t just the volume of events. It’s how deeply those experiences are connected to student training. Community service isn’t something that happens on the side; it’s woven into the educational experience across all programs.
Students apply the skills they’re developing in cosmetology, barbering, esthetics, and spa nail programs in real-world environments including community centers, shelters, fashion events, and charitable programs. They work with real clients, real tools, and real outcomes. In those moments, they develop not only technical confidence but also the professional skills that matter most: communication, teamwork, preparation, and empathy.
After many service events, students participate in structured reflection, discussing what they learned, how they connected with clients, and how their work contributed to someone’s well-being. These conversations often become the moments when training transforms into purpose.
These initiatives are coordinated by Floyd Carmona, Bellus Academy’s Event and Community Outreach Coordinator and a veteran himself, who works closely with campus educators, nonprofit partners, and community organizations to create opportunities for students to serve while deepening their professional training.
The Stories That Stay With You
The impact of Bellus Academy’s service programs isn’t measured only in numbers. Some of the most powerful outcomes are the ones you can’t quantify.
Barbering student and Marine veteran Ivan Lopez volunteered at Veterans Village of San Diego, where he gave a haircut and straight razor shave to a homeless veteran preparing for a job interview. When Ivan returned to volunteer the next time, that veteran found him with news: he’d landed the job. Today, that same veteran is no longer homeless, and he now comes to Bellus Academy regularly for his haircut. As Ivan put it, “Sometimes something as simple as a haircut can change the direction of someone’s life.”
The impact of Bellus Academy’s service programs isn’t measured only in numbers. Some of the most powerful outcomes are the ones you can’t quantify.
Barbering student and Marine veteran Ivan Lopez volunteered at Veterans Village of San Diego, where he gave a haircut and straight razor shave to a homeless veteran preparing for a job interview. When Ivan returned to volunteer the next time, that veteran found him with news: he’d landed the job. Today, that same veteran is no longer homeless, and he now comes to Bellus Academy regularly for his haircut. As Ivan put it, “Sometimes something as simple as a haircut can change the direction of someone’s life.”
Floyd Carmona describes meeting a woman at an Alpha Project outreach event in Barrio Logan who had been a cosmetologist in Afghanistan before arriving in the United States as a refugee. At the outreach event, she received a haircut and information about Bellus Academy. Months later, she walked through the doors of the Chula Vista campus as a new student. Her name is Somaya Jafari, and Floyd describes her as “one of the most talented and driven students on our campus.”
These stories aren’t the exception. They are the pattern.
What This Recognition Means for Bellus Academy
The 2026 CAPPS Bronze Award is a meaningful recognition, and it also points forward. Bellus Academy’s formal commitment to participating in scheduled service events with partners like Alpha Project and the San Diego Rescue Mission reflects a long-term dedication that doesn’t end with an award cycle.
For students, this recognition reinforces something they discover through experience: that the beauty and wellness profession is one of the few trades where showing up to serve someone, really serve them, can change the direction of a life. Sometimes that life belongs to the person in the chair. Sometimes it belongs to the student standing behind it.
Giving back is part of who we are at Bellus Academy. This award is a reflection of that, and a reminder that our work in the community is just getting started.
Learn More or Get Involved
If you’re exploring a career in beauty and wellness, Bellus Academy offers programs in cosmetology, barbering, esthetics, and spa nail technology across campuses in Chula Vista, El Cajon, Poway, and Manhattan, Kansas. Training at Bellus Academy means hands-on education in the Bellus Academy Student Salon and Spa, and the chance to be part of a community that gives back.
Request information at bellusacademy.edu or call 888-990-7094.
