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 unty 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 evenly 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. 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 togo 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, an 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 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 k 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 ■u■) 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 ney 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. [music] >> san francisco is known as

yerba buena, good herb after a mint that used to grow here. at this time there were 3 settlements one was mission delores. one the presidio and one was yerba buena which was urban center. there were 800 people in 1848 it was small. a lot of historic buildings were here including pony express headquarters. wells fargo. hudson bay trading company and famous early settlers one of whom william leaderdorph who lived blocks from here a successful business person. african-american decent and the first million airin california. >> wilwoman was the founders of san francisco. here during the gold rush came in the early 1840s.

he spent time stake himself as a merchant seaman and a business person. his father and brother in new orleans. we know him for san francisco's history. establishing himself here arnold 18 twoochl he did one of many things the first to do in yerba buena. was not california yet and was not fully san francisco yet. >> because he was an american citizen but spoke spanish he was able to during the time when america was taking over california from mexico, there was annexations that happened and conflict emerging and war, of course. he was part of the peek deliberations and am bas doorship to create the state of california a vice council to mexico. mexico granted him citizenship. he loaned the government of san

francisco money. to funds some of the war efforts to establish the city itself and the state, of course. he established the first hotel here the person people turned to often to receive dignitaries or hold large gatherings established the first public school here and helped start the public school system. he piloted the first steam ship on the bay. a big event for san francisco and depict instead state seal the ship was the sitk a. there is a small 4 block long length of street, owned much of that runs essentially where the transamerica building is to it ends at california. i walk today before am a cute side street. at this point t is the center

what was all his property. he was the person entrusted to be the city's first treasurer. that is i big deal of itself to have that legacy part of an african-american the city's first banker. he was not only a forefather of the establishment of san francisco and california as a state but a leader in industry. he had a direct hahn in so many things that we look at in san francisco. part of our dna. you know you don't hear his anymore in the context of those. representation matters. you need to uplift this so people know him but people like him like me. like you. like anyone who looks like him to be, i can do this, too. to have the city's first banker and a street in the middle of financial district. that alone is powerful. [music]television.

>> (music). >> my name is vet at a original artist based in san francisco. >> i love it i love it i've never seen something else and we see how the people see which is

happening and what is going on. kind of cool i wanted to be part of that. >> i saw it 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes you yeah. >> so we have you - yeah. i started going when i was young but not the type of kid would get food but this is something i really have been progressing on a talent from like other artists. >> this is amazing. >> this is so good yeah, it is so good like the artists. >> i love it. >> what a great project. >> part of the part for have i grants. >> yeah. i love it. >> i serve in for 2 two years

now and i really am fortunate to live in a place for art. >> an effort creating places it serve san francisco soul and that makes them want to see this place; right? with the experience of art in san jose experience in from the get-go sometimes our environmentalist has created tests but we have an opportunity for that and have artists in the storefront part of project you can walk in and experience and hoping we'll be there for a long time. >> this is the first farther easy way of going to spaces i didn't know how it is really

cool it would be and we're forced to be in the moment when we're test and creating something really cool. >> makes us feel good. >> as far (unintelligible) done all temporary and took them down i like the temporary aspect base (unintelligible) (microphone distorted) not permanent can enjoy ■xit. >> by.

>> ph.d. >> my name is i'm a leader of the town in san francisco we try to provide japanese something we make like seaweed it creates like the many flavors we try to provide like more open japanese flavor as well as the james values like people get to experience in japan like a great exexexexexexexexexexexexexexexex

>> president jose lopez the presiding officer joined by vice president lemberg. swig. traz vina and eppler. also city attorney will provide needed legal add viechls the board's assistant alec. we will be joined by representative from thes city departments that will present before the board this evening. corey teague reporting planning. kevin birmingham building inspector with dbi. john in engineer with public works.