Globe Newspapers

A Reliable
Voice in the
Community

Volume 6
Issue 13
June 10 - 16, 2009

Breaking News

Black Boys College Bound Initiative honors 50 graduating seniors

By Jenelle Black

It was a room filled with love and joy.

Tables were decorated with strawberry centerpieces and the pleasant aromas of food filled the air. It was Monday night and the Black Boys College Bound Initiative graduation was about to kick into full swing.

The celebration, held at the Oakland Museum of California, was a Mitchell Kapor Foundation event that honored nearly 50 graduating seniors and their achievements. The Black Boys College Bound Initiative is part of the foundation’s multi-year $1 million campaign aimed at increasing access to college for black male youth from the Bay Area.

“We are celebrating these young men who have made it through high school on to college,” said Cedric Brown, director of the foundation.

The Mitchell Kapor Foundation is a private organization founded in 1997 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Mitchell Kapor. Its mission is to ensure fairness and equality, especially in low-income communities of color. The foundation supports organizations and activism, and its grant program focuses on funding organizations that are working to ensure justice and equity for vulnerable and underserved communities primarily in the Bay Area.

“We believe in taking action,” Brown said. “Everybody has a role to play in improving conditions for low-income people and communities of color in the United States. Let’s take action.”

In 2008, the Black Boys College Bound Initiative awarded $500,000 to 11 nonprofits in the Bay Area. Some of these organizations include the Young Scholars Program in Oakland, the Omega Boys Club in San Francisco and the M3 Education Foundation in Berkeley.

“We are about the children,” said Robyn Fisher, founder and president of RT Fisher & Associates, which also has received grants from the Kapor Foundation. “Positive academics for children helps prepare them for college or whatever they want to do, and we make sure those opportunities are available to them.”

Each young man who graduated was acknowledged for his work and received a kente cloth stole.

“I am thankful someone can congratulate me and see me off to college,” said William Hubbard, 18, of Antioch High School. “The Young Scholars Program helped prepare me to be on my own.”

Chris Thompson, 17, of Acalanes High School, said the program gave him a chance to network.

Ralston Earle, 18, said the scholars program is what helped him get to this point in his educational career.

“This celebration means a lot to me,” the McClymonds High School graduate said. “If I wasn’t in this program, I wouldn’t be here. I would be struggling tremendously.”