if you think about how technology has revolutionized our lives, you think about google and apple -- those were college students that made those changes come about. i am actually standing on the shoulders of giants, giants who were young people. dr. martin luther king was also a young man when he made some of his revolutionary changes to this world, so i want to encourage you to stay vigilant and stay inspired, and i want you to feel supported. i am here to continue to support your education if you need someone to continue to talk to, and allied. i make myself and my staff 100% available to you, but we are here to talk about technology and the commitment and the impact that technology has on education. i opened with an example of google and how it was a young college students that revolutionized how we communicate. and i hope that the next great

application will come from the hearts and minds of some of the young folks in this room or maybe the next new piece of technology, which will revolutionize how we speak to each other, not just here locally but globally, or come from some great mind right here in this room, this institution. i am very excited to be here. thank you, michael stott, for your contribution to the students, and i also consider this to be an investment, so we have to make good on their return that our community is investing in us. so i am here, and i applaud you. thank you very much. [applause] >> next up, i have the pleasure -- actually, i have the pleasure to introduce him. mayor ed lee. he is a delight to work for. i was telling him last night

that he has a high emotional intelligence. of course, he is intellectually savvy, but that is only half of the equation. what good is being smart if you are not able to apply and relate to people? this man has a big heart. he is very intelligent and very knowledgeable about the city workings and very sensitive to the needs of -- too many of us in this room, particularly the southeast part of the city. of course he cares about all of san francisco, but i believe he has a special place in his heart for us in the southeast. without further ado, please put your hands together and welcome ed lee. mayor lee: thank you all for being here today. let me first of all congratulate all of you for moving on from high school. that is still a wonderful thing, right? you are there.

now, you get to make all the decisions. you get to be responsible for your decisions. i want to welcome you to a new club. i want to welcome you to the million-dollar club. you are today members of the million-dollar club. you know what? that is going to be the difference. it is going to be the difference between those that stayed and did not do anything after high school and those that graduate from college. $1 million in salary difference if you have a college degree. so welcome. you are all millionaires. just stick with it. you do not know it now, but you will stick with it. malia was saying earlier, and i believe what she says is really true -- it is kind of different because you may think you are on your own, but when i went to college, a lot of people invested in me. i got some serious scholarships. i do not know about you, but i

grow up in public housing in seattle, washington. i had to make that adjustment. i did not know if i was going to make it or not. i just work hard to see what happens. but in college, i got some people to invest in me. some serious scholarships, just like some of the investments being made to you today from microsoft and other places. and to think differently than you are not really there on your own any more. you have people watching you, people believing i knew, people thinking that if you are succeeding, a lot of other people are going to succeed. think about that for a moment. you take these scholarships. you take microsoft's investment in you. you possibly may get a laptop, but you also may earn some scholarships here. that no longer means you just getting money. it also means people believe in you. they actually put their faith

that you are going to succeed. what i thought about that for a moment, i decided to do it because it was not just for me anymore but all the people who believe that i will succeed. i will do it for them and if i can believe in myself and do it, other people can as well. with the help with the school district, with microsoft working with us, with the educational fund, and beyond 12 and the nonprofit we have to identify things that other people have said, years ago, the kind of prevented them from being successful. we have that all here. we have been identifying it to make it easier so you do not have to deal with it the first time. you can ask what is going to happen, how you cope with it, and how you get around stuff that will be in your way so you can be successful and show other people their investment in new is a good one. every major league player, every

successful person has had someone else invest in them. right now, we believe in you. i will tell you right now, i am investing in new. as the mayor of san francisco, i am looking at you right now, and i will look at you as people can succeed me in this job. i believe you can do it. i know you can if you just put your mind to it, and you do not get distracted from the naysayers, people who do not want you to succeed, or the events that may happen when there is family or friends that distract you. keep focused. keep your mind set on what your doing. and unless the investment people have made in new -- under is the investment people have made in you. i think you will get into the $10 million club. that is what i am trying to do. with that, i promise to make the city welcome you to -- when you

have that degree, to make sure we have the jobs. i am trying to make the city successful. i am trying to make sure muni is on time. but i am also trying to make sure great companies like microsoft, like twitter, like zynga -- all these multimillion- dollar companies about to go public -- i want them to hire you. they will only look at you if you have that degree and that focus. keep this in mind -- other people who did not listen to this and did not know people invested in them -- 27% of those never made it to college. only 27% made it. there is that other 60- something-percent of people that are not thinking they can be successful. so keep your focus and understand all the people that believe in you because we do. no matter what your background is. you can be your own person.

and if you are the first in your family, more blessing to you because the other people in your family are looking out for you as well wanting you to succeed. i want you to succeed so bad. i want to make sure that when you finished your first year and are looking for a job, look us up at city hall. we have some internships. we have some things going on that you can spend time this summer helping us do. look out around you, talk to your friends and tell them to be proud of what they're doing. just because some people say, " you are in college, maybe you are spending your time the wrong way peter -- spending your time the wrong way." you are spending it the right way. i want to thank you for focusing on battery yourselves and better in your community. thank you very much. -- battering yourselves and your community. thank you very much -- bettering

yourselves and your community. thank you very much. >> thank you. we want to bring up the western regional general manager for microsoft. thank you so much. [applause] >> i could not be more honored or excited to be able to represent microsoft at this event. it is so important. and this is one of the most exciting parts of my job. today, we are partnering with the san francisco unified school district, the sanford cisco education fund to help provide new tools for college-bound students -- the san francisco education fund. today, we are donating $5,000 of software and $15,000 in cash that will be used to purchase these fantastic laptops you see so the students that will be attending and are enrolled in the bridge to success program for the summer.

[applause] destination really demonstrates microsoft's-ticket -- dedication to focusing on allowing use this to improving your learning outcomes through the effective use of technology in your learning and also to gain access to all that dynamic digital information that is truly essential for you to be successful in your careers and be a lifelong learner. with that, we would like to make sure that we continue to partner and use this partnership as a role model to further this kind of partnership to enable all education community members to have access to 21st century skills and technology that will enable you to be successful in your college and future careers, so thank you very much. [applause]

>> i would like to introduce renee espinoza from 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!

>> i just want to make a public statement to acknowledge that appointments to the police commission and any commission which is a policy-making body is very important. i want to encourage about keep in front of our minds the importance of not only to elect women, but to work to get more women appointed to these bodies that help make legislative decisions for our city and county of san francisco. >> i am from san francisco. i grew up in the local neighborhood. i did my under deprad wait work at fisk university, where i studied political science with a concentration in public administration and worked eight years largely in the public sector. then i earned a master's degree from carnegie melon in

pittsburg, pennsylvania. i spent some time as assistant executive director for a non-profit. we did work if a lot of kids in the neighborhood. i have done fundraising for candidates and issues. i have experience with the federal reserve bank of san francisco. when i look around my neighborhood and see the changes that are happening, i so there is no neighborhood grocery store. i see that small businesses in particular are coming and going, and they haven't been able to really sustain themselves. from my work experience in working for the city in the mayor's office as well as in the non-profit, i had a good sense as to what some of the challenges were. when i look in the future, i could see more challenges coming. i thought i had a set of experiences and more importantly a passion and desire to serve. >> i understand that no one wants to have their programs cut. of course not. i also want everyone here to understand that no one up here wants to cut programs because they don't care about the

population being served. there are no value ains here. we are all on the same team. it is a tough situation, as we are here so that we can begin the work together. >> i am actually more forward thinking. for me it is less about being left or right, or in this town, moderate or progressive. it is really about the issues and about creating policies that will have a sustainable and lasting positive impact on the families that live here. it is very costly and difficult to do business in sfrinls, to raise your children in san francisco, and i would like to have a voice at that table to really create policies that will minimize that san francisco is not a big business-friendly city. i think we started to go in the wrong direction. the reason why we started walking down that path largely was because of political ideology. when you deal with me, you are dealing with facts, less than politics. i really want to have a positive impact on the city overall. >> good afternoon, everyone. how are you? >> good. >> it's a nice day today.

thank you for coming out to our community event. please give a round of [applause] to them. we have a lot of development going on. you see how lovely leland street looks. do you like it? >> yes. >> beautiful, isn't it? we are going to continue. we have a library that is going to be opening up in june. that's right. so i will see you all there at the library. there is a lot of activity going on. it is important we remain connected and engaged. >> would you mind if we were to pull the seniors together and translate for me in a mini meeting? >> yes, sir. >> what we are going ready to do is we are going to have a quick little mini meeting to -- because we didn't translate my short message before. >> i just want to say i want to welcome everyone to the event.

>> we have folks in visitation valley only talking with visitation valley. we have folks in bayview again only talking in a very small corridor of 3rd straight and the merchant corridor. we don't have people talking to the hill merchant association, doing patch. all these fragrmented conversations are happening, largely talking about the same thing, crime, keeping the streets clean, supporting sbaubs. that is something i made a concerted effort on the campaign to build bridges. >> along third street, dog patch, and everyone along the cord door has the same complaint. >> i have the same complaint. >> we have the third street merchant corridor and an opportunity to revite lies what i consider to be the main artery of the business district. it is a pretty long street. there is a lot of opportunity there.

let's not squander that. when we recruit businesses, we want it to be a healthy mix that reflects the cultural history of the southeast part of the city. we are all human, and how to connect with that human spirit, whether you are in public housing, own your own property, or if your asian, african-american, male or female, we are really a community. when we start to realize and move in the direction of being humans and having this human experience and connecting together, really if you will, being each other's keeper, then san francisco really begins to continue to thrive. years ago on this project. back then, it was an unusual thing to have puc, muni, wastewater -- all those people come together and build up the streets and not come back and tear everything up.

now, it is part of how we do business. whenever we have the possibility of doing some work in the streets, we figure out how to do it together and have as little disruption to the people of san francisco as possible. great to be part of this. thank you to the team on this. thank you, everybody. [applause] >> how about that? we would be remiss if we did not also thank the operators and cable car division staff that not only have provided this lovely backdrop for today's event, but they also provide the great california alliance service that has been running behind you. they also have been instrumental of ensuring continuous service even on buses along cable car lines during the shutdowns and communicating our plans to our customers, with a transport every day. i also want to thank the teams with the cable car project for their diligence in helping san

francisco maintain these important -- maintain this important infrastructure. also i want to thank the hyatt regency behind you, garrett delhi chocolates, and all of sfmta staff for making this a success -- chirar -- ghirardeli chocolates. thank you. >> i believe we are going to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony now? >> 1. 2. 3. all right. [applause]