College Signing Day celebrates African American seniors' post-secondary plans

Posted Date

College Signing Day celebrates African American seniors' post-secondary plans

Press release

What

SFUSD will hold the African American Reach Higher: College Signing Day to celebrate African American students who have made plans to attend college or professional training program next year. The Reach Higher Initiative is part of former First Lady Michelle Obama's effort to inspire every student in America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school. The event is hosted by the African American Parent Advisory Council and community-based organizations, and is supported by SFUSD's African American Achievement and Leadership Initiative (AAALI).

When/Where

Wednesday, May 9 / 5:30 - 8 p.m.
McLaren Complex at University of San Francisco / 2130 Fulton St.

Why

Over the last three years, SFUSD has seen a 7% increase in the 4-year graduation rate for African American students. This is the result of both college readiness programming and timely enrollment in credit recovery classes.

Audio/Visual

Three graduating Mission High students, who are among those being celebrated at Wednesday's event, are available for interviews from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday. Media, please contact Laura Dudnick at dudnickl@sfusd.edu​ if interested in interviewing the students.

Robert Lee III,​ 18, next year will attend Dillard University, where his sister currently goes. Robert wants to play basketball, hopefully for the NBA—but he's got plenty of backup plans. At college, he wants to study communications or kinesiology. Robert's father passed away when Robert was 5, and Robert credits his father with helping inspire Robert to play sports. Robert is also a mentor to younger students at Mission to show them the value of working hard in school.

Lauren McCoy, 18,​ will attend San Francisco State University next year to study nursing. She is the youngest out of 10 siblings. Lauren took AP Spanish while in 10th grade, and is currently enrolled in AP Statistics and AP English, as well as Honors Ethnic studies. For Lauren, senior year has been especially challenging but she has proven to herself that no matter how hard, she won't give up.

Kaloni Price, 17,​ will also attend Dillard University next year. Seeing violence in her San Francisco neighborhood—Kaloni lost two cousins to violence while growing up—has inspired her to want to study criminal justice in college. She hopes to become a prosecutor or homicide detective one day to help victims of violence seek justice.

About AAALI

The African American Achievement and Leadership Initiative (AAALI) was established to provide recommendations to interrupt the inequitable pattern of outcomes for African American students in SFUSD.

Page updated on 05/10/18