>> lily beth rogilio. >> mr. john steel. >> i was calling him james all semester. i want to mention miss caludia stella she is actually working at tyson management and she could not make it in but she is working. >> next up is austin ming sue. [ applause ] >> last but not least mr. bang, king wo.

>> now for the catb scholarships. all right. >> before i pass those out, i wanted to thank the construction industry advisory council, which consists of employers, educators and city partners, necessary to keep the program content current, comprehensive and competitive. these employers are fantastic to work with and especially for their role in providing internship opportunities as a gateway to long term employment within the industry. our scholarship donors for this cycle came from kathleen carroll of heroro contractors. mr. victor marques of the marques law group. >> miss alia of turner.

>> david lou of ucsf and mark gerar. and mr. jeff peterson of web corp and miss judy sorro, in memory of mitch sorro. >> now i would like to announce the four scholarships. these scholarships represent specific achievements. the first scholarship is awarded to richard may in the amount of $500 for his dedication to the program, going above and beyond the requirements to study construction management and blueprint reading come on up. [ applause ] >> >> the second to ron red head for his commitment to his

professional values for $500. >> the third scholarship to bang wo in the amount of $500 for commitment of aligning his goals with industrial qualifications in san francisco, plus he had perfect attendance. [ applause ] >> now, the final scholarship is very special to mission hiring hall. this scholarship is awarded to jessie nelson in the amount of $500 from the maria hasel scholarship fund, this award represents outstanding achievement in the face of

multiple challenges his per seer veer ans represents everything that the community stands for and we honor his memory by honoring jessy's hard work and dedication. [ applause ] thank you, so much. this is wonderful, thank you. >> [ applause ] thank you, stella, thank you, students. i will now like to bring to the stage arkadia maxima. [ applause ] a city college of san francisco city build coordinator. and this will actually be and

unfortunately will be her last cycle. but she will be still running the energy efficiency class and so that is a plus. and her tireless effort over many, many years will be desperately missed. arkadia? >> hello, everyone. i'm going to announce the scholarship awards because i know that you have been waiting anxiously for that. >> city college of san francisco would like to congratulate the graduating class of city build cycle 16 and on behalf of the city build faculty, we are all very proud of your hard work and what you have achieved these past 18 weeks. 18 weeks for 35 hours a week, is a long time to commit to a program of study, without pay. but that is exactly what our

students endure. and we recognize the sacrifice and want to reward those who have demonstrated achievement in our program. it is because of this we are happy to present, 6 scholarships in the amount of $500 each to these very deserving students. >> our first award goes to one of our youngest students fresh from high school. he in fact was recommended to city build by many of his high school counselors, he loved working with his hands and so well mannered and helpful and our first award goes to conrad cole. [ applause ] >> you are welcome.

>> next was hard working and took school very seriously and in fact more serious than most students. opportunities like city build don't come around often. so if you are lucky enough to get it, you seize it to its fullest and that is exactly what this student did. our next award goes to briget goodman. we know the saying when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. the next awardee always smiling and a good sense of humor and despite the challenges in the personal life they removed the bitter and looked to the sweet, our next recipient is jonathan

regara. >> another saying that we are all familiar with is that at first you don't succeed, try, try again and in our next award case try again for the third time. well, it is true, the third time is the charm, because they were finally accepted into city build. others would have succumb to defeat, instead she rose to the challenge and prove that they did deserve a spot in city build and that person is princess green. [ applause ] >> princess is very special to me because she was kind of like

the little sister i looked after in the academy, i really pushed for her to get in, i know that she was trying hard. congratulations. [ applause ] >> our final award goes to one of our youngest students, fresh from high school and in fact he too was recommended to city build by his high school counselors, he is smart and polite and helpful, didn't she just say that? >> yes, and it is not the same person, and no you are not see double, our final award goes to hunter cole. >> congratulations to all of our recipients, you deserve it. >> now, i would like to begin the commencement exercise. when i call your name, please

step forward. brian anderson. >> eric flats. >> alberto, bustamante. >> conrad cole. >> hunter cole. >> and fransisco nunes. >> william author dow senior. >> fredrick fong. >> alfredo garcia. >> bridget maria goodman.

>> princess green. >> jonathan gravara. >> june she ye. >> young ben wang. >> nicholas hufnagle. >> charles jacobs. >> gitara january. >> shia chang wo ng. >> wing lamb. >> david lee.

>> allen, lee. >> christensen lean. >> crystal blocket. >> eric madian. >> pierre middleton viez. >> joanne moore. >> alicia powell. >> germ an wigins. >> ricky rawlins. >> darrel rushing.

>> peter oliver. >> michael sierra. >> kerri winford. >> barry wo o. fonshi sin. >> and wilson bangs. >> congratulations to all of our graduates. [ applause ] >> thank you, arcadia and thank you graduates. i would quickly like to acknowledge udo and david dalatory from the labor area here today and i have the pleasure of introducing our fearless leader the director of city build pat mulligan

>> thank you. >> thanks. >> i want to thank everybody that participated in this event. it is really heartwarming after the end of 18 weeks to go through this process and i want to congratulate the class that each of the student completed the 18-week section of training but now you embark on a new career. and so the work now begins in earnest really. it is just the beginning, endure, preserver and work hard and there are opportunities and money to be had, go out and take them, you know? i want to thank all of the contractors who really looked to serve through the process and to serve this pipeline. herra balls and web corp, swenderdon and kay hill and i want to acknowledge the union trade partners. the laborers were such an

integral component of this programming and the carpenter's union which i'm so closely attached to. thanks for coming manny. >> and also, our broader expansion with the sheet metal workers, with the electricians and with the operating engineers, and the long list of trade unions that we participated in our programming. i want to thank everybody, and enjoy the food, take care. [ applause ] >> i want to learn more about it. >> social networking and e-mail. >> i want to know how to use it. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> divisional divide is a

divide between those with access to use digital tools and those who don't. >> with young people, having computers and i just don't know. they're doing it fast. so, i want to know. >> not knowing how to navigate the internet or at a loss of what to do. >> we don't have a computer. >> we're a nonprofit that unites organizations and volunteers to transform lies through literacy. our big problem right now is the broadband opportunity program. a federally funded project through the department of aging. so, we're working in 26 locations. our volunteers are trained to be tutors and trainers, offering everything from basic classes all the way to genealogy and job search. >> to me computers, knowing how

to use it. >> i think it's really important to everybody and possibly especially seniors to get enough of these skills to stay in touch. >> it's been fun. with seniors, to get them out of their homes. >> so they can connect with their family members. or their family members. >> [speaking in spanish]. >> so, what we focus on is transferring skills from volunteer to learner to help them get onto facebook, find housing in crisis, be able to

connect with friends and family. >> i decided to teach what i learn and it made me want to give back. i discovered that seniors do a lot of review. >> i am a beginner, so, little by little i learn. i learn a lot now. >> if you get the basics, you can learn it. it's simple. it's easy. once you know it. and that's what i want to learn, how to make my life easier and more knowledgeable with the computer. >> so, what we need right now are more people who speak languages other than english or in addition to english who can give their time during the day and who care deeply ideally about helping to close the divide. >> it's a humbling experience.

it's something simple to ask in our daily life, but to someone that doesn't know and to help somebody gain that experience in any way is awesome. >> [speaking in spanish]. >> no matter how tired or cranky or whatever i might feel, when i walk into this place i always walk out feeling great. >> if you feel comfortable using computers and you have patience, we want you on our team. >> would you show me how to type? >> [speaking in spanish]. >> will you help me learn more?

>> thank you very much, we are in a construction site. and the work is under way, we want to make sure that we not only celebrate, but celebrate safely, but i am here to welcome you all in the morning, and thank you so much for coming my name is ed riskin and i am the director of transportation and i could not be happier to see all of you here today to celebrate what is pretty a tremendous milestone in the advancement of phase two of muni light rail project, otherwise known as the central subway, it is really just such a tremendous effort, and a cap stone of many, many years, and for some of you decades worth of work, to get to this point. certainly something worthy of celebrating. we have got a lot of people who in one way or another, themselves or through their organizations are a part of how

we got to this point i just want to acknowledge some of them. besides the people, some of whom you will hear from that are up on stage including on you mayor, members of the board, the supervisors members of the sfmta board of directors, we also are pleased to be joined by our lead federal funder, of the u.s. department of transportation administration, and leslie roger and give him a hand of the regional administrator. and he is the one that started delivering that big check to us. back in october. i don't know that he is here and another important partner and we are sit ng his right-of-way underneath the structure, cal trans, region four director bj sartepi. we also have one of the central things that the subway does is bring connection to the transit

including the upcoming high speed rail. so we have ben from the high speed rail authority, let's give him a hand, thank you for being here. we have a number of the our communities supporters as well, karin floods from the union square bid, very strong partner and they have been putting up with us as we have been working through her neighborhood, carlin diamond from the market street association. cathy, and andrew from the (inaudible) cvd and jim lazares that i was just talking to and he is already working on the next phase and we have the china town and many of our china ton including in the front row miss rows pack and mr. gordon chin. and we have a number of members of our community advisory group for the central subway. people who have volunteered their time as everyone else

just mentioned has year after year to suffer this project through to make sure that we are doing it well and doing it right. and finally, there is a lot of leadership and support from the communities, from the federal partners and from the government and from city hall that makes all of this happen, but at the end of the day, everybody has to drive this project forward and so i want to acknowledge the subway director, john sungi, since 2006 john has been working day and night living and breathing this project to make sure that it happens, i think that he has a central subway tattoo on his arm. i think that the tunnel manage machine down stairs has spent more time with tom than his family has. he has been bringing expertise and commitment to improving the transit in san francisco to bear in this project day in and day out for the last seven years now. so i know that this is a big

day for him and i want to thank him and his excellent team and the sfmta staff and dpa staff and the contractors and all of whom have been working hard to get us here today. and then i also want to acknowledge some of the political leadership, that is really been a part of bringing this project forward. the significant federal commitment to this project between the first and second phase is nearly half of the funding has come from the federal government recognizing the regional and national significance of this project and so of course our senators and their offices have been behind us all of the way and then a particular our leader the leader of the house of representatives nancy pelosi, has been one of the strongest supporters for this project and we are delighted to have the new chief of staff joining us if we could, give a round of

applause for all of the officials fed and state that have been behind us. and we also have mike here and we are putting a lot of people to work with this project and it is not just a transit benefit that we get in 2019, when we turn on the switch and open the revenue service, but this immediate economic benefit that this project is bringing now to get people to work. and while the economy is a little stronger now than when we started work a year or so again it was not so much and we were getting people off the benches and in their booths working on the ground. and an important benefit of this project for the economy of san francisco today and not just tomorrow. and ultimately this is about public transportation and it is about investing in the future of public transportation in the city and we are a transit first city and we need to better move the people who are trying to get around san francisco today, as well as those who will be coming to san francisco tomorrow. so this is really about

building for the future, strengthening the transit system that we have today and i think that i am going to stop now because i have talked too long and bring up the people that you want to hear from starting with the leader in san francisco, a man who not only understands transportation and jobs, and i think that you have heard of him talk about jobs but understands the importance of infrastructure and investing in the economy and san francisco has pleased to follow him as public works director and i think that having been a public works director he really gets this stuff and as the mayor he has a bigger view of this and has done a great job in leading it in infrastructure and please join in welcoming mayor ed lee. [ applause ] >> thank you, ed and thank you

to you and your staff again, to your board of directors, tom, and the rest of the commissioners, thank you for your leadership. i also want to thank the board of supervisors for working so closely with us and a couple of them up here, i think that this is a really good reason to celebrate supervisors, that we have this great project, also i want to say a big thanks to our former mayers and i had the individual of being here at this time. but, i think back, and i know rose knows what i am talking about, two and a half decades, you know, willie brown, lieutenant nusom, and the mayors before us working in concert, with our federal partners or working very closely with our neighborhood leaders. we are able to get and enjoy this day. i am looking forward to eating the cake. not just because i like cake

but also because it represents a struggle for our communities for quite some years to say that we are going to be here and that we are going to be part of the future of this city and that is what this t-line extension really means, and central subway is a great transportation project but it is also a reflection, that they are also here to stay and prosper with staoet and yes we will have that conversation about the future beyond that, but the future right here, is about making sure that we connect up the north and south. the modern san francisco will have a transportation system that will reflect that and this is why it is so meaningful, is because i do know in a few years that we will be saying why did it take this long to get here. this is such a great idea to connect up and i know this is

at the heart of the feelings of the people who live in china town and whether it is in the projects and the small businesses along stockton street all the way down fourth street right to here and we are going to marvel at why we would not have done this faster and quicker. because we are going to grow with this system and i think in a very short time you are going to see the value of this system moving people as quickly as it does now when you see the subway of market street working a lot of people, and it is going to be the same thing and there is a lot of growth that is happening in the south east corridor and they want to connect up with the north east corridor. and so, this is our future, this is what we have been talking about and it it is right here before us and it starts and i also want to give a big thanks, fong, you and rose, and gordon and so many other people have been such strong leaders of this effort

along with the federal partners and the regional partners and to have the nails of the boring tunnel machines that are reflected here, (inaudible) chung, thank you for being here and you are a decent ant here and i believe that it is the grand niece, and then, of course, big alma which will be the boring tunnel machine that shows up next month, and it will be under construction and be complimenting the two machines that will be part of this sef fort and i am excited to hear the reving up of the tunnel bore machines and i understand that we can't do that today because of safety reasons and ones that notice starts happening once the digging starts and the tunneling starts then i think that we will have that great reflection of two and a half if not three decades of effort that has been here to make sure that we modernize our city and make sure that our communities are connected up. and i also want