Summerbridge San Francisco 2010!

Welcome to Summerbridge San Francisco at University High School!

For over 30 years, Summerbridge has provided tuition-free academic enrichment and advocacy to motivated public and parochial middle

school students. Summerbridge is committed to equity in education for all students and to making the best educational opportunities available to students with limited resources.

Summerbridge has two goals:

• To prepare motivated and talented public and parochial students with limited educational opportunities to enter and thrive in academically-challenging high schools, colleges, and beyond
• To provide meaningful teaching opportunities for high school and college students who serve as Summerbridge teachers thereby  encouraging them to consider entering the field of education.

Program:
Summerbridge involves a full-time summer academic enrichment session and a school-year academic program. Students attend the six-week summer session over three consecutive summers and spend two years with Summerbridge during the school year. During the summer, students take classes in math, writing, social studies, international languages, and science as well as public speaking, health education, environmental education and numerous non-academic electives which include the arts and athletics. The school-year academic program features academic enrichment courses in math and English, after-school tutoring and homework help, high school counseling and Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT) preparation.

Summerbridge embraces a "students teaching students" philosophy. Most classes during the summer are designed and taught by a staff of local high school students and college students from prestigious colleges across the country. These older students lead almost every aspect of the program and plan nearly all of the activities, events and field trips. Professional teachers with extensive experience in education serve as mentors for the student teachers. In addition, courses in Math and English will be taught by experienced teachers with the aid of high school assistant teachers. The commitment to "students teaching students" remains the same as it ensures that Summerbridge remains an energetic exciting, and creative environment for students and teachers alike.

Summerbridge has transformed the lives of over 1,200 middle school students and nearly 650 high school and college-age "teachers".

• 95% of Summerbridge students have enrolled in academically rigorous college preparatory high schools
• 90% of our students have gone on to four-year colleges and have pursued careers in medicine, business, law, art, and education.
• 72% of Summerbridge teachers have gone on to work or volunteer in schools or other organizations that promote educational equity.

Participants of the program describe Summerbridge  best: "Summerbridge taught me how to be more confident and how to succeed in eighth grade," one student told us; "my daughter went from a very average student to an A-student all because of Summerbridge," said a parent of one of our ninth grade students; and one of our former students turned teacher summarized her Summerbridge experience with "SB was the key stepping stone to my success...If it weren't for my involvement in the program as a student and teacher, I would not be where I am today".

Summerbridge History:
In 1978, founding head of San Francisco University High School, Dennis Collins and two pioneering faculty members, Lois Loufbourrow, and Mal Singer, envisioned a program that would utilize the resources of University High School to serve the city of San Francisco. They imagined a program for motivated yet under-supported middle school students from the public schools – students with an interest in school and potential but who seemed to be either under-challenged by their schools or struggling with academics and in need of inspiration. The program would be innovative, interactive, diverse and full of spirit. The students in the program would understand that learning was essential, fun and that academic success was rewarding and empowering. The goal would be to ensure that each student in the program would leave with the confidence and academic skills to thrive at any college preparatory high school program.

In the early years, high school students served as teacher’s aides to the professional faculty, but it became increasingly clear that the student-teachers had a remarkable influence on the Summerbridge students. The “students teaching students” model also had several goals including encouraging more young people to pursue careers in education related fields and to recruit more teachers of color into the workforce.

In 1989 Summerbridge San Francisco received a grant to expand the program nationally and in 1990 Summerbridge New Orleans was founded. Today there are over 25 Summerbridge programs around the country and even two programs in Hong Kong all under the auspices of  The Breakthrough Collaborative.