Welcome to Year Up, San Francisco Bay Area.

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT YEAR UP SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA?
ATTEND AN OPEN HOUSE:
Year Up San Francisco Bay Area holds Open Houses for prospective students and those interested in the student application process who want to learn more about the program. To speak with an admissions representative about coming to an Open House please call (415) 512-7588 x3506. Our location is 210 Spear Street, San Francisco.

CONTACT US: Please reach out to us for any questions you have, or to set-up a visit to our site.

URL: http://www.yearup.org/apply/application.htm

WHAT'S NEW
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE March 2012 CLASS!
Year Up Bay Area is now accepting applications for our next class that begins March 2012 and graduates January 2013. To begin the application process, please fill out an interest form or contact Anita, Outreach and Admissions Coordinator, at 415-512-7588 ext. 3504. You can also email us at sfbayadmissions@yearup.org.

Year Up Bay Area featured in The Institute for a Competitive Workforce website
On, September 24, 2010 The Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW) an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, featured and article on their website about Wells Fargo and Year Up offering internships and career counseling to local youths in the San Francisco area. Click here to read the full article.

Year Up Bay Area is proud to welcome the Class of July 2012

On September 5, 2011, Year Up Bay Area proudly kicked off Orientation Week for its seventh class. We are so proud to work with such a bright and talented group of 80 young adults from all over the San Francisco Bay Area.

Year Up Bay Area awarded 40 round-trip tickets by Southwest Airlines to help close the Opportunity Divide!
Click here to learn more.

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OFJULY 2011

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WHO WE SERVE
Year Up is a FREE, 12-month, full-time professional technology program for 18-24 year olds with a high school diploma or a GED who live in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Year Up strives to close the opportunity divide by providing young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower participants to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. 

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EVENTS
There are no events currently at Year Up Bay Area.

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OPEN HOUSE FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS
To learn more about the Year Up program, meet current students, and pick up materials, come to an upcoming Year Up Open House every Wednesday at 1:00pm at our site in San Francisco’s Financial District. We are located at 210 Spear Street at Howard (near Embarcadero Muni/BART):

View Larger Map

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BAY AREA Local Technical Board
The Local Technical Board provides Year Up with expert advice on the skills needed at technology-driven companies throughout the Bay Area. Year Up uses this information to shape its curriculum and meet evolving market demand.

• John Witchel
  Chief Technology Officer
  SendMe
• Ed Solomon
  IT & Healthcare Staffing Industry Executive

National Board of Directors

national Technical Board

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CONTACT US
Address:
Year Up San Francisco Bay Area
210 Spear Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Phone and Fax Information:
Phone:415-512-7588
Admissions: 415-512-7588 ext. 3506
Fax:415-512-7950

For driving directions:

For general questions, contact:
Phil Robinson
415-512-7588 ext. 3503

For questions about becoming a Year Up student, contact:
Anita Lovaincy
Year Up San Francisco Bay Area Admissions Team
sfbayadmissions@yearup.org
415-512-7588 ext. 3504

To hire a Year Up intern, contact:
Sahaar Rezaie
srezaie@yearup.org
415-512-7588 ext. 3516

To invest in or donate to Year Up, contact:
Lori Quinn
lquinn@yearup.org
415-512-7588 ext. 3511

Media Inquiries, Contact:
Roberto Zeledon
Senior Director of Marketing & Communications
rzeledon@YearUp.org
617-542-1533 ext. 1563

Volunteer Opportunities
We are fortunate to have a strong community of caring, committed volunteers. There are many ways to volunteer with us:

• Time commitment: Monday, Tuesday or Thursday 3:30-4:30pm or Wednesday 11:30-1:00pm. Ideally, tutors could be available on a regular basis over the course of three months.
• Topics: business communications – professional emails, cover letters, resumes, PowerPoint presentations. Technology: Microsoft Office applications, concepts in hardware and networking.

Mentor
Mentors are paired up with students to provide support throughout the Year Up program. Our Year Up mentors are professionals who can commit to meeting with their mentees once a month and communicate via email /phone more frequently. The site also sponsors a number of events for mentors and mentees during the eight month commitment. Mentors should have at least two years of work experience. To apply to be a Year Up mentor, please complete the following application.

Guest Speaker
Every Friday afternoon, Year Up hosts a guest speaker who shares his or her story with the young adults in our program. Generally, the speaker discusses his career path by touching upon themes that might resonate with our young adults (importance of persistence, finding good mentors, etc.). There is a standing time slot for guest speakers on Friday afternoons 12:30-1:45pm, but other guest speaking arrangements can be made.

Guest Lecturer
Have expertise in Excel? Public speaking? Interviewing? Networking? We're always happy to work with folks who are interested in coming in to lecture or lead a workshop on a topic with our current students or apprentices. For times, dates and topics, please contact Sarah Jo Szambelan at
sszambelan@yearup.org.

If you have any questions or if you are interested in any of these volunteer opportunities, please complete our volunteer interest form. We are very fortunate to have a strong community of committed, caring volunteers, and we hope to add you to that list.

Year Up “Champion.”
Have an interest or area of expertise that falls outside tutoring and mentoring? Champions have helped us with our clothing drives, marketing/ PR, real estate analysis, event planning and other efforts. Let us know how you would like to help, and we’ll match your interests with our needs.

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OUR TEAM, SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

Jay Banfield
Executive Director
Jay Banfield was raised in Somerville, Massachusetts. Jay moved to California in 1986 to attend Stanford University, where he met his wife Kate. They have two daughters, Grace and Dray, and a son, Aidan.

After playing baseball in Europe, Jay began his career as a business development manager at Oracle Corporation in Washington, DC. While at Oracle, he built corporate volunteer programs and participated in the launch of the Clinton Administration's AmeriCorps program, thereby prompting a return to the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a Master in Public Policy (MPP) degree.

Jay has worked on local, state and national political campaigns and has served in both the legislative and executive branches of government. Jay was appointed the Assistant Treasurer for the City and County of San Francisco in 1999 where he spearheaded a national award-winning e-government initiative. He was awarded the city's Public Managerial Leadership Award in 2001 and later was appointed an Assistant General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. For several years Jay served as an adjunct faculty member at the Edward S. Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University.

In the fall of 2005, Jay moved to the non-profit sector when he became the Executive Director of the San Francisco Parks Trust. Now serving on the board of the San Francisco Parks Trust, he moved on to launch the San Francisco Bay Area office of Year Up. In addition to his work as Executive Director at Year Up Bay Area, Jay remains an active member of the community. Trained as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), Jay served on the board of San Francisco CASA for five years, serving one term as co-chair of the board. Jay has also served as a trustee at the San Francisco Friends School and coach of numerous youth athletic teams.

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SUSAN BALLATI
Senior Development Consultant
Susan was born in San Francisco and is a Bay Area native. She graduated from Santa Clara University, received her secondary teaching credential from San Francisco State University (SFSU), and began her career as a high school social studies teacher in Vallejo. She earned an M.P.A. from SFSU, and worked in Silicon Valley for over ten years as a marketing communications professional in several high tech electronics companies. She segued into the non-profit sector as Director of Development for the Santa Fe Institute, an interdisciplinary research and education organization. Susan moved back to San Francisco in 2007 and worked for four years at The J. David Gladstone Institutes as Senior Director of Development. In addition to her fundraising duties, Susan organized and managed public lecture series at both the Santa Fe Institute and Gladstone, and at Gladstone co-directed their Diversity Committee. In 2005, she received her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico with a research focus on interdisciplinary communication and collaboration.

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ULDOUZ BERENJFOROUSH
Operations Coordinator
Uldouz received her B.A. in Political Economy in 2009 from UC Berkeley with an emphasis on Globalization. As a proud Cal Bear, she was consistently involved with student activities on campus; she founded two student organizations focused on cultural and educational development and also published a student-run magazine. Uldouz began working with her community and with students from diverse backgrounds during high school. Before coming to Year Up, she worked with the San Mateo Youth Foundation as an Outreach Director. Uldouz is very excited to be part of Year Up’s successful, hardworking, and enthusiastic team.

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marcus colina
IT Instructor
Marcus Colina joins the San Francisco staff after serving as an IT Instructor at Year Up NYC. He brings a wealth of knowledge about Year Up students, staff, and culture, and looks forward to building out the first Year Up San Francisco class. Prior to teaching at Year Up, Marcus worked as a corporate trainer at EnCana and New Horizons and held network administration positions for MAC Cosmetics and Sperry Van Ness. He holds a BA in Anthropology from Rollins College.

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SCOTT GULLICK
Internship Program Manager
Scott was born and raised in the East Bay where he grew up hiking and riding his bike through the hills and parks of his hometown. Scott graduated in 2003 with his B.S. in General Engineering from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. While at Cal Poly Scott spent his summers working at a residential summer camp, and it was at camp that he developed a passion for working with young adults. After graduation Scott spent five years in Santa Cruz, California as the Director of Youth Ministries for a residential summer camp. Scott loved working with college students, planning and implementing programs for high school and junior high students in the Bay Area. Prior to joining the Year Up team, Scott earned his MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management at Boston University. While in Boston, Scott worked with a number of local nonprofits, including: Summer Advantage, Nonprofit Finance Fund, Tutors For All, and Year Up. Scott is excited to join the Year Up Bay Area team and looks forward to working with students and corporate partners.

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Dan Handalian
Senior Director of Leadership Development
Dan joined Year Up in 2011, after working closely with Year Up as a consultant since 2005. In this new role Dan is accountable for developing leadership talent, helping leaders develop both people and teams, and leading the deployment of systems to support all employees’ professional growth. Before Year Up, Dan had a 10-year consulting career with PI Worldwide, where he helped companies of all shapes and sizes maximize the contributions of their people by helping leaders better understand, motivate, and develop their people. While at PI Worldwide, Dan was also responsible for supporting and growing the skills of thousands of leaders through coaching, workshop facilitation, and consultation. Prior to joining PI Worldwide, Dan had a software development career, where he managed technical people, oversaw projects, and built technical departments from scratch. Dan has a BA in Psychology from Oberlin College.

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Michael Harris
Business Communications Instructor
Michael (Mike) Harris was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. He completed his undergraduate degree in Humanities at the University of Johannesburg. In 2000, he accepted a teaching position at a government high school in his home town and simultaneously began studying toward his Post Graduate Certificate in Education at the University of South Africa. In 2003, Mike applied for and was accepted into the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. He lived in southern Japan and taught English as an Assistant Language Teacher for three years. While in Japan, Mike met his now wife and upon returning to South Africa to begin the process of applying for his Green Card, he worked at a remedial High School in Johannesburg teaching English, Economic Management Sciences, and Travel and Tourism. Mike has lived in San Francisco since July 2008 and is also currently working as an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor at a private language school. Mike joins Year Up San Francisco Bay Area as a part-time Business Communications instructor. Mike joins Year Up Bay Area as a Business Communications instructor.

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JOHN HIESTER
Special Projects Manager
A native of Colorado, John is thrilled to have just relocated to the West Coast after spending the past several years in the Midwest and Northeast. After earning a BA in Spanish from Kenyon College, John launched a career in nonprofits and government agencies that has spanned community organizing and outreach, delivering services to underserved communities, and managing a workforce development program serving high school and college-aged young adults. Through these experiences John developed both a commitment to provide opportunities for urban youth to benefit from meaningful employment, and a desire to learn how to develop and manage organizations capable of delivering such opportunities. In pursuit of these aims, John recently completed an MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management from Boston University. John's experience at BU included founding a Nonprofit Board Fellows program, several consulting engagements, and an internship at Year Up in Boston. He looks forward to contributing to Year Up Bay Area via his work in strategy, operations, and finance.

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TREVOR HOOPER
Site Leader
A long time resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Trevor Hooper grew up in Mountain View, CA and attended Mountain View High School, where he was awarded a football scholarship to Stanford University. While at Stanford, Trevor was a four-year starter and Team Captain for the Cardinal and wrote a column for the Palo Alto Daily during his senior year. Trevor graduated in 2006 with a B.A. in Urban Studies with a focus in Community Organization. His interests and experience serve him well at Year Up as he plays a vital role in outreach, admissions, internships, and operations at the San Francisco site. He strongly believes in both the mission of the organization and in the talents of urban young adults.

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Tameko Jones
Director of Admissions and Student Services
Tameko was born and raised in San Francisco and has a wealth of professional knowledge providing academic, career and personal counseling for students of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Tameko received her B.A. in Psychology from California State University Hayward and her M.S. in Social Work from San Jose State University. She is a dedicated Social Worker with a strong commitment to providing comprehensive therapeutic, academic and supportive services to young adults. Tameko began her career as an educational advocate nearly twenty years ago when she worked as a peer advisor for the Equal Opportunity Programs and Services Department for City College of San Francisco. In 2003, Tameko implemented a mental health and academic support program for "at risk" students while employed for the City of Berkeley School Based Services Program. While in this role, Tameko provided clinical supervision for Master's level social work interns and case managers. Tameko also worked for the San Francisco City and County Human Services Agency where she assisted foster youth in addressing mental health and academic needs. Tameko is thrilled about the opportunity work with Year Up students and staff.

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Emily Lad
Career and Alumni Coordinator
Emily grew up in a small town near Bangor, Maine, and has an inordinate amount of Maine pride. She received a B.A. in Peace and Justice Studies with a concentration in Environmental Justice from Tufts University. She has worked with a number of nonprofits and grassroots organizations in numerous arenas, including environmental justice (environmentalism through a racial and economic justice lens), workers’ rights and labor justice, women’s empowerment, and community health. She has also explored using film and radio to create documentaries for social change at the Northwest Institute for Social Change in Portland, OR. When she traveled to El Salvador with a Central American solidarity organization in 2006, she realized that two critical components to creating positive change are meaningful connections with people and building strong communities, and she is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work at an organization which really embodies these values.

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ANITA LOVAINCY
Admissions and Outreach Coordinator
Anita Lovaincy was born in Cambridge Massachusetts and raised in the Greater Boston Area. Anita joined Year Up Boston as a student in 2006, where she was first introduced to the term Information Technology, and completed an internship with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Upon graduation from the Year Up program she received a scholarship to continue her studies at Cambridge College, as well as employment at her internship site. While working full time as a BlackBerry Server Administrator for the Massachusetts Information Technology Center (MITC), Anita obtained a B.A. in Psychology with a concentration in Juvenile Justice. After graduating from college she continued working in the IT field managing her own team of Mobile Device Support Analysts at Novartis Biomedical Research. She moved to San Francisco in 2010 and immediately connected with her Year Up family in the Bay Area as a member of the Alumni Association. She currently works as an Outreach and Admissions Coordinator for the Year Up Bay Area site and is excited to be in a role where she can advocate for the Year Up program and our mission to close the opportunity divide.

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Caitlin MacDonald
Director of Operations & Strategic Planning
Caitlin came to Year Up in June 2007 with a passion for education. After graduating from Bowdoin College with a degree in English and Education, Caitlin taught high school English in Westbrook, Maine. She then returned to her alma mater as the Coordinator of Community Service Programs, helping to engage Bowdoin students in volunteer, service learning, and community leadership opportunities. Prior to joining the Year Up team, Caitlin earned her MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management at Boston University. While completing her degree, she was a Graduate Assistant at BU's Community Service Center where she served as advisor to the student leaders of the campus volunteer programs. She also worked with the GreenLight Fund and EdVestors to plan their annual fundraising events. After spending 3 years as Events and Communications Manager and then Site Leader at Year Up Boston, Caitlin is excited to bring her experience and passion to Year Up Bay Area.

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Lori Quinn
Development Manager
Lori is a fifth generation Northern Californian, born in San Francisco and raised on the Peninsula. After working for two years as a corporate litigation paralegal at Latham & Watkins LLP, Lori decided to return to non-profit work and pursue a career where her work could have an impact on the communities in the Bay Area. She brings over 12 years of fundraising experience to the organization having worked at diverse non-profits such as the VNA and Hospice Foundation, the San Francisco Zoological Society, San Francisco Parks Trust and now Year Up San Francisco Bay Area. Lori earned a B.A. in Art History from Lake Forest College in Illinois and has a paralegal certificate from San Francisco State University.

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CHRISTENA REINHARD
Major Gifts Officer
Raised in Orinda, California, Christena is an East Bay native. She earned her B.A in Humanities from Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2006. Attending classes at night (alongside Year Up Boston students) while working full-time was a great lesson in what a person can accomplish given the opportunity and personal dedication. Returning to the Bay Area, Christena attended the University of San Francisco and earned an MBA in 2008. While at USF, she was the VP of Marketing for the Graduate Business Association and part of the founding board for the USF Chapter of Challenge for Charity. Christena brings over 10 years of for-profit sales experience as well as success as a non-profit development and event consultant. Prior to joining Year Up Bay Area, Christena’s work experience included UPS, Saks Fifth Avenue, and The Trefler Foundation. Christena lives in Pleasant Hill with her husband, Rob, and their sheepdog. She is an avid cook and fashionista which forces her to also enjoy cycling and running.

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Sahaar Rezaie
Manager of Corporate Partnerships and Alumni Services
Born in Berkeley, California Sahaar grew up in the East Bay. In 2004, she received her B.A. in Global and International Studies from UC Santa Barbara. Sahaar brings to Year Up five years of experience in strategic account management and new business development. After college, Sahaar moved back to the Bay Area and launched her professional career as an Account Executive for CBS Television. While working for CBS, Sahaar managed and produced countless Bay Area television and online marketing campaigns. Prior to joining Year Up, Sahaar worked as the Northern California Client Development Manager for Spot Runner Ad Agency. While working for Spot Runner, Sahaar successfully negotiated and helped launch their first ever political and multi-lingual television advertising campaign. Sahaar began her time with Year Up as a guest lecturer and a volunteer. She looks forward to supporting young urban adults in reaching their full potential.

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Phil Robinson
Site Leader
Phil Robinson graduated from Occidental College in 2007 where he majored in Gender Studies and Critical Theory Social Justice. While working as a faculty assistant in Oxy's American Studies department Phil helped develop media literacy curricula which is currently offered at USC, UCLA and Occidental College along with a reading list which focused on the critical theory scripts embedded in the comedy of Aaron McGruder's "Boondocks" and the work of Dave Chappelle. While at Oxy Phil also participated in the recovery of a nineteenth century civil rights group from Baltimore called "The Brotherhood of Liberty." This group of pastors, lay women and lay men leveled what is considered to be the first legal assault on institutional racism in America almost a century before the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's took up law in that struggle. Phil has also been active in education reform facilitating an exchange between the Bay Area's Marin Academy and Paul Robeson High School in Chicago. In addition Phil has facilitated for the National Association of Independent School's annual Peoples of Color Conference.

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Sherry Suisman
Director of Academics
Passionate about education and the potential of young adults, Sherry joined Year Up in April 2009 after teaching in the Composition Program at San Francisco State University (SFSU) for ten years. At SFSU, Sherry focused on working with under-prepared students in courses that integrate reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. She has also taught ESL, worked as a tutor and tutor trainer, and served as a faculty coordinator at SFSU’s Learning Assistance Center, a skills-based multi-disciplinary campus tutoring center. For five years, Sherry served as a volunteer mentor in the I Have a Dream (San Francisco) program, happily attending her “Dreamer’s” high school graduation in May 2010. Sherry currently sits on the Board of Directors at the SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. Sherry earned her B.A. in English Literature from Washington University and holds an M.A. in English (with a concentration in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and certificates in Teaching Composition and Post-Secondary Reading from San Francisco State University.

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Emily Schaffer
Director of Program
Emily Schaffer is a Bay Area native and has been passionate about public education since campaigning for a bond measure for her public school as a high school senior. After receiving her B.A. from Tufts University in Quantitative Economics and Spanish, Emily moved to Los Angeles, where she was a Teach for America teacher in the Compton Unified School District and completed her Master’s in Education at Loyola Marymount University. Eager to learn business-based approaches to solving society’s most intractable challenges, Emily took a role at the neuroscience technology start-up in San Francisco, Posit Science, where she was a key contributor to their direct-to-consumer launch and business-to-business implementation. Emily applied her lessons learned in the for-profit world to the social entrepreneurship non-profit, Springboard Forward, as the Director of Program, transforming the lives of entry-wage workers in through career development programs at the workplace, funded by employers. In that role, Emily managed a partnership between Year Up and Springboard Forward designed to help Year Up graduates achieve their career aspirations after completing the program. Emily is thrilled to have the opportunity to ensure that Year Up students, interns and alumni are positioned to overcome the Opportunity Divide and create the life they want for themselves.

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Sarah Jo Szambelan
Relationship Management Specialist.
Sarah Jo grew up in rural areas in Southern California and Northern Arizona where she contributed to her family's income by raising livestock and cutting and selling firewood. This inspired her to contribute to the policies that shape natural resource management. She worked her way through community college and graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in Environmental Economics and Policy. She then worked on various natural resource projects at state, federal and international levels, including an assessment of the solar hot water market in Thailand and the development of an environmental health strategy for the UAE. Sarah Jo contributed to the research and publication of various climate change and air pollution market papers at Resources for the Future in Washington, D.C. Throughout her early career, she was struck by how few young people from low-income areas created careers for themselves and decided to refocus her attention on a different resource; the talent of young people. She brings to Year Up a variety of experience and an unshakable belief in the potential of young adults.

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Robert Teng
IT Instructor
Robert was born in Texas, raised in New Jersey, and a graduate of Northwestern University in 2007 with a B.A. in Economics and Sociology. Some of the transformative experiences he has had include taking a freshman sociology class called Problems of Cities, studying in Denmark, travelling Europe with a single normal-sized backpack, being homeless in Spanish Basque country, and studying in South Africa. In 2006, he lived in a small village in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where he lived and did qualitative research on the reasons underlying the lack of basic services, including running water and electricity. Harking back to his first experience teaching young-adult refugees in New York City for the International Rescue Committee, these experiences abroad inspired Robert with a sense of social justice and the desire to become a teacher; he moved from Chicago to the SF Bay Area in 2007 to teach special education for urban youth. He has taught students with severe disabilities in both Oakland and San Francisco at the elementary- and middle-school levels. As a TEAMS/AmeriCorps Fellow, he worked to give his students the opportunity to create and lead a schoolwide recycling program. Robert is an avid cyclist who has bike-toured from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon and San Luis Obispo, including a 206-mile overnight jaunt from Santa Cruz to San Luis Obispo in 17.5 hours. He looks forward to applying the same physical and mental stamina to teaching IT to the young adults of the Year Up program. He dedicates his life’s work to Sbu, Geshe, his great-aunt, his parents, and his first students, the class of young-adult refugees he taught while with the IRC.

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Carlos Vazquez
Outreach and Admissions Manager
Carlos was born and raised in the Bronx, New York-- just blocks away from Yankee Stadium where he indulged in his love for baseball as often as he could. He attended Fordham University where he received a B.S. in Computer Science. While at Fordham, Carlos served as a mentor with CSTEP, a Collegiate Science & Technology Entry Program designed to prepare minority and economically disadvantaged students for careers in scientific, technical, health-related and licensed professions. After college, Carlos worked as a sales consultant while simultaneously receiving his Master’s Degree in Internet Business Systems from Mercy College. He also founded his own recording studio during this time and managed various music artists across the country. After a few years in sales and freelance web-design, Carlos felt his calling was to give back to his community and to assist other urban minority youth to achieve their potential. He became a New York City Teaching Fellow, and taught a bilingual 5th grade classroom at PS 159 for two years in the Bronx. During this time, he also completed his Master’s degree in Education with honors, with an emphasis on bilingual education, at the City University of New York. Carlos has been extremely active in integrating the arts into the education curriculum, including the use of poetry and the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method. As a 5th grade teacher, he worked to get his students into regional poetry competitions, founded a physical fitness program called “Fit for Life” which received grant funding, and pushed his students to achieve the highest standardized testing scores in the district. He has recently brought his passion and commitment to empowering urban youth to use education and technology as an instrument to their success to California, and looks forward to contributing to the Year Up team in San Francisco.

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Jeadi Vilchis
IT Instructor
Born and raised in East Oakland, Jeadi experienced firsthand the difficult situations that many of our Year Up participants face, and as such, he understands the dire need for urban youth to have the technical fluency to compete with the rest of the world. Jeadi comes to us with a wealth of knowledge in education, technology, and working with urban youth. He spent several years as counselor and case manager for homeless youth with Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco. After Larkin Street, he taught first, second, and fourth grade in Oakland and Berkeley. At LPS College Park High School (Castlemont campus), Jeadi taught journalism and served as the Technology Coordinator which is where he realized that he must do more to make youth more technologically savvy. During the summer, he teaches game programming, game modification, and LEGO robotics to teens at Stanford University. Jeadi obtained his BA and teaching credential from California State University, East Bay, where he is currently obtaining his graduate degree in Educational Technology Leadership. Jeadi has a contagious energy and love for technology which makes him a unique asset for our young adults at Year Up. During his spare time, he loves to run, explore gaming/technology, and spread his love for Oakland!

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KURT WOLFGANG
Internship and Alumni Services Coordinator
Raised in Portland, Oregon, Kurt has lived in Utah, Texas, South Carolina, Western Europe, Washington, DC, and most recently New Zealand. After earning his BA in International Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Utah, Kurt spent several years travelling the world, racing road and mountain bikes. He managed to stay involved with social justice issues along the way, and comes to Year Up via the CityBridge Foundation, a DC nonprofit focused on closing the achievement gap in education. His experience includes work in event planning/execution, research, teaching, mentorship, and photography/graphic design. Kurt is excited to bring his diverse background and adventurous nature to the YUBA team.

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