and now i have to follow him on the program, of course, i yield to him. but i have to follow him and he takes every last one of my talking points. every last one of them. so when he wasn't mayoral, when he was a bureaucrat, it was much easier to speak after him. nowadays, it's really a tough act to follow so i just want to say publicly, thank the mayor for his leadership and his continued strong leadership he has been demonstrating from day one that he took office in representing this part of san francisco. thank you very much. i am very grateful. [applause] and one thing he didn't do this time was he didn't go down the long list of folks to thank so i'm going to run through them quickly and share brief remarks. he did acknowledge the vision that lieutenant governor gavin newsom had for this organization.

he also acknowledged carlos garcia and our partners at the san francisco unified school district. we could not do this without our educators by our side. also, he acknowledged the college track bayview council. thank you very much, i'm going to name them out. we have the wonderful, not the late, sorry, wilkes, not the late, but the great wilkes bashford. we have cofi bonner headlining. i have a long list and i'm going to take a minute of your time to show my gratitude because if it were not for the community partners, none of us would be here and i wouldn't be able to capitalize on the success these young people will have. cofi bonner, chris boskin, ron conway, hydra mendoza, mr. carmen policy and of course the lovely lauren dove, and

david singer. i just want to acknowledge you for your profound work. thank you very much. and a special note to mr. fred blackwell. sir, thank you. without the head of the redevelopment agency, without the leadership of our redevelopment commissioners, this city would be in probably a perilous state. would you agree? we need every single leader we have and i look forward to cultivating new talent to come back and continue to serve san francisco because that is exactly why we're here. i started my public service journey when i was 8 years old. 8 years old, i met the then dine feinstein who was mayor and she took the moment to talk about the importance of public service and it was in a brief two-minute exchange that she planted a seed in me that has come to bear fruit which is why i'm here today. ever since i was in the third grade, i've been walking down this path of public service.

so to my future senators and business men and women and doctors and entrepreneurs and engineers and architects, i welcome you to the table, to the -- what is it, the hundred million club? the one million dollar? i've increased the vision. 100 million sounds better to me. that's the ron conway club. sign me up. i welcome you to the club because we have a lot of work that needs to be done. we won't be able to get it all done in our lifetime and we must continue to pass on this torch to continue to move things forward and mr. omar, where you are? come join me up here, please, sir. i want to present -- this is one of the best parts of the job. you get to present certificates of honor to recognize outstanding leaders and sove lia certificate of honor but i want you to know that i'm stingy with

my certificates. everyone may request, but few get them. ladies and gentlemen, if you will bear with me, i'm going to share with you the words i have more college track. in honor of college track bayview ground breaking celebration and in honor of college track's commitment to educating our youth and in recognition of welcoming college track to the bayview, the city and county of sanrancisco board of supervisors hereby extends their highest commendation for your dedication to san francisco communities and sends their best wishes to you on this day. thank you so much. [applause] i am just going to have, in my closing remarks, many of you have been probably watching the news and we have challenges when it comes to public safety and i

want to let you know that this building is the step in the right direction because block by block we'll take back the bayview. this neighborhood will be safe for everyone. thank you. [applause] every member in this community is going to be able to walk up and down the third street corridor and be able to shop and spend all their money on the merchant corridor and feel safe and confident. not only will you be safe but we'll do a better job of educating our kids right here. we are on the track to close the achievement gap and i'm here to reafirm my ghoiment you as a public -- commitment to you as a public service that i am on the job and on the track and paying attention. thank you. [applause] >> last, but certainly not least -- i met randy when he was a senior in high school before i came to college track, san francisco, i was with college track, oakland, and

randy exemplifies why college track is in existence so i would love for randy to share his story with us. [applause] >> thanks, omar. trust in the lord with all its hine heart and lean not on to thine own understanding. my great grandparents raised me with these words in east oakland. my great grandparents raised me. i went to sleep with nightly gunshots and found drugs in my backyard discarded by dealers on the run. my great grandfather was my father figure. he gave me my motivation and college track helped me harness it. as a child, i wanted to be an architect. i was amazed by cranes, erecting skyscrapers. in the sixth grade, i was diagnosed with dyslexia. i thought i could only be a construction worker.

my grandfather taught me carpentry skills in middle school but one day while we built a fence together, he talked to me about college and inspired me to be more than a carpenter. when i joined college track, i slowly overcame my learning disability. i had one-on-one daily tutoring and high expectations from people like omar. i took school more seriously and pulled my g.p.a. from a 2.5 to a 3.5 by my senior year, around the time that omar came and joined us. my outlook changed and optioned opened up. i realized they loved the sciences and my wood shop instructor encouraged me to be an engineer. during my senior year, my great grandfather gave me the college talk. i remember him looking away from me when he started off by saying, i don't want you to be like the rest of the -- out there. i told him i wanted to be an engineer and a smile grew across

his face. he said, that's all right, too. his encouragement meant so much to me but sadly during my freshman year at san francisco state university, he passed away at 89 years old. the morning before the funeral, our old next door neighbor told me he was glad i was in college and he said that in their time you didn't need a college education to be successful, you just had to be smart and follow instructions. he went on to say that young people today do not realize how important it is to get a college education. through the rest of college, i faced challenges such as being homeless. the house i was raised in in oakland was foreclosed on and my father was -- i stayed with my father for a while and that didn't work out but college track was there for me in my time of need, not only helping me get into college, but helping me graduate from college. they offered me a hardship

scholarship which allowsed me to live on campus. college track has helped fill the void of my great grandparents and they have become my family. i originally got the email to come here from david and i was busy putting together a bid for the presidio, helping out one of my co-workers. and then i was thinking about it while i was at my desk and julian text messaged me, are you coming? and i thought about it, and i thought, i will have to make time to go. i'll have to talk to my boss and negotiate something to be there tonight because college track has been there so much for me, i can't let them down when they're asking me to spend a little bit of time. i want to emphasize to people here tonight, we talk about students, but i also want to emphasize that looking beyond statistics, looking at the individual students, the impact

you'll make with their lives, they're building relationships with college track staff like omar. i ran into marshall's daughters last week in san francisco. they remember the days in college track oakland when i used to babysit them while marshall handled stuff at college track. it's those moments that just by providing a center in san francisco, you're providing memories and not only that, you're not only providing memorying for them, you're providing a foundation for these students to grow build on as they grow to have families of their own, not just careers. another thing i thought about is that i want to leave this world better than what i started when i first got here so to do that, i have to come to events like this. i have to encourage people to give to programs like college track and think about the impact you're having on individual students' lives. i still talk to my trends that were in the program -- friends

that were in the program and college track has made such a big impact. even for the ones that didn't complete college, they realize they have positive. they don't want their kids to grow up the same way they did. they want to tell the person that might be breaking into somebody's car, you don't have break into somebody's car, i'll help you. that's the type of community we need and that's the type of community college track builds everywhere they go. thank you. >> and so i would now like to introduce david silver, the c.u.a. of college track national. >> good evening. today is a historic day, a day in which the community puts a stake in the ground, literally, for equity, so that all students in the bayview will truly have the opportunity to go to college

and pursue their dreams. look around the room. this doesn't happen every day. this is an incredible coalition from across the city and across the bayview and think about what we are creating together. college track can't reach our vision alone. but together, we can, and today, thanks to many of you, we are one step closer. i'd like to thank many of the people here, starting with supervisor cohen, mayor lee and mr. caranza from mr. garcia's office. if we can give them a round of applause. [applause] second, fred blackwell, and the staff at the san francisco redevelopment agency for your support and partnership to make this day possible. to president swig, rick swig and the other members of the sfra board of commissioners, thank

you. to the college track bayview council, and hydra mendoza, ron conway, cofi bonner, and to the college track board who believed in us and believed in our students and this dream. and another group that i would like to thank is the bayview larger community. the p.a.c. and k.a.c. members for all the work you did, the u.s. bank, the other members of the community and community based organizations. you and your ongoing partnership are critical for us as we aim to empower students and families. [applause] thank you to the community and thank you also to the college track staff who has and will continue to work tirelessly to make sure that we reach our vision. i want to also thank a couple of people individually. in addition to omar and the san francisco staff who will be here in this building, raise your hands, if you would, as

well as marshall lott, brian gadson and julie lawyer who helped make this day possible. if we being give the college track staff a round of applause. and the most important people in this room are college track students. if we could bring up the students and if you could come on over here, that would be great. [applause] these students -- come on up -- as they're coming out, they work day in and day out to pursue their dreams. go all the way across. they defy stereotypes, they inspire with us our dedication. they are living proof that college is not an exception but one day it will be an expectation for all students in this community. students, you are the heroes. as we applaud your work, i also would like to have an opportunity here to have mayor

lee, supervisor cohen, everyone that is up here, if you could please come up here, we're going to pause for a picture in a moment. if you can get together. we're going to need more students gathered up in the front. [applause]