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Phone: 415-551-2312

PO Box 410715
San Francisco, CA 94141

www.aimhigh.org

Latest Review

Mission

The mission of Aim High is to provide underserved urban youth with challenging, innovative and highly supportive educational programs, most notably our exemplary summer school. The goal of Aim High is to ensure that our students are well-prepared for success in school, have a deep appreciation for their community, and are aware of the issues—personal, local and environmental—that affect their lives. Our vision is to inspire youth to reach for their dreams.

Key Facts

Geographic areas served:

San Francisco, Oakland, Redwood City, and East Palo Alto, CA

Target demographics:

Low-income Bay Area youth ages 11-14; Aim High graduates age 15-19

Results to date:

Through high-quality summer enrichment programs, Aim High has touched the lives of over 5,000 low-income youth in the Bay Area, and has employed over 1,000 teachers - approximately 30% of whom are graduates of the program - over the last two decades. 

Aim High’s impact is significant:

-More than 90% of graduates report that Aim High has helped them to be better prepared to learn in school, make new friends, and be aware of issues that affect their lives. 

-94% of students report maintaining or improving their GPAs since attending Aim High. 

-98% of Aim High’s class of 2002 graduated high school on time in Spring 2006; by comparison, only 71% of students graduated on time in the state of California.

-95% of Aim High grads went on to attend 2- or 4-year colleges.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 2008: 1,100 students at 12 campuses

Obstacles:

Aim High strives to offer high-quality summer learning to every deserving and underserved middle-schooler in the Bay Area, but restrictions on capacity forced us to turn away 300 new applicants in 2008.  Over the next 5 years, Aim High hopes for ambitious expansion, increasing our summer capacity to more than 1,500 students and broadening our programs to include year-round, college-track support throughout high school for small cohorts of Aim High graduates.

Your donation of 100,000 enables us to:

run one Aim High campus for one year

Your donation of 5,000 enables us to:

pay one Master Teacher for one summer

Your donation of 300 enables us to:

support one student for one week

Board Members and Affiliation:

Scott Wu, President
Blue Horizon Equity

David Simpson, Vice President
GoldMail, Inc.

Lawrence K. Weiss, Vice President
Lau Financial Services

Glenn A. Shannon, Treasurer
Shorenstein Properties

Edward G. Poole, Secretary
Anderson & Poole

Albert M. Adams, EdD, Head
Lick-Wilmerding High School

Stephen Davenport
Writer & Volunteer

Brian David
Visage Mobile

Lara Druyan
Allegis Capital

Robert L. Falkenberg
Babcock & Brown

James Harris
Morgan Media Group

James Kalamas
McKinsey & Company

Larry Kane
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe

David A. Lahar
Auriga Partners, Inc

Alec L. Lee, Jr, Executive Director
Aim High

Evernease McKnight
Church & Community Volunteer

Karan A. Merry, Head
St. Paul’s Episcopal School

Yolanda Newman
Tax Advice, Inc.

Adolfo Riedel
SEIU Local 521

Mark Salkind, Director
The Urban School of San Francisco

Hildy Shandell
Genesis Microchip, Inc.

Patrick Tenney
Variant Perception Capital Management

Bruce Wheeler
Retired Banker

Sandra Diane Yuen, PhD
Consultant

Past and Current Funders:

Bank of America
Dept. of Children, Youth, and their Families
Oakland Fund for Children & Youth
Dean Witter Foundation
Gap Foundation & Community Relations
Koret Foundation
Charles McCabe
Oakland Unified School District
Shorenstein Company
Wachovia Foundation
Daniel and Katherine Whalen
Anonymous
Bothin Foundation
Cisco Systems Foundation
East Bay Community Foundation/ Amy Enstein-Barstow Memorial Fund
Bob and Martha Falkenberg
GGS Foundation
Goldman Sachs Foundation
Hellman Family Philanthropic Fund
David Lahar and Julie Westcott
Louis R. Lurie Foundation
Lopez Low Foundation
Morgan Stanley
Pacific Forest & Watershed Lands Stewardship Council
Stephen & Hope Pilch
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Robina & John Riccitiello
San Francisco 49ers Foundation
San Francisco State University
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Silver Giving Foundation
Kimberlee Swig
Patrick and Marney Tenney
Steve & Anita Westly Foundation
Caroline Wood & Seymour Kaufman

Key Staff

Alec L. Lee, Jr., Executive Director
Laura Foulke, Director of Development

Description

Aim High’s summer program is the heart of our work, providing a challenging and supportive tuition-free academic summer school for middle school students from low income communities in the Bay Area.

Programs

For the past 22 years, Aim High has been helping middle school students in the San Francisco Bay Area achieve their dreams by providing a tuition-free summer enrichment program in underserved neighborhoods. Nearly 5,000 students have benefited from Aim High's unique, innovative curriculum that offers challenges and, most importantly, results at a time when students need it most. The Program: There are five main components to Aim High's program outlined in the strategic plan, Vision 2010. The summer school program has always been, and remains, the heart of our work, but other key initiatives build on our strengths and support our mission. These are listed below: * Summer School Program - During the summer session, students participate in academic classes in the morning, attending Math, Science, Humanities, and Issues & Choices (an adolescent development class). Aim High provides each class of sixteen students with a Lead Teacher and a Teaching Intern or Teaching Assistant; this favorable ratio (1:8) of teachers to students allows for individual attention. In the afternoons, students participate in a range of arts, cultural and sports activities. Aim High works with many organizational partners to enrich students' experiences, including: The Urban School, Lick-Wilmerding High School, St. Paul's Episcopal School, Bishop O'Dowd High School, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), the Exploratorium, the San Francisco Zoo, and the newest partner, California State University. Aim High set a goal to grow to at least 12 sites, serving more than 1,200 students by 2010, and will reach that goal in 2008 (two years early). * Student Center - Aim High has created a Student Center to provide tutoring, high school and college placement support, financial aid workshops, and cultural enrichment activities for Aim High students and alumni. * Headlands Environmental Home Program - Aim High will continue to develop the Headlands Environmental Home program in collaboration with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area to increase opportunities and access to the park for urban youth. * Teaching & Learning - Aim High will continue to refine and publish its curriculum and further develop the teacher training component of the program.