my goodness, all the mothers and father's and uncles and aunts and godmothers, and aunties and sisters and cousins, everyone that brought us to this pointed to, thank you. and i want to highlight something. i think we've got 126 graduates, right? but 67 of them are from district 10. [cheering and applauding] >> that's because we are leaders of the pack, are we not? leaders, that's exactly what we're talking about here. so, i've just come to say congratulations. i'm so excited. like the mayor said in his remarks, that the future is really right in front of you. i understand that we all go through some challenges in life. but, you know, we are not defined by our challenges. as a matter of fact, what defines us is how we handle those challenges and we use them to continue to build and to continue to move forward. so, you guys are set up for an incredible life and i'm happy that you're here and i want to wish you all the best. and i, too, am here to continue

to support and nurture and inspire and up lift you every single day of the year. thank you very much for your hard work. (applause) >> and now district 8 supervisor, scott wiener. (applause) >> good morning, and congratulations to all of you. you know, we've been reading a lot in the paper recently about some challenges at the housing authority, and thank you to mayor lee and to others for really focusing on moving the organization forward. but i think it's always important to keep in mind that, you know, as many challenges as the authority has, we still have a thriving community and we have lots of young people like you who are moving forward and are going to do great things in the community and in your lives. and, so, i think it's always important to keep focusing on the positive, about the amazing

community that we have and we're going to turn this around and everything is going to go in a positive direction. you know, i also just want to congratulate the partner here to the housing authority, that is our school district. our public school system is so on the way up and, you know, it started with elementary schools, moving up to our middle schools, and the back bet -- i am now after the school sign-up letters went out, i'm happy to share this, getting people who are so mad that their kids didn't get into mission or balboa high school. [cheering and applauding] >> and we weren't necessarily getting those five or ten years ago and that is a real testament to our school district and the partnership with the city. and i know that we're all going to move everything in a very positive direction. so, congratulations and here's to a great life moving forward. thank you. (applause)

>> and now we will hear from our district 5 supervisor, london breed. [cheering and applauding] >> hi, everybody. i am just so honored to be here. i grew up in public housing. i grew up in plaza east. i see some of my folks here. [applauding] >> on eddie and laguna, spent more than half my life there. and sadly back then when i was graduating from high school, a lot of the people that i grew up with were not graduating with me. i looked over this list of young kids. i see kids i know from -- well, you guys are not kids any more, right? you're adults. and it's really -- it's like none of you are my children, but i know what you went through growing up in public housing. i know the challenges that we faced in this city and how i know as a kid, i felt neglected. i felt lost. i felt that there was no opportunity for me, but had it not been for some incredible

adults, mentors, some mayor youth employment and training program, i don't know what i would have done. my brother didn't graduate from college. he's in jail. my sister -- excuse me, my brother didn't go to high school. i lost my sister to a drug overdose. i had some serious challenges growing up. i went through college, made it. i know each and every one of you can make it. you can make it. if i can do it through everything that i've been through -- and i know there have been some challenges, i know that there have been some losses, i know you want to turn back, you didn't want to deal with the teacher or deal with your mom or deal with the community -- i know what it feels like to want to walk away and just give up. but you can't because something is waiting for each and every one of you and that's an opportunity. an opportunity to be successful, an opportunity to grow up, become a member of the board of supervisors and do everything you can to try and change the environment. that's exactly what i'm doing right now as a member of the

board of supervisors. i want to make sure that each and every one of you have an opportunity for a great job. yvonne has been coming to me for many years, i want to work, i want to work, i want to work. the mayor and all these officials have made a commitment to kids in this city that they're going to be working and they're going to be thriving and we have to make sure -- it's our responsibility in working with you to make sure that you have an opportunity. so, don't play around with us. we're not here to play games. we're here to make success stories out of each and every one of you. (applause) >> so, today is a beginning of those success stories. congratulations and i'm looking forward to working with each and every one of you. thank you all so much, family and friends, for being here. (applause) >> and now mayor lee. >> so, who inexpires you?

who makes you think about what's going happen tomorrow for you, yourself, what you want to do, what you're thinking about? ~ inspires in this room there's a lot of people with a lot of inspiration. whether it's london and how she went through in her life, or malia or scott, whether it's our school district superintendent who has been doing great work. this year there were a lot of people on teams that inspired me, and that's the role of professional sports, i think, is that they play this wonderful game, games -- whether it's football or baseball or basketball -- and they get past the regular season to be outstanding for ourselves. and we watch them. we watch the confetti come down during the roofs.

we watch through inspiration when they score baskets. we even see some unique poses this year after some scores. some poses that i don't think i can do and get the same kind of reaction this gentleman is doing. he's been an inspiration. graduated from purdue, played basketball there, basketball association six years. and came to the warrior, and my first year, boom, everybody is a warrior because this gentleman not only on the court, not only communicating with the fan, but becoming an inspiration for all of us. and for me, i finally found somebody taller than supervisor scott wiener. [laughter] >> carl landry, inspiration, power forward, sixth man on the team comes in. not only does he make room

underneath, but when he scores, you know it. and then everybody's got to pay attention, and that's why the whole national basketball association paid attention to the warriors, because individuals came on the team. they showed what they can do and they contributed every night, every game whenever they were called on, whatever role it was, and usually for mr. landry, it was get in there and make some room, clear it out. and then everybody takes notice. and this is the inspiration that he had coming off the bench. he is recognized as one of the great team members to come here. and i want to ask for his inspiration going forward. let me introduce to you golden state warriors forward power tom landry! [cheering and applauding]

>> thank you, mayor lee. on behalf of myself and the golden state warriors organization, i want to say congratulations to you guys. i mean, you have already beat the odds. it's not easy, but again, i want to say congratulations. i sat in a similar situation as you guys in high school where a lot of people around me, you know, it just didn't look good, you know. but i continued to fight and i continued to do the things that it took to be successful and i made it through. so, i'm standing here as a living witness to say that it is possible for you guys to be successful and do whatever you want in life, you know. you need to continue to set goals. if i had an encouraging word to tell you continue to set goals, i know you have goals.

keep working hard and don't let go of the rope because the sky is definitely the limit and you can be whatever you want. you can be an nba player, you can be a doctor, a nurse, you can take the mayor's job. [laughter] >> you can do whatever you want. don't let your past determine your future. if i had something to tell you, plea don't because no matter how it looks around you, that's not who you are. you're special and you can be whatever you want. and just continue to work hard because you can do whatever you want. and again, on behalf of myself and the warriors organization, i just want to say congratulations. [cheering and applauding] >> thank you, mr. landry. and now we will hear from the director of government affairs from comcast, mr. hong chang who graciously under wrote the projection of today's event. (applause) >> thank you, christina.

thank you for allowing comcast to be part of this celebration and to the class of 2013. you know, you have every reason to be proud of what you have been able to accomplish today. you know, there's a great future for you. and the message from me is pretty simple. just be mindful that you're not on this journey or in this fight all alone. you always have your families, have your, you know, friends, have the mayor, have the elected officials here, have everybody in the community behind you to achieve your dream. just, you know, congratulations. always remember, you know, it's not always going to be just moments of celebrations. there will be moments of you feeling very tired. you will feel you have setbacks, you have heart breaks. but, you know, you have a village here.

the village by the beautiful name of san francisco working to be here for you. thanks again. (applause) >> and now our last speaker who is the superintendent of san francisco unified school district, mr. richard karanza. (applause) >> so, good afternoon, good morning, congratulations to the class of 2013. how about another round of applause for them, huh? this is great. (applause) >> anything that i could add would just be redundant. i mean, when you hear the mayor speak, when you hear supervisor breed speak about her experience, i just want you to understand that where you start is only where you start, right. it's how you finish and how you finish strong. we are so proud of the fact that you're all leaving here today, you already have a diploma that says san francisco unified school district, right?

that's your gate -- that's your ticket, that's your key to the future. and only you know what that future is going to be. i want you to come back and take my job, seriously. you need to do that to give back to our community. now, a couple of you asked, so, what happened, why are you on crutches? i could tell you, except i promised carl that i wouldn't talk about our audition game when i had to go one on one with him. [laughter] >> aside from that, mayor lee said he's somebody taller than supervisor wiener. well, he's met somebody shorter than supervisor wiener, too. so, all i want to say to you, is somebody gave me great advice once when they said, when you give remarks, keep it real and keep it real short. so, i'm going to keep it real short and we're looking forward to giving you your certificates. and again, congratulations. we're looking forward to you taking the world by storm. congrats. (applause) >> and we now have two announcements. i'm going to have ms. linda martin from the housing

authority and mr. justin davis come up to the stage. (applause) >> good morning. the san francisco housing authority would like to present five graduates with a scholarship to assist with the expenses of higher education. these graduates have been accepted into two or four-year colleges. a big thank you first of all from the housing authority does go to our graduates because you are now examples, both in your families and your communities and in san francisco. so, without further ado, the first scholarship goes to mariana sanders who has been accepted to sweet buyer college in virginia. (applause) >> the second scholarship goes to juan, attending a two-year college. (applause)

>> the third scholarship goes to gregory sail bury who has also been accepted and attending a two-year college. (applause) ~ >> the fourth scholarship goes to deja moore who has been accepted and attending san francisco state university. (applause) >> okay, juan has to be here. juan jones who has been accepted and attending city college. [cheering and applauding] >> the other checks will be mailed. thank you. [cheering and applauding]

>> congratulations. and now we will hear from mr. justin davis who is the program manager of the college bound brotherhood [speaker not understood] for social impact. (applause) >> congratulations, lauren. wow. so, this announcement is really for you and some of your other fellow african-american graduates. [speaker not understood] formerlyedth mission k-4 foundation. we are based in oakland, california. we just moved there from san francisco. i actually make the community -- not really. but nonetheless, in san francisco, i'm glad to be here

to make the announcement. june 19th we're going to recognize african-american young men who have graduated high school and are going to college. this is an annual event that we host. we are very proud to be putting it together and recognizing young black men. so, this is a call announcement for all the young brothers who are graduating from the college, your friends, family to come out, support these young men. juan, we have something special for you and all other young participants, a $100 gift card just for coming out, participating. (applause) >> [speaker not understood]. so, i know how much $100 can carry you when you're hungry at night, pizza, laundry, whatever, whatever you need it for, we have it. we just ask that you participate. i'll have more information in the back. for folks who want information, it is the url brotherhood grad celebration 2013.event.com or you can go to the website, k4

center dug.org, june 19th at the oakland museum in california. thank you. (applause) >> and now we will do the distribution of the certificates of honor. so, if superintendent karanza and mendosa who is a member of the board of education and the senior advisor to education come up. oh, and mr. landry, i'm sorry, you need to stay here, too. >> good morning, everyone. congratulations, graduates. what a wonderful day today. so, we're going to go through. come on down. we've got some hands to shake, if we can get david and london, do you mind coming over and shaking some hands with us, that would be great. don't stand near carl, though, because he's really tall. [laughter]

>> so, our first graduate is alicia amagan. come on over, alicia. (applause) >> our next graduate yatzia f. chan. congratulations. (applause) >> our next graduate, franklin buchanan, mr. buchanan, congratulations. [cheering and applauding] [laughter] >> yeah, nice hat. (applause)

>> our next graduate, joseph cain. where are you, joseph? come on down, mr. cain. (applause) >> congratulations. our next graduate, stefana cobb. ms. cobb, where are you? congratulations. (applause) >> take that applause. our next graduate, quincy collins, mr. collins, congratulations. (applause)

>> our next graduate, juan jones. mr. jones, recipient of a scholarship, congratulations, mr. jones. [cheering and applauding] >> our next graduate, chaie louie. did i pronounce it right? did i pronounce your name right? come here and tell me your name. i'm so sorry. >> [inaudible]. >> [speaker not understood]. sorry. (applause)

>> our next graduate, john mcdonald. [cheering and applauding] >> mr. mcdonald, congratulations. yeah. (applause) >> that's wonderful. our next graduate, chantelle mc neil. ms. mc neil, come on down. congratulations. (applause) >> our next graduate, ashley nash. ms. nash, congratulations. (applause)

>> our next graduate, francois palette, congratulations. (applause) >> that's great, congratulations. our next graduate, caitlin perkins-council. ms. perkins-council. (applause) >> our next graduate, maurice ross. mr. ross, congratulations. (applause)

[cheering and applauding] >> nice. our next graduate, naja skinner. ms. skinner, congratulations. [cheering and applauding] >> smile for mom, that's great. our next graduate, yesinia valez. ms. valez, congratulations. [cheering and applauding]

>> our next graduate, alana waldron. ms. waldron, congratulations. (applause) >> our next graduate, angela garape. ms. garape, congratulations. (applause)

>> and our next graduate, anye she. ms. she, congratulations. (applause) >> ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the class of 2013! [cheering and applauding] >> can you guys stand up? stand up, show us, yeah! [cheering and applauding] >> we have one more graduate i

want to bring down. mr. landsers, willie landers, come on down. [cheering and applauding] ~ [cheering and applauding] >> another one? one more, one more. wait a minute, they keep coming. they keep coming. more and more graduates. mr. eldon, andrei eldon. my bad, andrei hilton. congratulations. (applause)

>> all right, for real, though, this time, let's give it up for our class of 2013. (applause) >> i want to thank superintendent karanza, our golden state warrior carl landry and our supervisors breed and president chiu. thank you, christina. your staff for an amazing event. we want to kristine johnson all the parents, teacher, principals who came out to celebrate our kids. congratulations, everyone. please stay and join us for refreshments and congratulating our graduates.