About Us

Introduction

The College Bound Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1996, pairs mentors, our Coaches with children from San Francisco public housing developments. We begin with children in the first or second grade and work with them through high school graduation. Our goal is to help children succeed in school and eventually go on to college. Each Coach makes a one-year commitment to meet once a week with his or her student for about two hours. Sessions include activities such as helping the student with that evening's homework, reading a book together, a trip to the library, a basketball game, or eating pizza. The concept is to encourage learning by providing a role model and devoting one-on-one attention.

The program is ideal for busy people and the application process is streamlined and easy. (See How to Volunteer.) Meeting times are flexible and can be scheduled for weekends and or evenings. The Coach and child decide on convenient meeting times for both participants.

Our Program Coordinator matches each new Coach with a child, provides an orientation for the Coaches, children and parents, and works to monitor the relationships and progress of all the participants.

The Foundation arranges several activities each year, including a weekend camp trip, a swim party, ice skating, and an opportunity for Coaches to share ideas and experiences.

The Children We Serve

Any child in elementary school and living in San Francisco public housing is eligible to join our program. We do not select children based on grades or aptitude--we only require a desire to achieve and a desire to participate in our program.

The children in our program range from first graders to college students who started in our program more than a decade ago. They all began as low-income, at-risk students living in public housing developments throughout San Francisco. The average income for the children's households is about $12,000 per year. Many children have only one parent or a guardian in their homes. More than half the children are African-American and the others have widely varied ethnic origins.

The children want and need the help this program provides, but unfortunately there are always many more children interested in the program than there are coaches available. If you think you may be interested in this program, or you are just curious about it, please contact us.

Framework for Our Learning Coaches

Every child is unique and every Coach is unique. So there is no cookie-cutter formula for success. Each Coach's creativity, love and perseverance are the best tools. However, more than a decade of experience has taught us that successful Learning Coaches follow some variation of our BAMSS framework. frequently excelling at one two of the goals while remaining cognizant of the others.

Build a relationship.
Advocate for your child with his or her school and teachers,
Monitor his status at school.
Support his educational advancement and extracurricular activities.
Set the bar higher.

Build a relationship This is the foundation for success as a mentor and the cornerstone of our program. A relationship founded on trust, love and respect is the reason a child may follow in the footsteps of his or her mentor and it is the source of the mentor's influence. One-on-one time with the child is the key ingredient for building a relationship, which is why our volunteers meet at least two hours every week with their assigned child. Typical activities include helping the student with that evening's homework, reading a book together, a trip to the library, a basketball game, or eating pizza.

Advocate for your child with his or her school and teachers. Children from low-income families, particularly minority children, are often typecast by teachers as bad students. Compounding this problem, many of the parents are uncomfortable communicating with teachers and school administrators, or simply do not know how or why to do so. Ideally, Coaches should, after obtaining approval by a parent, regularly call the teacher to discuss how the child is performing and what steps the school, Coach and parents could take to improve performance. Even a seemingly uneventful conversation with a teacher may assure the teacher that someone cares and prompt the teacher to make extra efforts to help the child.

Monitor his/her status at school. For example, mentors may ask the child and parents to see his or her report card, spot check homework and tests that have been graded by teachers, and talk with the teacher about the student's performance. There may be a beneficial effect simply from a child knowing that the mentor knows how he or she is doing in school. While a child would never admit it, he will be secretly proud that a mentor cares enough to check on him.

Support his/her extracurricular activities. Children involved in extracurricular activities generally perform better in school and stay out of trouble, so almost all children should be encouraged to become involved and stay involved. Low-income children face many barriers to such involvement, thus they need additional encouragement and assistance. Our program coordinator, Lisa Harris, is an invaluable resource for Coaches trying to help their child overcome these barriers.

Set the bar higher. Love, praise and encouragement are critical, but most children also need someone to let them know they could jump higher, run faster, and get better grades, if only they believed in themselves and worked towards achieving their goals. Of critical importance, the bar for the short-term should be set only a little higher—high enough so that the child can achieve it with some extra work, but not so high that it appears insurmountable. Long-term goals should be loftier, such as a college or post-graduate degree.

These and other guidelines are discussed in greater depth in our Orientation Guide

Our History of Success

Defying overwhelming odds, almost all of the children who entered our program more than a decade ago as 6- to 10-year-olds have graduated high school or obtained their GEDs. About half of them are presently enrolled in college, and not one of them is involved in the crimininal justice system.

Of critical importance, the definition of "success" depends greatly upon the individual child. While academic achievement is one of our goals, an even more important goal for each child is to make better life choices by avoiding crime, teen pregnancy and drugs, and staying in school. For some children, academic success may entail graduating from high school, obtaining a job or developing a trade. For many others, academic success may be much loftier. One of the children who our entered our program as a second grader in 1996, our first year, is a pre-med student at University of California, Santa Barbara. For her, success will be nothing short of reaching her goal of becoming a physician or obtaining a masters degree. Two others who joined our program in 1996 are attending San Francisco City College. For them, success may be obtaining an associates degree. One of our proudest successes is a boy who has been in our program for almost a decade. He attended special education classes through junior high school and high school, routinely earned A's and B's, and just graduated from high school after passing his high school proficiency examination.

One of the most extensive and systematic studies of mentoring was an examination 959 children with a mentor assigned by Big Brothers Big Sisters compared to a control group of children who remained on that organization's waiting list. The study found that after only 18 months, the children with mentors were

52% less likely to skip school
46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
More likely to get along with their families and peers

(See Making a Difference in Schools: The Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Impact Study by Carla Herrera, Jean Baldwin Grossman, Tina J. Kauh, Amy F. Feldman and Jennifer McMaken with Linda Z. Jucovy [August 2007])

Stories by Our Learning Coaches

Matt Kretzer and His Student

Some of our Learning Coaches have written the stories of their experiences to share with prospective volunteers and others interested in our program. Below are stories by several of our long-time Coaches; all have been mentors for at least five years and some have been mentors for over 10 years. Their stories reveal a variety of experiences, a range of successes, periods of frustration, and moments of joy.

Our Finances

The College Bound Foundation operates on a budget of about $100,000 per year. Our primary expenses are compensation and payroll expenses for our part-time program coordinator and part-time President & CEO, expenses for our four annual group events, including our camp trip, insurance, and college scholarships. We pay nothing for rent, computers, copy machines, or postage, which are all donated by Jenkins Goodman Neuman & Hamilton LLP. Of courrse, we are a tax-exempt organization pursuant to section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, thus we depend upon the generous support of our donors.

Our Financial Supporters

We have received support from The Louise and Claude Rosenberg Jr. Family Foundation, Alexander M. and June L. Maisin Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, Presidio Bank, The Gifford Foundation, The Silver Giving Foundation, Maxim Integrated Products, McKesson Corporation, Jenkins Goodman Neuman & Hamilton LLP, our board of directors, and many friends and associates of our board members.

Board of Directors and Officers

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Farley J. Neuman, Chairman of the Board, is a founding partner of Jenkins Goodman Neuman & Hamilton LLP and one of the founders of The College Bound Foundation. He served as the President of the Foundation from its inception in 1996 until September 2009.

Beth Berliner, a former high school counselor and a past program coordinator for The College Bound Foundation, also serves as a member of the board of directors of San Francisco Day School.

Sheila Brown, a former CPA, currently serves as Chair of the Board of the Breast Cancer Fund. She has been a College Bound Coach since 1996, and is one of the founders of The College Bound Foundation.

Sue Partington, a former executive with McKesson Corporation, was a College Bound Coach and is one of the founders of The College Bound Foundation.

Andrea Robb, a leadership coach at Lucasfilm Ltd., has been a College Bound Coach and a Board Member for more than 12 years.

Kelly Walsh, a former CPA, is a financial consultant. She is one of the founders of The College Bound Foundation and has been a College Bound Coach since 1996.

OFFICERS

President & CEO. Bette Perez, who joined us in September 2009, has over 25 years of experience in the non-profit community. Among the highlights of her experience, Bette was the executive director of several non-profits, including St. Vincent DePaul Housing, she served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Healdsburg Boys and Girls Club, and she has been a private consultant for many non-profits.

Chief Financial Officer: Kelly Walsh, CPA.

Controller: Pat Mitchell, CPA.

Secretary: Andrea Robb.

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