the san francisco education fund. >> hello, everyone. i am the ceo and founder of an organization called beyond 12. we are a national non-profit organization, and our mission is to increase the number of low- income and first-generation students who graduate from our nation's colleges and universities. we are focusing exclusively on the college graduation peace. what happens after all of the hard work has been done by our pre-collegiate partners once we get students in? are they actually graduating? are they earning degrees that have value and allow them to become part of the million dollar club we were just hearing about, and do those degrees actually allow them to translate their lives and break the cycles of generational poverty from which many of them come? we do that by working with pre-

collegiate organizations and high schools but also colleges and universities. we are the organization running the bridge to success summer program, and shortly, the program is a six-week transition program targeting students from san francisco unified, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college. over the course of the program, our students will be participating in a variety of different activities, taking math and english courses, and they will also be participating in various workshops, college success related workshops that help them develop real professional skills. they will be doing study skills workshops, a career placement workshops, resume writing, time management, and prioritization among other workshops. the goal is to help ease hours to the transition from high school to college and to help our students build a foundation for academic, personal, and financial success. ultimately, the goal of the program is to ensure that our

students are persisting and that they are graduating, that they are earning a post-secondary credentialed. if their goal is to receive an associate's degree from the city, then that is what we are making sure that they do. and if their goal is to transfer into a four-year institution, we are making the commitment to them that they will do so. we are extremely grateful to microsoft for this generous contribution, extremely grateful to all of the partners, and i know our students are excited about these last -- these laptops. [applause] and we have made a commitment to them. if you do all of the things that you have promised, if you come to class and attend sessions, and if you are engaged, and you do all of the things that your coaches and mentors are asking of you, then on july 21 when you graduate from the program, you will have a fully loaded netbook

donated by microsoft. [applause] i would like to take a few minutes to speak directly to our students. congratulations. you have heard from everyone already. congratulations on making it to this point. congratulations on being so engaged. you have already been showing up every single day, last thursday, last friday, and today to take your courses -- we are so extremely proud of you, so extremely excited you have taken this step. look around the room. there are all these people here to support you. let us support you. you do not have to do this alone, but we are here and making a commitment to you today and every single day that if you participate in this program, then you will earn your college degree. you will not be a statistic. i commend you and congratulate you for taking this step.

thank you, students. [applause] >> and because it is always better to hear about the story from the mouth of the students, i would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to one of our students, vera de la cruz. [applause] >> hello, everyone. i am actually from daly city. i graduated from just a high- school. i do not know how to start, but i am going to go to city next semester, but i did have -- i was registered last semester. i was supposed to come here, but i had to withdraw because my mom had to leave work. she was on sick leave. i had to drop school, dropped everything.

i worked out at the daly city wingstop, so i was there making chicken, and i was wondering if i was ever going to be able to go back to school. i went to my best friends graduation and found the bridge to success program, and they had all these opportunities to get me back on track for school again. it was really helpful. i was just so overwhelmed of everything i had to do. the placement tests, registers with counselors. this whole program, really helped me out. just the fact that microsoft is here, and the whole educational system makes it a lot better for me. i breathe easier now to know that i have all this support. just to come from where i was -- i believed that there really was no way. there always is a way. there is no last stop.

there is always opportunities. that is what it is all about, and that is what i am grateful for, that they offered me all these opportunities. [applause] thank you. >> well, thank you. what an exciting announcement with great partnerships as we continue to get you all to college. i do not know if there are any questions, but if not, we are just really thrilled that microsoft has stepped in and step up and is going to support our kids the way that you are, and clearly, our partners will continue to work really hard for you. this is your summer, guys. this is where you start to show what you will be doing in the fall. congratulations to all of you. good luck during the summer. we look forward to continuing to support you. [applause]

>> bye, everybody. yeah! >> good afternoon. thank you for coming out here on this beautiful summer solstice

day with a phenomenal view. you can see mount diablo from here. you can also see our beautiful city. i am the director of public works. i am very pleased to be year. -- i am very pleased to be here to speak to this great community project. i will start you out with this fact, speaking of our beautiful city. 25% of our beautiful city is taken up by public right of way, streets, sidewalks, and scraps and parcels that the city leaders laid out to convey people and vehicles. the public rights of way are important. that is what we stoeward. a lot of it was designed more for utilities and vehicles than people. what you have seen over the last few years is a rethinking of the

public rights of way. we're here to talk about one small example of movement in a positive direction in terms of how we use our public spaces in san francisco. without further ado, the man you would all like to hear from. he is serving the great city now and once did as the director of public works, our mayor, mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for your leadership as well. i am up here for the ribbon cutting ceremony. i want to thank all the neighbors that live up here. you have seen corners of the city where grass is growing or

people are neglecting these places. along comes a bureaucracy called dpw with others gaining confidence that we can do something about it. we can take a neglected part of our city where there is a corner that nobody takes responsibility for and is an eyesore some good conversations take place. the streets and parks program at dpw with ed's help, engineering, they start talking to a bureaucrat about possible funds for a community grant program.

then a leader starts appearing in says there is something we would like to have. the neighbors want it. we've been doing it on may flower, carver. can do it bigger and make it more beautiful. the neighbors and kids work closely with dpw, parks trust. as you can see behind me, i think somebody else's property discuss another $1 million in value. it is worth it to transform light, to make sure we do it with our supervisors held and everyone concerned about the beauty of the neighborhoods. this is what makes neighborhoods strong. this is what i want to continue building on. leaders are working on everything from a little

graffiti problem or staircase gardens saying that they want to get beyond neglect and bring it back to what it really is -- is paying attention to our neighborhoods, making them stronger, building community and building partnerships. that is what these street parks are all about. it is never about just the concrete or the flowers. it is about the life and increased value we bring to our neighborhoods. that is what being a neighbor of the great city is all about. that is what i love about the city. my neighborhood is doing the same thing with our street. we want to pay attention to it. we want to get a little help. they get it. we bring the bureaucrats out to the neighborhoods. we make everybody that much more

appreciative of what kind of city they are a part of. i want to emphasize the strength of our city relies on the strength of people likfrom the community. you build it here, in glen park, the mission, chinatown. it builds up the strength of the city. it comes back to our department's opening up their resources, not protecting it like other bureaucratic agencies have historically done. we've said we can do it and be challenged with a grant program completely open to everybody. these things are worth the $1 million it looks like today. it is worth 10 times more in building camaraderie and

companionship with our neighbors. i want to emphasize that. i want to represent that by giving what i can do to reflect our appreciation for the leadership. it is a certificate of honor to julian for his leadership on this project and many other projects that have kept this community working and expanding and growing. there is a design around his leadership. by voice vote as the mayor and city administrator that when you have strong communities, things like disasters, we will have strong neighborhoods to help us recover back. this is the beginning of that. i want to give you this certificate on behalf of the city, parks trust, the challenge grant program. thank you for all of the

leadership you have had. [applause] >> water? [inaudible] [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor, for your leadership on this. during his time as dpw director, during the community challenge grant program, and now as mayor, it is great for us to

see a mayor that gets it on what matters to our neighborhoods and is encouraging all of the departments to embrace things the way he did. thank you for your leadership in enabling things like this to happen. someone else who really gets this is the supervisor that represents this area. he is very much focused on the importance of keeping the streets and sidewalks cleans welcoming, and beautiful. i know he was regretful he was not able to be here today. he did send a representative from david campos' office. >> i want to thank the mayor for his kind words. as a member of the committee, i

would personally like to show my appreciation and thank julian and the friends of bernal gardens for their work so that we can enjoy these beautiful places for generations to come. on behalf of the entire community supervisor comampos, in the board of supervisors, i would like to present this to julian for your commitment to excellence -- commitment of excellence to the organization that has succeeded in turning a vacant lot to a beautiful garden. thank you for being an exceptional community leader. [applause] congratulations.

>> thank you again to supervisor campos and his office. it is easy to have great ideas, but you need to turn to someone to get the work done. that someone in san francisco is sometimes known as mr. clean. he is our deputy director for operations who works to keep the city clean and make it beautiful. our deputy director. [applause] >> let me join the mayor and our director in welcoming you all. thank you for contributing to such a beautiful asset to our neighborhood. san francisco has many hills and

streets and lots of open spaces that have not been developed. people all over on the city had come together to help the city become stewards of the beautiful lands. here is another example of the community coming together, businesses, everyone contributing their share in making san francisco the great city that it is. i like to thank brought madmoor landscapes apply the gave discounts and free materials to make this project happen. janet moyer landscaping assisted with the design. there was effort in trying to figure out the slopes the walls. they helped quite a bit. jordan kirkland, veronica brady

, and the friends of bernal gardens who brought this burden to fruition. the department of public works is out there to hold hands and work with everyone. it is through their leadership that we are able to improve our neighborhoods. i would especially like to thank the staff of dpw who go out to all of these meetings and start these projects. i want to thank all of the bureau's at dpw who assisted in bringing supplies, and doing some work, or making sure that the project was built as planned. thank you very much. [applause] >> there are a lot of other people to think. you have been hearing a lot about this gentleman, julian,

who is responsible for a lot of this. i used to live not far from here. i used to walk my dog upon the hill there. it is so great to see the transformation of this space. it is something i want to see in my neighborhood as well. it does not happen without the leadership of the grass-roots level. we're there to support it, but the leadership is not there from the community, it does not happen. it is my great pleasure to bring forth a great leader in this community mr. julian wyler. [applause] >> welcome to this point guard in v -- vista point guard. there are a lot of people who are not here today who contributed to make this possible. there are a lot of other people

who come here and work and put in various parts of the garden, especially the unsung heroes of the volunteers in the neighborhood. working together and staying focused, this neighborhood has reached out and made partnerships with the city. we have worked together. we get more done that way. it is a real synergy. these gardens to them exist five years ago. they were all neglected, blighted, like a cross the street where you still see areas that can be in crude -- improved. we just need a vision. the public gardens connect us to natural beauty. they give us a sense of community pride. they provide habitats for bees, butterflies, and birds. they represent what is best in us as a community. the bench represents a window on

the past. it was once a curb in downtown san francisco. we've simply connected it to the future. another purpose for the garden is that it provides a place for people just sit and reflect and pause on their journey. it provides a kind of common duty that we all share. it allows us to stop and reflect on the shining city beyond which continues to reinvent itself. today, we dedicate this beautiful public garden. made keeps a loy it keep so.

thank you. [applause] >> those are beautiful words befitting and beautiful their part of our city. -- befitting a beautiful new part of our city. mohammad thanked a lot of the donors. the mayor referenced the grant program. there's the whole group of the friends of bernal gardens that we want to thank. finally, it is not just community partners. in his community organizations that we partner with to make things like this happen. -- it is committee par-- communy organizations that we partner with to make things like this happen. there's great sensibility about the landscapes of san francisco. there is san francisco parks trust.

i would like to ask karen to close us out with a few words. >> thank you. i think we're all moved by ulian's words and passion for this place. we're proud to be here for the completion of the beautiful garden. the term is fiscal sponsor, but it is so much more. we do community interface all over the city with many partners. bureaucracy is not a bad word. we work well with government. thank you to the bureaucrats. to me, that meeting has no pejorative anything. the sense of entrepreneurship from dpw is very strong. you can see in the interactions with julian wyler, bernal gardens, and others in the committee who make this happen. dpw deserves credit.

they built a concrete platform. they delivered supplies. the organized community work days and brought in tools. we worked with sandra. thank you for your hard work. you can partner with dpw, but you have to have a person there to be a partner. she has been hit. on our own staff, i want to thank julie and brean for their -- brandy for their two years of work on this. we have the committee challenge grant that provided a lot of funding for this. lanita is an able leader for that program. thank you to all of our partners in the city and community. enjoy your new garden. [applause] >> thank you, everyone, for coming out. i think we have a ribbon to cut.

it is green because this is a green space. please join us in formally opening the park. are we ready? [applause] thank you. i will beat anybody to that tape. -- i will beat anybody to that cake. [laughter]

the biggest issue in america today? segregation still exists... racism... the repression and oppression of women the educational system stem cell research homeless people cloning government health care taxation announcer: so, is there anything you're doing to help make a change? i'm not really doin' anything. ummmm [sighs] got me on that one... >> welcome, everybody.

to the 2011 justice summit by the book. i'm so excited to be here. you know, we've been doing these summits now for seven years, but this by far is the most exciting summit. i cannot wait to hear the panelists that we have today. we're going to be delving in to some of the most critical issues affecting the criminal justice system at this time. and we're going to talk about, what is justice and what it means. you know, plateo said, "i do not know what justice is, but i know what it is not." and that is very true when you think about it because it's something that we take for granted, that we believe in, that we hope for, but the