First Graduate® Holiday Celebration

Our annual Winter Celebration is an opportunity for the entire First Graduate® family (staff, students, parents, and volunteers) to get together and celebrate the achievements of the year.

This year’s event took place at Everett Middle School (where our current after school programming takes place) and the turnout and energy was unbelievable! We had over 180 people in attendance, including over 50 families.

The highlight of the night (after the amazing potluck meal our Parent’s Association provided) was the awards ceremony where First Graduate® staff got to recognize the outstanding achievement of our students. Here are the awards we gave out this year:

Founder’s Award – This award recognizes the most outstanding student on each program team. These students are role models and exemplify the character strengths that we believe are essential to achieving success in college and in the world beyond.

This year’s award winner are: Lizeth (FG 13, pictured above), Sarah (FG9), and Jonathan (FG5).

Academic Improvement – This award recognizes the student that has the greatest improvement in their grade point average over the last 12 months.

This year’s award winner is: Laura (FG10).

Academic Achievement – This award recognizes the student who demonstrates academic leadership by achieving the highest GPA over the last 12 months.

This year’s award winner are: Annie (FG11), Annie (FG11), Gaby (FG11), Kitty (FG11), Nadia (FG11), Reina (FG11), Ryland (FG11), Samrawit (FG11), Yinia (FG11), BiQi (FG10), Diane (FG10), Julian (FG10), Ariana (FG9), Ceci (FG9), Krystal (FG9), and Sally (FG9).

Commitment To the Program – This award recognizes the First Graduate® students who have shown their commitment to the program by maintaining excellent attendance.

This year’s award winner are: Ethan (FG12), Cristian (FG13), Harrick (FG13), Luke (FG14), Amy (FG14), Diego (FG14), Elizabeth (FG14), and Edward (FG14).

A huge round of applause to all this year’s honorees!

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Born in Peru, Leandro moved to San Francisco as a child and attended Horace Mann Middle School and Lowell High School.
Leandro credits First Graduate® with teaching him valuable life skills, such as time management. He has fond memories of spending hours in the First Graduate® office, working with peers and staff to complete college applications ahead of school deadlines.

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