I’m thankful for the support of the families who signed up for family mini sessions with me in the fall of 2018. I donated $100 from each session for a total of $1200 to Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo . Thank you so much to all my wonderful families who made this possible!
When East Palo Alto's only high school closed in 1976, students were bussed to high schools in neighboring, more affluent towns. Through the placement process, these students were assigned to non-college track classes. The results were dramatic: 65% of students from East Palo Alto dropped out of high school. Of the 35% who did graduate, less than 10% enrolled in four-year colleges.
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Stanford graduate Chris Bischof (now the Principal!) was convinced there was another way. As an undergraduate, Chris had started an after-school program for East Palo Alto elementary students that linked participation in basketball with daily tutoring. But Shoot for the Stars, as the program was called, could only take these students so far.
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In 1996, together with his Stanford Teachers Education Program classmate and fellow teacher Helen Kim (now she’s the Vice Principal), he welcomed eight ninth graders to Eastside College Preparatory School. They didn’t have a campus or even a permanent meeting space, so they met first at a picnic table in a park, and soon moved to a room at Plugged In, a computer learning center, then camped out at a local nonprofit, Families in Transition.A generous donor offered a 1.6-acre lot in East Palo Alto (near IKEA).
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100% of the Class of 2018 was admitted to four-year colleges or universities. 99% of students are the first in their families to go to college. Eastside is committed to closing the achievement gap for first-generation college-bound students and opening new doors for students historically underrepresented in higher education. Eastside students who are the first in their families to go to college create a ripple effect, changing their own lives, the lives of their families, and the life of their community.
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To date, every Eastside graduate has gone on to a four-year college. I’m proud to support the efforts of this school.
Eastside’s rating is tops on Charity Navigator, another thing I research when considering worthy organizations. They receive all of their money from donations, gifts, and grants (no government funding) and their Principal receives less than 2% of the money.
