FIRST GRADUATE APPOINTS JOSÉ RIVAS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Terri Forman elevated to Senior Director, Philanthropy & Marketing First Graduate Board of Directors are pleased to announce the appointment of José Rivas as First Graduate’s next Executive Director. José brings 25+ years of experience in college access across several positions at University of California, Berkeley. José has
The decision by the President to rescind DACA is shameful and immoral. We stand by our students, 12% of whom are Dreamers. For the last 400 years, this country has been built by immigrants. The president’s own family includes immigrants. Now, he seeks to deny the rights and privileges enjoyed by 800,000 people, primarily under age
On May 20th our First Graduate student Raziel was Youth Speaker and MC at the SFUSD Indian Education Program’s annual event Wisdom Moving Forward. Raziel is a passionate advocate for the American Indian community in San Francisco, and at age 14 he holds the title of SFUSD Indian Education Parent Advisory Committee Student Representative. His work to promote
Congratulations to the 30 First Graduate seniors who are headed off to colleges and universities across the country this fall. We are so proud of all the hard work these students put in throughout the years to make this moment possible. Their college journey may have just begun, but we already can’t wait to see what
In February, our First Graduate students at James Denman Middle School were joined by Rachel Itwaru for our monthly First Gen Speaker Series. Rachel is a business analyst at Salesforce.org, a self-funded social enterprise that provides technology solutions to social-impact organizations. Rachel spoke to our students about her family’s background and challenges, her pathway to
“Without First Graduate, I would have been pretty lost in high school,” says Jacky, a First Graduate senior at Lowell High School. Jacky was one of our featured speakers at a recent event called the High School Choice Panel. At this event, we invited our 8th grade students to listen to a panel of our
Dear Friends, First Graduate’s mission has always been to help students become the first in their families to graduate from college. This is the best way to move families out of poverty and give them the opportunity to achieve their American dreams – just as our parents and grandparents were able to do. What has
Earlier this year, Mark Hamilton and Lauri Paul started the Hamilton/Paul Giving Circle through which they, their family, friends, and colleagues pledged to raise $60,000 a year for 10 years for First Graduate. The giving circle officially launched with an intimate breakfast event where a panel of First Graduate students and alumni spoke to invited
We love talking to students about the importance of going to college, but we love it even more when our students talk to us about it. And that’s the idea behind the Sophomore Symposium, an annual event we recently held with our high school sophomores (or FG 13 as we say around here). It all started
How does it work, and how does First Graduate help? December is an important month for families in San Francisco Unified School District. Unlike other cities where youth simply attend the neighborhood public high school closest to their homes, in San Francisco every family has a choice of where they want their son or daughter
