This session will present two models of student engagement, leadership, and activism in the effort to drive system, policy, and practice change at community colleges in California and Boston. Students Making Change (SMAC) Fellows will discuss how SMAC – a student-led program that works to create transformative leadership opportunities for community college students in educational policy advocacy, innovative community engagement, and organizing – engages administrators, faculty, staff, trustees, and elected official to advocate for equity and justice at the City College of San Francisco and beyond. At BHCC, the Halting Oppressive Pathways through Education (HOPE) Initiative works to examine and eliminate the social, institutional, and academic barriers that often prevent male students of color from achieving their full potential. The HOPE Initiative, a partnership between students, faculty, staff, and administrators, aims to transform inequitable systems and structures so that Black and Latino male students can thrive, by focusing on research and analysis, gaps in BHCC programs and services, and mentoring. SMAC and HOPE present models of student-centered leadership and youth-adult partnerships that center student voice in the work of transforming policy and practice at community colleges with a goal of creating institutions where students of color can feel meaningful belonging and thrive.