Eddie Kaufman- Mission Graduates

As many of you know, I am the Executive Director of Mission Graduates, an organization committed to ensuring college is the expectation for Mission youth, not the exception.

Our College and Career Center at John O'Connell High School has truly embodied our mission over the last three years.   Through our partnership with Mission Promise Neighborhood, our staff have been embedded with teachers in the classroom, and provide college messaging and college access support to all students at the high school.  And our collective efforts have been paying off:

• 92% of seniors last year applied to college, and 84% of them attended last fall.
• Our current class of 92 seniors have raised over $1.3 Million in college scholarships.
• 88 percent of Latino students graduated in 2016 (compared to 75 percent of Latinos in SFUSD).
• 93 percent of African American students graduated in 2016 (22 percent higher than the rate for African Americans in SFUSD).

As a partner of Mission Promise Neighborhood, it is my honor to raise funds for the Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) Scholarship Fund for graduating seniors at John O'Connell High School located in San Francisco's Mission District. This Spring, I have committed to a fundraising goal of $1,000 to support students in achieving their college dreams. 

An anonymous donor at Mission Graduates has agreed to match all donation that come in this week (by May 8th) up to $1,000.  Please consider a gift in honor of the people in your life who made college possible. 

 Started in the Spring 2016, the MPN Scholarship Fund celebrates four-year, college-bound students who demonstrate financial need, community involvement, and academic achievement with scholarships between $1,500 to $5,000.