UC Berkeley’s
NAF Future Ready Scholars:
A Message of Gratitude
Fund II Foundation’s investment in the Graduate School of Education’s NAF Future Ready Scholars program brings together the nationally—and internationally—recognized strengths of UC Berkeley as a STEM powerhouse, combined with one of the nation’s top schools of education.
The program has been developed with a commitment to equity and access for those students farthest from opportunity. We are grateful for your commitment to partner with us in building well designed pathways to college and STEM careers for our scholars.
Marrio, 11th Grade (Vallejo)
It is amazing to hear from you once again. I just want to take this time to thank you for the opportunity and the knowledge you have given me. The program has taught me so many things whether it’s working with people or different career paths. I greatly appreciate the stipend, along with everything you have given me. I already put to use the masks and gloves you provided us with and I will continue to do so. I hope you and your family have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving as well. I hope to see you next year. Thank you again.
Marrio Davis
Celeste, 11th grade (Porterville)
I can’t thank you enough for everything you and everyone in this program has rewarded me with. I feel like I’d be lost without your help and supportive messages. The information and everything I’ve learned from the program has enlightened me and shined the light to so many other things you can’t imagine. You’re like my family who just keeps on giving us presents that are irreplaceable. The way COVID has impacted us is very harsh but this program has softened the blow, making me and my family feel better. I love you all and wish to see you soon.
Celeste Vargas
Maria, mother of Jesse, 11th grade (Fresno)
OMG!! Thank you so much! Please give my regards to everyone who has been working on this project. We are thankful for being a part of the UC Berkeley family and being able to receive such a gift. I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving.
Jesse Rojas
Mila, mother of Brandon, 11th grade (Porterville)
Thank you for this awesome news that had me in tears for all that you do for the scholars and their families. Thanks to the incredible team you have at UC Berkeley. As you already know, we The Garcia Family, are so grateful for your friendship and for being a superhuman being. We love everything you do and all the hard work you put to help in any way. We are so grateful for you and all the UC Berkeley staff. You guys Rock!!!!!!
Brandon Garcia
Our First Day: A Long-Term Investment in Their Future
Scholars arrived on campus in July of 2019 for their three-week residency—many of them having never visited UC Berkeley, and most of them never having been away from home for an extended period of time. We prepared everyone—including parents, guardians, and relatives—for the separation, noting this was a warm up for EVERYONE in the family for what it would feel like to have their loved one leave home for college. Parents, siblings, and guardians were given the opportunity to ride to and from campus on the busses so that entire families could experience move in day for their loved one.
The scholars lived in the dorms, were assigned to Resident Advisors who were scholars from the STEM Program SMASH, a collaborative partner organization committed reaching students traditionally underrepresented in STEM.
The Inaugural Summer 2019 Residency
The program provides scholars with rigorous STEM educational coursework, academic mentoring relationships, leaders of color as role models, college prep and planning tools, as well as a clear roadmap of how to achieve the dream of a college degree and a STEM career.
The first week included many team building activities and taking their first of three STEM classes (Solar Science, Computer Programming, and Citizen Science which included air, soil and water quality monitoring). Scholars had afternoon and evening programming, including learning the program’s core values (Excellence in STEM Education, Community/Teamwork, Leadership, Social Justice, and Sustainability), as well as Above the Line/Below the Line behavior. The rest of each week included sessions on preparing for college life, evening guest speakers, study time and study skills (including time management), and Fun Fridays which included exploring campus and the surrounding community.
Core Values - NAF Future Ready Scholars
credit: SMASH.org
UC Berkeley
& The Graduate School of Education
Transforming Lives
Fueling Social Mobility
Changing the World
NAF Future Ready Scholars at Berkeley have a front row seat for fireside chats with some of today’s leading thinkers, including recent engagements with the new head of the National Institutes of Health Brain Initiative, Dr. John Ngai, as well as new neuroscience research faculty at Berkeley, Dr. Andrea Gomez and Dr. Diana Bautista. Being able to have role models who share their racial identity is critical to signaling a sense of belonging, and in particular for women of color college students. Feeling like you belong leads to persistence in STEM.
UC Berkeley is internationally renowned for excellence and pioneering achievements across all disciplines. At the heart of its preeminence are Berkeley’s professors, who are highly distinguished researchers and scholars — and leading experts in their fields. In 2020, Berkeley was named the No. 1 public institution in U.S. News & World Report’s global rankings.
credit: created by NAF Cohort One
After three weeks living in the dorms (and eating dorm food!), walking up and down the hilly Berkeley campus to get to and from classes, exploring famous Telegraph Avenue in downtown Berkeley, the Mission District in San Francisco, and the beautiful Pacific Ocean beaches just past the Golden Gate Bridge, students came together with their families, faculty, RAs and Berkeley staff to celebrate their accomplishments. They prepared this video for the closing ceremony.
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What we learned after the first summer:
Fund II Foundation Together with UC Berkeley Influences the Trajectory of our Scholars’ Lives
We learned a lot after our first summer, our evaluation results offer promising programmatic insights that demonstrate effectiveness and benefits for our scholars.
The Pathway to a STEM Degree & Career
The road to a STEM degree and career has key benchmarks and is littered with barriers and potholes, particularly for Black and Latinx students.
credit: The Research Group, The Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley
COVID-19 Impact on the Summer 2020 Residency
As soon as it became obvious we would not be able to return to campus, we assembled an expanded team of collaborators—including our district partners—to begin planning for a summer virtual residency that would be as engaging as it was educational, and one that was rooted in equity and a deep understanding of the situations each of our scholars was dealing with at home.
We quickly determined that even though every scholar had access to a Chromebook, not all Chromebooks could handle the software we needed to use. We created a tech support app specifically for our scholars, and provided fee-free hotspots where necessary. We mobilized a team to order, format and deliver the laptops to each community in a very short timeframe. In addition, we provided noise cancelling headphones, branded personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, and wipes, and sent lots of feel-good and practical swag to help our students deal with the loss of their summer at UC Berkeley.
We knew we couldn’t just Zoom existing programming if we were to address our scholars’ needs and home situations. We redesigned the program from top to bottom in collaboration with our partners, brought in the highly regarded Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP) from the Berkeley Graduate School of Education (GSE) to develop and teach new STEM content (neuroscience, chemistry, and computer science).
We partnered with Berkeley Educators for Equity & Excellence (BE3) on morning and afternoon community building, collaborated with community partner the Hidden Genius Project to have youth educators teach entrepreneurship and coding to our scholars.
We also added college prep and study skills, provided a group of tutors with subject matter expertise, and brought on a coordinator to act as the academic administrator managing the range of faculty, tutors, and elective instructors.
In spite of COVID-19 and the disparities in our scholars’ access to technology, according to our preliminary evaluation data, the summer was a huge success. The scholars were quite surprised by how much they enjoyed the virtual residency and how much they learned after their initial hesitation about participating in a virtual summer program. Perhaps one of the greatest silver linings was our scholars feeling ready to hit the ground running with Zoom and their laptops for the academic year.
This year as part of their capstone project, we asked them to make self-portraits. Like many of our scholars, we are starting to observe them seeing themselves as doctors, researchers, and programmers, among other STEM careers, as you can see in these self-portraits. Scholars presented their self-portraits to the community of partners, parents, family members and friends in our closing ceremony.
Scholar Self-Portrait
The staff at the Graduate School of Education and ATDP, care about me and my future. This program is impacting my family and my future. Thank you UC Berkeley!
Treasure Franklin, Fresno
Scholar Self-Portrait
SUPER shout out to those who did the program this summer while also taking care of siblings, cousins, parents, and other family members. That's no joke and takes a lot of courage and compassion. #stayready.
Aukeem Ballard,
Staff & PhD Student at the GSE
Amazing message and donations. Thank you so much for all the gifts and opportunities so far! And more thanks to Fund II Foundation for the generous donations.
James Emmanuel Geronimo,
Antioch
We share this update with Fund II Foundation as a message of gratitude, hope, and optimism in these dark times.
Thank you for helping us light the path for our scholars on their journey to college and STEM Careers.
As Berkeley's motto, Fiat Lux says, Let There Be Light!