visit visitation valley to see how this side of the city is the same but different. feeling toda? it is a big one. let's hear it, give yourselves a big round of applause? i love the echo in here. this is big moment now and happy to be here. my name is franco finn, a native of this great city, san francisco, and proud to be a san franciscans to the core and also product of this great city, and i'm also proud film commissioner for city county of san francisco and many may know me as a long time voice for your favorite basketball team here. what is that? the golden state warriors! yes. and it is such a honor to be

here with all of you, because it is about you today. congratulations. give your is selves a big hand. bridge to excellent ceremony and scholar shf award and so proud to be here to give this alongside our great mayor along with you. you have gone through the journey and here you are to embark on the next chapter of your are live. lifep. life. are you excited? probably nervous too, but what a big step and will have a awesome time i'm sure where you may go, but it starts here and we want it just make sure we award you properly from your family and friends, in front of our mayor. with that said, proud to introduce our 45 mayor of great city and county of san francisco, make, some noise, for

mayor london n breed! [applause] >> goodness franco, me already? how is everybody doing today? you guys don't look exseated. come on! [applause] i got to say, this is something that was really important to me. when i first became mayor, it was really important that i did two things. number one, i started a program called, opportunities for all that provides paid internships-has anyone done opportunities for all? good. good. paid internships for young people, because that is how i got my start and i also wanted to provide scholarship opportunities as well. some of you know that i was born and raised in san francisco and in fact, i grew up in public housing in the city where my grand mother raised me. i never knew my biological father, i sadly have a sister who i lost

to drug overdose and brother still incarcerated. i lived in a community gun violence was all too common and on a regular basis i attended more funerals then i can count. i saw my community crumble before me, and it inspired me to want to do something different to invest in and work with the city and county of san francisco in some capacity. i didn't know what it was, but i know when i got a opportunity through the mayor youth employment training program to get paid, because i had no money, to get paid and an opportunity to eventually go to college. i went to uc davis. it was really hard and yes i got a couple scholarship, but i worked cleaning houses, i worked baby sitting kids because my grand mother had nothing to provide me with resources and i also wanted to take care

of her because she took care of me. the reason it is so important to share this with all you, because i read all the stories. i read each and every story and when i wanted to do the scholarship, it was so important i look at the young folks in san francisco and look at kids who might be the first in their families to go to college, who may have had challenging experiences and despite everything you have been through, the fact that you are here and you are going to a number of universities all over the united states is extraordinary, and i am so incredibly proud of each and every one of you for this major accomplishment, because the environment to a certain extents around you, don't always make what you doing normal and you are making going to college and you're making success normal and that's why the

scholarship is so important and this opportunity to see you thrive is so important to me personally. so, i want to say congratulations for despite the obstacles still succeeding. despite the challenges, but here's the thing, it is not done. you still have a mountain to climb, so don't get discouraged. stay focused and more importantly, make sure that you keep positive people around you, because the reason why you are here for whatever reason, it is not just because of the people around you, it is because of the decisions you personally have made to get here. you have made those decisions. you have succeeded in life and you are choosing to go to college and continue that success and so stay the course, stay focused, stay positive and keep positive people around you. i remember when i went away to college, it was really hard, because again, my grand mother was older and

things were really challenging. they took down the projects i living in so i didn't have a home to go back to. people were dying funerals i couldn't make it to, it was crazy and i got to a point i just felt lost and felt hopeless and felt i wanted to give up and walk away, and the people in my community when i show said up, they told me not to give up. they encouraged me. they supported me. you know what? they told me to stay off the block. they pushed me out of danger, because they want ed something more for me and that's why every day i do this job, i give it all i got for this city and for the people that made it possible for me to be here. and just remember that as you go through life and what you do, what you do matters and also, so many people are watching you. they are watching you be trailblazers

in whatever career [audio cut out] hoping we get graduates and i know today you will be hearing from one of those graduates, cecilia gomez, thank you for being here and congratulations graduated from college and you will be hearing from her, but she didn't give up and looking forward hearing her story and how she is doing great things, and i want to take this opportunity to again thank franco finn, he is like a super rock star. [applause] >> i was hoping he would bring warriors tickets or something. i want to also recognize for those of you, all of you in our public school system, the persons who are responsible for making all those decisions, include people like a lita fisher on the school

board, so thank you so much for being here today and supporting our students. continue onward and upward and to much success, i will keep you in my prayers to insure that i'm always thinking about just the challenges that you will continue to overcome to be successful in life. thank you to the parents and all the folks from the different non profit agencies that made the recommendations of the students. [applause] thank you for being there for them. thank you for supporting them and keep them encouraged as they go through this journey called life. thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you mayor breed. thank you for being such a inspiration and you are truly the inspiration here as well, so congratulations again and we are going to hear from one of our alums from this bridge to excellence scholarship award recipient.

a graduate now to talk about her experience, how important this changed her life, so please welcome to the stage, ms. cecilia gomez, our alumni speaker. come on up! praech [applause] >> >> good afternoon. thank you for having me here and congratulations to the class of 2024. [applause] my name is cecilia gomez and as of a month ago today exactly i'm a recent graduate olmcallister college with bachelor in education and spanish, and a 2020recipient of the bridge to excellence award. for four years ago i reconsidered whether going out of state was worth it or even a possibility. with the financial implications of the pandemic and the unknown uncertainty of university open again, i thought perhaps the best decision was

to stay closer to home instead, even though my dream was to go to liberal art institution. fortunately with the support of mayor london breed and the bridge to excellence award, i didn't have to sacrifice my education and with the support i can now say i graduated summa cum laude from mcallister and will be starting the stanford teacher education program in two weeks. [applause] the bridge to excellence award was proof i was capable of achieving my dreams and i had support systems that believe in me. even when i didn't always believe in myself. this award was a reminder to carry home pride everywhere i went. whether was in main minnesota or spain, i always had sunnydale, bayview and san francisco in my heart and made priority to return home back to my roots. believe me when i say, we all

believe in you. be the light and hope we need. bring the invasion and the strength to create the solutions to tomorrow's problem. channel your strength to keep moving forward and most importantly, always remember to shoulders you stand on, those sholders that hold you with love and pride and hope. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much cecilia, congratulations to you. the moment we have been waiting for, the honor roll of scholarship recipients ready to announce, mayor breed if you can join on stage. i will announce them. this is a great moment, huge chapter in these lives and we are going to have fun while we are doing it. they brought the hypoman for a reason, so let's hype it up. you ready!

make some noise! bridge to excellence scholarship recipients, here we go. in order. we reedy? ready? first up is arele larkin [applause] photo, yes. go to morgan. give a round of applause to arele! [applause] okay. next we have kami zou! [applause] uc san diego representing here.

let's go ucsd. next we have scholarship recipient d'antonio samuel, cal state la. going to socal. [applause] and now we have the [indiscernible] going to jackson state university! [applause] those are nice certificates right there, i tell you.

next we have daniel romero! [applause] going to columbia university everybody. out of lincoln high. we'll get the order--that might have been my fault. now we have--this happens all the time. derel brown. let's hear it for derel brown. jackson state university! [applause] next we have out of lowell high

school, [indiscernible] going to uc santa cruz. future banana slug here. banana slug in the house. [applause] and next we have, aya [indiscernible] going to san francisco state university, local right here. go gators! [applause] congratulations. next we have, jeremiah jovana gomez! [applause] coming out of sota high school and going to uc santa cruz, everyone. congratulations. next we have out of galileo

high school, kelly wu, going to san diego state! going down south. [applause] great job. next we have, out of academy, kalil going to san jose state university. go spartans! [applause] next, out of balboa high school, let's go bal, mandy going to williams college! [applause] alright. out of lincoln, let's see--actually , no. kipp sf college prep.

nazir travis! [applause] out of lincoln high school, --going to cal poly! [applause] and out of galileo, we have waylen tang, uc irvine representing in the house! [applause] and last but not least, out of lincoln high school, wilson lee going to san jose state university. another spartan in the house!

[applause] let's hear to ladies and gentlemen to bridge to excellence scholarship recipients here tonight! wow, congratulations. you are going to make our city so proud. we cannot wait to see your next journey here and hopefully come back to share your experiences and inspire more people. once again, let's hear it for 2024, bridge to excellence scholarship recipients tonight. [applause] thank you so much. thank you mayor breed. now, we will have a group photo of everyone here together. the rotunda we will get out there and get oen the steps, do a nice little photo. we got our professional paragraphs to stand by. congratulations one more time. we'll see you at the rotunda and once again our 2024, bridge excellence scholarship resip yntd recipient in san francisco. family and friends, what a

great honor. see you next year. thank you for being a inspiration. keep doing what you are doing and thank you for making san francisco proud. see you at the rotunda and shout out to ms. gomez for sharing your story with us.

>> the stewardship program is a (indiscernible) based program. we work with student kind r garten through 12 grade and work with scrks fusd and (indiscernible) focus on 5 themes. sense of place, plant adapation and animal adaptation, water soil or (indiscernible) depending on the grade level and accommodations the class may need the educators work to adapt the programming to be whatever works best for the class, so they can gain activities (indiscernible) some don't, we try to meet students where they are at and get comfortable connecting in the space and feeling a sense of ownership and safety within their (indiscernible) >> the first component of a youth stewardship program trip

will be a in clasds visit where we go to the school, we give a presentation on the natural history of san francisco, we talk about the concept of a habitat, so what does a habitat contain, understood, water, shelter, space. >> children at this age, they learn best through using their senses, having the real life experience and (indiscernible) students also learn about responsibility and it is a great message for student to learn, if you take care of environment, the environment will take care of you. >> so, when we finally get the kids outside, we have two main components to the field trips. one is going to be the restoration component where we are working on the habitat and parks by pulling out (indiscernible)

or maybe watering, and then the other side of our trip is going to be the educational component, which can range from a nature walk with a sensory theme where we are talking about what we smell and hear, to a focus on plant adaptation and animal adaptations. >> (indiscernible) >> just a great opportunity for students to learn more, connect with nature, and hopefully what they learn from the youth stewardship program they can take with them for the rest of their lives, and they will appreciate their environment more. hopefully, when they appreciate it, they take care of it more every day. >> (indiscernible) >> so every year we open the application up in the fall. interested teachers can apply for a classroom visit and up to two field trips to the

city park of their choice. field trips are 2 and a half hours long and like i said, they can happen in any city park >> the bicycle coalition was giving away 33 bicycles so i applied. i was happy to receive one of them.

>> the community bike build program is the san francisco coalition's way of spreading the joy of biking and freedom of biking to residents who may not have access to affordable transportation. the city has an ordinance that we worked with them on back in 2014 that requires city agency goes to give organizations like the san francisco bicycle organization a chance to take bicycles abandoned and put them to good use or find new homes for them. the partnerships with organizations generally with organizations that are working with low income individuals or families or people who are transportation dependent. we ask them to identify individuals who would greatly benefit from a bicycle. we make a list of people and their heights to match them to a

bicycle that would suit their lifestyle and age and height. >> bicycle i received has impacted my life so greatly. it is not only a form of recreation. it is also a means of getting connected with the community through bike rides and it is also just a feeling of freedom. i really appreciate it. i am very thankful. >> we teach a class. they have to attend a one hour class. things like how to change lanes, how to make a left turn, right turn, how to ride around cars. after that class, then we would give everyone a test chance -- chance to test ride. >> we are giving them as a way to get around the city.

>> just the joy of like seeing people test drive the bicycles in the small area, there is no real word. i guess enjoyable is a word i could use. that doesn't describe the kind of warm feelings you feel in your heart giving someone that sense of freedom and maybe they haven't ridden a bike in years. these folks are older than the normal crowd of people we give bicycles away to. take my picture on my bike. that was a great experience. there were smiles all around. the recipients, myself, supervisor, everyone was happy to be a part of this joyous occasion. at the end we normally do a group ride to see people ride off with these huge smiles on their faces is a great experience. >> if someone is interested in

volunteering, we have a special section on the website sf bike.org/volunteer you can sign up for both events. we have given away 855 bicycles, 376 last year. we are growing each and every year. i hope to top that 376 this year. we frequently do events in bayview. the spaces are for people to come and work on their own bikes or learn skills and give them access to something that they may not have had access to. >> for me this is a fun way to get outside and be active. most of the time the kids will be in the house. this is a fun way to do something. >> you get fresh air and you don't just stay in the house all day.

it is a good way to exercise. >> the bicycle coalition has a bicycle program for every community in san francisco. it is connecting the young, older community. it is a wonderful outlet for the community to come together to have some good clean fun. it has opened to many doors to the young people that will usually might not have a bicycle. i have seen them and they are thankful and i am thankful for this program. >> come shop dine and play. taraval street is open for business. >> [indiscernible] the owner of tabita's on taraval on-my business is focus on [indiscernible] my mom's res aef and we make muffins and

scones and cookies and everything home made. for me, it is being able to be a community cafe where everybody feels comfortable. please come in, play and eat at the tabita's cafe on 1101 teraival street. >> take time for teraival bingo, a community game supporting small business. anyone can participate. it is easy, collect special stickers on a bingy stale game board and enter a raff raffle event for a chance

>> >> >> this meeting will come to order. this june 13, 2024, san francisco public safety neighborhood commission. >> i would like to invite