History

Linda Mornell, an adolescent therapist, originally founded Summer Search in 1990 in the San Francisco Bay Area with 14 students. Her idea was to offer low-income students life-changing summer programs; programs that had been so beneficial to her own children. Linda was struck by the challenges these high potential students faced in reconciling their experiences of success and growth during the summer with their lives back at home. Over time, she redefined Summer Search’s mission to emphasize a direct mentoring relationship, in which staff work with students to integrate their new perspectives and leverage them as a basis for changing their life and community circumstances.

In 1995 Katherine Kennedy, after two years with Teach for America, joined Linda and began learning the unique mentoring methods based on self-examination and accountability. Together Katherine and Linda grew the program to serve 150 students annually, and in 1999, Katherine assumed the Executive Director position, expanding the program to include college counseling and bring on new talent to increase and diversify the staff. Linda focused on expanding Summer Search nationally, refining the mentoring methods she had developed to replicate the program with consistency and ensure the same quality results achieved in San Francisco.

Today, San Francisco is the pilot site for new initiatives at Summer Search such as collaborating strategically with our North Bay and Silicon Valley offices to best serve our students and alumni across the Bay Area. Summer Search San Francisco operates with a dedicated staff of fourteen members, including 6 staff who play regional Bay Area roles in outreach, college and financial aid counseling, alumni programming, and development.

2008 PROGRAM SUMMARY

In 2007-2008, Summer Search San Francisco made major strides towards accomplishing our goal of serving students in more low-income neighborhoods in the Bay Area. Our outreach efforts and both new and committed referral partnerships allowed us to work with more students in our target areas of the Tenderloin, Visitation Valley, and Bay View/Hunter’s Point in San Francisco and the Richmond in the East Bay.

Students

• Summer Search San Francisco is serving 198 total students (sophomores, juniors, and seniors)
• 100% of seniors accepted to higher education, 95% of whom are first generation college students (over the last five years 100% of seniors have been accepted to high education)
• 76 schools and nonprofit's in San Francisco and the East Bay nominated students
  

Alumni

• Summer Search San Francisco serves more than 1,000 alumni in the Bay Area.
• Inspired by the 2007 National Alumni Summit, the Bay Area Alumni Board (BAAB) was founded in 2008. The mission of the board is to support Alumni Association initiatives that enable alumni to cultivate their bond with the organization, support each other as alumni, and positively impact their communities.
• In 2007 – 2008 the Alumni Giving Challenge was launched. 124 San Francisco alumni participated in this national challenge, and with a matching grant raised $80,000 towards sustaining Summer Search programming.

Staff

Melissa Rawlins, Executive Director
Hagar Berlin, Bay Area Director of Development
Joni Bissell, Bay Area College Director
Tina Shauf, College and Financial Aid Advisor
Cazzie Brown, Outreach Director
Julia Matsudaira, Program Director
Lissa Healy, Program Associate
Joshua Lauren, Program Associate
Ariel Thompson, Program Associate
Melissa Mayes, Program Associate
Mitch Herz, Program Associate
Lorin Jackson, Program Associate
Cristina Ramirez, Bay Area Alumni Coordinator
Alicia Reza, Bay Area Development Associate
Lea Antonio, Bay Area Events Specialist
Meghan Kirkpatrick, Bay Area Grants Specialist
Sara Lipton-Carey

Melissa Rawlins, Executive Director
Originally from Maine, Melissa graduated from Yale University in 2001 with a BA in Psychology. At Yale, she participated in a variety of community service activities, including co-creating and co-coordinating a College Resource Center at Hillhouse High. This experience helped spark her interest in education and working with at-risk populations. She joined the staff of Summer Search Boston as a Program Associate in 2001 and became Associate Director of the Boston office in 2005. Under the leadership of Boston Executive Director Emily Edwards, she helped oversee the office's most recent growth, increasing the new student class by 60% and taking the office from a staff of 4 in 2004 to 12 in 2006. Melissa moved into the role of Executive Director of Summer Search San Francisco in July of 2006.

Hagar Berlin, Bay Area Director of Development
Hagar was born in Israel and lived in the Netherlands as a young child, but spent most of her youth growing up Queens, New York. Hagar attended college at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. After graduation, she returned to New York where she began her fundraising career at Urban Education Exchange, a non-profit that partners with inner city schools to improve reading instruction. In 2004, Hagar relocated to San Francisco where she joined the development team at Jumpstart for Young Children, a national early childhood education non-profit. Hagar served as Jumpstart’s Development Director, securing the organization's operating budget in California and Washington States and spearheading Jumpstart’s annual Read for the Record Campaign. In 2009, Hagar left Jumpstart to pursue a Masters of Education with a focus on Policy and Organization Leadership Studies at Stanford University. Upon graduating from Stanford, Hagar was thrilled to join Summer Search as the new Bay Area Director of Development, charged with supporting fundraising efforts in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and the North Bay.

Joni Bissell , Bay Area College Director
Joni grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from Wells College, New York with a BA in Art History. After graduation, she worked at Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri's architectural experiment in planned communities. Over the past thirty years, Joni has lived with her husband, Ted, in Mill Valley, where they raised three sons-- Owen, Evan, and Eric. While her sons were in school, she served on local boards, as well as volunteered extensively for Marin schools and the community. She has continued her work as an artist. Joni first became involved with Summer Search as a volunteer, joining the staff in 2003. In 2008 she became the Bay Area College Director, using her expertise to oversee college and financial aid advising for Summer Search students served by our Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and North San Francisco Bay offices.

Tina Shauf, College and Financial Aid Advisor
Tina was born in a US Air Force Base in Angeles City, Philippines. She left the Philippines at the age of 2 and was raised in Hawthorne, California, in Los Angeles County. After attending Leuzinger High School, she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Social Welfare with an emphasis in Sociology at UC Berkeley. As a first-generation college student, she found UC Berkeley’s social and academic environment challenging. She then created her own network of support by being an organizer in the Pilipino American Alliance, while serving on the board of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation from 2003-2006. In more recent years, she has been working with Babae (“woman” in Tagalog), an organization committed to empowering Filipinas through education and advocating for women’s rights. She discovered Summer Search’s amazing work through her close friend Jaylyn Silvestre, a Summer Search alumna, and was drawn to Summer Search’s curiosity and belief in the healthy growth of young people. She is honored to be a part of this family!

Cazzie Brown, Outreach Coordinator
Cazzie Brown has a long history with Summer Search. In 1997, she was accepted into the program as a high-school student and traveled to Minnesota for a Russian Language Program, and to Ukraine for community service and a host-family stay. In 2004, Cazzie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Redlands, as a first-generation college graduate. She studied within the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies where she developed her own major in Cultural Studies and Psychology with an emphasis in creating structures for social change and personal growth. As the first Outreach Coordinator for Summer Search in the Bay Area, Cazzie brings a background in social justice work and in the non-profit community. Before joining Summer Search, Cazzie worked as a Senior Case Manager at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking in Los Angeles, and most recently at the Fulfillment Fund, a college access and mentoring organization for inner city youth also in Los Angeles.

Julia Matsudaira, Program Director
Julia spent her childhood in upstate New York and North Carolina. She earned her B.A. from Wesleyan University, where she majored in East Asian Studies, with concentrations in Japan and Cultural Anthropology. During college, Julia kindled her passion for leadership development and experiential education by serving as a counselor at NCCJ’s Anytown – a social justice leadership program for teenagers – and volunteer teaching at a bilingual, bicultural school in Okinawa while studying abroad in Japan. Upon graduating, Julia spent four years supporting youth leaders and young educators through several nonprofit organizations in the Greater Boston area. Julia joined the Summer Search team as Program Associate after relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2006. She remains excited by the challenge and opportunity of Summer Search’s unique leadership development methods to engender lasting, positive change in the lives of students and staff alike!

Lissa Healy, Program Associate
Lissa was born and raised in Honolulu, HI, where she was introduced to the power of experiential education when she participated in a Peer Counseling program and completed her first high ropes course. She studied arts and cultures at Williams College, as well as in Viet Nam and parts of Europe. After graduating with a B.A. in Sociology, and engaging students in a variety of academic and adventure programs, she moved to San Francisco and worked at a youth arts and technology museum for two years. Lissa joined Summer Search National as an Office Manager in January of 2007, and became a Program Associate with the San Francisco office in September of 2007. She appreciates the growth and opportunity that come from all aspects of Summer Search's mission, and is thrilled to be involved with such an inspiring community.

Joshua Lauren, Program Associate
Joshua was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned his B.A from Skidmore College, where he majored in American Studies and Government. During college, Joshua found a passion for education, leadership development, and mentoring. At Skidmore he played lacrosse, and worked as a peer mentor and tutor. Joshua also participated in a number of community service and social justice activities. Upon graduating from Skidmore Joshua spent two years with Teach For America, teaching Middle School English and Social Studies, and coaching basketball on the Navajo Nation. Having recently relocated to the Bay Area, Joshua is thrilled to join the Summer Search family and share his passion for education, youth leadership, and community development.

Ariel Thompson, Program Assocaite
Ariel is originally from Providence, Rhode Island, where she grew up the third eldest of seven children. Ariel attended Brown University and received an ScB in Human Biology with a focus in health education. It was during college that Ariel realized her passion for working with youth and expanding educational opportunities for all students. She spent three summers teaching math and biology to middle school students with Breakthrough Collaborative out here in San Francisco. Upon graduating in 2007, she spent two years working as a clinical research assistant with the HIV prevention team at Rhode Island Hospital, and tutored high school students part-time. Newly relocated to San Francisco, Ariel is very excited to be back in the city, and join the Summer Search team. She is looking forward to working with youth in a new, more close-knit capacity in her role as mentor, and being a part of a supportive team devoted to helping students achieve their fullest potential.

Melissa Mayes, Program Associate
Melissa Mayes is originally from Colorado. A mountain girl at heart, she has spent time enjoying the coasts as well-- for her undergraduate work, she went to Pepperdine University, in Malibu, California, where she became interested in social justice issues through work experiences as a Volunteer Coordinator with the Pepperdine Volunteer Center, as well as courses in a Social Action and Justice Colloquium in which she took part. Based on these experiences, she created her own major in Social Awareness and Activism. Being a first-generation college student, issues of access to education have been close to her heart, which is why she went back to work for federal college access TRIO programs in Colorado after graduating, and also, why she decided to go on to graduate school in Boston at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in the Risk & Prevention program. She is excited to apply what she's learned in this program to continue to work with first-generation students in Summer Search on issues of educational access and social justice, and is excited to be moving somewhere where the weather (unlike in Boston) will allow her to enjoy being outside a little more-- biking, hiking, and going to farmer's markets.

Mitch Herz, Program Associate
Mitch was born and raised in rural Nebraska as the oldest of four children. He earned his B.A. in Psychology from Grinnell College in Iowa, where he ran cross country and track and worked in the admission office. His work giving tours and speaking with prospective students at Grinnell along with his background as a first-generation college student sparked an interest in college access among underrepresented populations. Upon graduating, he expanded on these interests by taking a position in the Connecticut College admission office. While working at Connecticut College, Mitch also became involved with College Horizons, an organization that helps prepare Native American students for the college application process. After three years in Connecticut, he then spent a year in Cleveland as a teacher, college counselor, and coach. Eventually, though, his desire to work with low-income youth and help address the socioeconomic gaps within the education system was too much to resist. He is excited about the work Summer Search does on a daily basis and is proud to join the close-knit team of mentors.

Lorin Jackson, Program Associate
Lorin Jackson is proudly from New York. She attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where she received her BA in Philosophy and Education. While in college, Lorin tutored students from Philadelphia and served as a Senior Writing Coordinator for the Mentors as Student Teachers (MAST) program. During her time at MAST, she taught how to create in-depth writing intervention plans for students, recruited qualified tutors, and led a team of writing coordinators. Most recently, she was a College Literacy Tutor, Instructional Aid, and Advisor at Envision Academy High School in Oakland.  One of her many achievements at Envision was helping 80 high school students at a 3rd grade reading level progress to at least 9th grade proficiency. As far as her personal interests, Lorin enjoys acting, is a DJ, singer, drummer, and loves to travel. She is excited to work with students and staff, as well as continue to strive to be a more responsible, altruistic leader.

Cristina Ramirez, Bay Area Alumni Coordinator
Cristina has a BA in Psychology and an Ethnic studies certificate from University of San Francisco, and a Masters in Social Work from San Jose State, with an emphasis in schools and special education. Before joining Summer Search, she worked as a clinical social worker in the community-based agency, La Clinica de la Raza, with children, youth, adults, and their families. She first learned about the strength and uniqueness of Summer Search through her brother’s experiences as a Summer Search student. Cristina joined the San Francisco office in 2002 as a Program Associate and within two years became the Program Director. She continued to mentor students, and managed and trained staff to ensure program quality. In 2007, Cristina became the Associate Director of Summer Search North Bay, partnering with the Executive Director to hire and train mentors to increase student capacity. Under Cristina’s leadership they doubled mentors, implemented training structures that have allowed staff to learn the mentoring in a third of the time as in the past. Cristina also helped increase second year student retention rates from 80% to over 90% each year. Fall 2009 Cristina transitioned to a new role as the Bay Area Alumni Coordinator and is excited to oversee the success of the Alumni Program

Alicia Reza, Bay Area Development Associate
Alicia was born and raised in Orange, California. She graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Sociology and a focus on the evolution and reform of the juvenile justice system. During her time in Santa Cruz, Alicia developed a passion for non-profits after working and volunteering for a variety of medical and community organizations. She came to Summer Search in January 2008 and has enjoyed growing into a fundraising role that allows her to work with the larger community in support of our students. The child of two educators, Alicia was raised to value education but also to understand the inequalities in the system. She was initially drawn to Summer Search because of the unique way the program helps young people create opportunities for themselves. She continues to be inspired daily by Summer Search students.

Lea Antonio, Bay Area Events Specialist
Lea Antonio was born in the Philippines, and moved to Los Angeles, California, with her family at the age of three. As the youngest of four children, Lea witnessed the daily challenges, and also accomplishments, of her typical first-generation immigrant family. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, and spent the next few years as a corporate librarian for a software company in Pasadena. In 1992, she joined Fox Broadcasting Company, where she spent several years in corporate event production and coordination, and continued to work freelance as an event designer after the birth of her two children. Now living in the Bay Area, Lea is excited to join the Summer Search team.

Meghan Kirkpatrick, Bay Area Grants Specialist
Meghan grew up in San Jose, California. She received a BA in American Literature and Culture from University of California, Los Angeles and an MA in English Literature from San Jose State University. During college, Meghan spent a year studying Spanish Literature in Granada, Spain. She loved living abroad and decided to join the Peace Corps after college, where she served as an Environmental Education volunteer in Bolivia. Before joining Summer Search, Meghan taught in various settings, including Dahl Elementary School, Almaden Tutoring Club, and San Jose State University. After a year and a half as a Program Associate for Summer Search Silicon Valley, Meghan is excited to join the Bay Area Development Team as the Grants Specialist. She looks forward to sharing her passion for Summer Search’s work with foundations and corporations throughout the Bay Area.

Sara Lipton-Carey
Sara was born and raised in Evanston, Illinois and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she studied Elementary Education and Spanish. Her interest in experiential education started at a YMCA camp in Michigan. After attending as a camper, and completing two life-changing wilderness adventure programs, she became a counselor and lead six wilderness adventure programs. Most recently, Sara has been teaching elementary school in Berkeley, but wanted to be able to focus more on experiential learning and alternative learning styles. Sara feels Summer Search is a perfect way to accomplish this!