time then governor pete wilson trying to kick immigrants out of affordable housing. in both instances, justice prevailed. i have had a chance to work with everyone in this room as a public official. and i will tell you that during my time as a public official, the fight for justice has been front and center. working with so many of you, we have been involved in our collective fight for civil rights. not just the right to housing or the rights for immigrants but for lgbtq rights, for women's rights, for the right to choose. i can tell you, as the next city attorney, i'm going to continue the fight for our collective civil rights. in the wake of #metoo and black lives matter and anti asian hate, there's more work to be done. (applause)

as a lawmaker i'll tell i my fight for justice has been taking on the most entrenched corporate interest in america. in the legislature we took on big pharma and big oil, we took on gun manufacturers, lead paint companies for poisoning families. we took on wall street banks for failing our community and predatory for-profit schools for failing our kids. and i will tell you as our next city attorney, i will continue this fight for justice, i will continue to stand up to protect workers, to ensure that we are standing up for consumers and we will hold corporations accountable. (applause)

a third priority, as a policy maker my fight for justice has been solving the biggest challenges of the day, whether it is ensuring we get people back on their feet after the great recession and this one or making sure millions of tenants are not being convicted during the pandemic. as your next city attorney, i look forward to working with each and every one of you for how we can use the rule of the law and take the opportunity to address the pressing problems of the day, whether it be housing and homelessness and suffering on our streets or the crisis of climate or whether it be rooting out corruption and ensuring we are holding city hall to the highest ethical standards. this is what we're going to do.

let me close with two final thoughts. first, i like to observe that at this moment in united states history, we live in dark times. rights that we thought we had taken for granted are at serious risk, the right to vote, the right to choose, the right to healthcare. the san francisco city attorney's office over the years has stood through dark times. when no one thought marriage equality was possible, when donald trump came after san francisco and our sanctuary city status. when mayor london breed needed legal advice to figure out how to defend our city against a new novel virus called covid-19, the legal attorneys at the san francisco attorney's office, they have wealded their legal sword time after time for city

and country and i can't wait to roll up my sleeves the work along side them. (applause) my final thought, my hope really is for my 5-year-old son lucas. as we were discussing in the car today, as i drove him to drop him off at kindergarten and promised my wife i would drop him off every day, you know, lucas doesn't yet understand the work that i do, the work that we all do here at city hall. but lucas does understand that it's not right that too many people live on our streets in the middle of the rain. lucas understands that when you look up at the sky, the color of the sky should not be dark orange. and lucas understands that when

you learn about something that is wrong, it's our responsibility to not just speak up but to do something about it. professor cornell west has said, never forget that justice is what love looks like in public. justice is what loves like in public. my profound hope is that when lucas is older, buddy, when you're older, some day you will say that your papa and the city attorney general's office fought for justice out of love for our brothers and sisters and out of love for our next generation. thank you. (applause)

all right. good afternoon everyone. i'm san francisco mayor london breed. and i am joined by the

chancellor of san francisco state university lei mahoney and the superintendent of the san francisco unified school district dr. matthews and we are making what i think is an extraordinary announcement. many of you know that here in san francisco. 83% of san franciscans have been vaccinated. but you know who's leading the way? our kids. so that is absolutely remarkable and i'm really proud of all of our kids who are stepping up and doing their part because what we want to do is, of course, get our institutions of higher learning as well as the school district and many of our schools that are open, we want them to stay

open and we want the teachers, we want the administrators, we want the janitors and all of the folks who work in the schools and our kids to be safe and so far so good right, dr. matthews. now, we are on the west side of town of san francisco, state university and i can tell everyone we're on the west side because usually we have all the clouds in the air. but that's how we like it in san francisco. san franciscans love the fog. we love the clouds. we love the comforts of being apart of a community that really is an extraordinary community. a number of students here are happy to return to campus and so many kids are happy to go back to school. i'm sure many of you who have children or those who encounter, the first thing i asked are you happy that you're back in school and now back in the day, with us as kids, we

probably would have said no unless we went through a global pandemic and every kid is like, yes, i'm so happy. all of the things that we used to do. that's really remarkable. and, today, our special announcement is something that as i said i think is extraordinary because and we have dr. baba here from the department of public health. thank you for your work and for being here as well. our announcement here today is really because we want to get more kids vaccinated and the announcement today is that san francisco state university is offering a chance for people who are vaccinated and plan to get vaccinated to enter into a drawing that would allow for free full four-year ride at san francisco state university. that is something worth clapping for.

so we're talking about a full ride and so those of you who have already went to college or who are enrolled in college, this does not include you. this only includes our kids ages 12-17 who can go to a number of sides which we're going to talk about where you can register as long as you show proof of vaccination and those who are still holding out and waiting to get vaccinated. here's your chance at a whole ride in your back yard at san francisco state university. this is an extraordinary partnership between san francisco unified school district and san francisco state because, yes, we want our kids to be fully vaccinated, but most importantly, we also want them to have access to a higher education and one that is affordable. i know so many kids in san francisco choose san francisco state as an option to attend college including our own dr. vince matthews who is

probably an alumni here at san francisco state. so it's not too late for that other 10% of kids age 12-17. here's your shot. don't miss your shot like hamilton. i'm not throwing away my shot. well, go get your shot. go get your vaccine and make sure that you enter to be apart of this drawing where ten lucky students from san francisco unified school district will be selected to attend san francisco state university on a free ride and i can't think of a better incentive than that in order to be apart of what i think is an incredible institution that has been apart of the fabric of san francisco for so many years. with that, i want to introduce the superintendent of the san francisco unified school district who's been really an extraordinary leader during difficult times and who is here as an alumni, a proud alumni of not just san francisco state,

but also public schools like i am here in san francisco. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome dr. vincent matthews. >> thank you, mayor breed for those kind words. good afternoon everyone, i am absolutely thrilled to be here back on what i consider my campus. i am a proud alumni of san francisco state. i have three degrees from here. my masters and my doctorate all from san francisco state. so i'm very proud and humbled to be here today. i was just thinking on the ride over, it was back in -- the summer of 1982, i was at a cross roads in my life. i just graduated from city college. i was working. i was a checker at lucky's, so i was making a pretty good salary and i was going to try to figure out what i was going to do for the rest of my life. was i going to continue at lucky's or was i going to do something different.

so what i did at that point, i applied for at that point what was called cal grant aid. if i got the cal grant, then i was going to come to san francisco state. what actually happened was those dollars gave me hope. once i got the dollars in hand, i came to san francisco state and i just told you. i have no doubt, if i did not have those dollars, the dollars from cal grant a, i would not be standing in front of you today. what's happening right now is the opportunity for scholarships and for the students who eventually will get these scholarships. this is the opportunity. this is hope for them. so i'm so proud of the city, san francisco state and the district partnering together to make this happen for our youth. dollars, funding, partnership. it's another thing to know that you have the dollars to make it happen. i'm so extremely grateful for san francisco state as i said

for our great city of san francisco and for our school district to come together to make this happen for our youth. one of the things i said at the beginning of this pandemic is we have to take care of each other. we can, you know, it's like people in a row boat, you can get in the row boat and you can argue with each other or you can figure out how we're going to take care of each other and how we're going to support each other. one of the additional things i said is one of the ways we can take care of each other is by getting vaccinated. that's so critical. you take care of yourself, but not only yourself, you take care of your neighbor to get vaccinated. as the mayor said, our young people, 90% have gotten vaccinated, but we want 100%. our young people are leading the way and we are going to do everything we can to encourage them to make that happen. these scholarships as they come forward are san francisco state, the city, the district giving back which we all should do. it's also us taking care of each other and that's why this

event today is so important. we want you to get vaccinated, number one, and here's an opportunity for you to get as you heard a full ride to san francisco state. the greatest institution in the history of human kind. it's an opportunity for us to give back and make sure students have the schools they need to thrive in the 21st century. i'm so proud of being here and being apart of this partnership and now i'd like to introduce someone who keeps all of our city scholars at the forefront of the president of san francisco state lei mahomey. >> thank you superintendent matthews. i just want to thank you all for joining us today and especially our partner san francisco mayor, the honorable london breed. my favorite at the moment alumnus, you're all my favorite, san francisco unified school district superintendent

matthews. we also have dr. baba from the san francisco department of public health. alex wong is here representing senator scott weaner's office and i want to thank in particular the san francisco state university foundation board of directors and chair kimberly brandon. as the superintendent mentioned, access is important, but dollars are important. and so i want to thank the san francisco state university board of directors and chair kimberly brandon for supporting this program. we couldn't have done it without them. we are so proud to be here today to join the san francisco department of public health, the mayor's office and san francisco unified schools in partnering to make sure we get vaccinated. it has been a pleasure to be a president of a university in which the mayor and the department of public health led the nation in its response to the pandemic. not just the state, but the nation. and this is just another step in that direction.

the san francisco state, we took the need to get vaccinated very seriously and all of my appeals, we've required vaccination for in-person activities in the fall. we went further modelling ourselves after the city and the department of public health. we require that our students provide actual proof of vaccination. we would not let them in a class on the first monday of classes had they not provided that proof of vaccination and just as we keep talking about our young people leading the way, our students led the way. over 98% of san francisco state is participating in-person face-to-face activities this fall are vaccinated and have provided that. this is more incentive for our young people to lead the way. among many of the consequences of the pandemic that we all worry about, i worry about in particular what it's going to do to the rate of college attendance. we have seen proof across the state that attended the community colleges has declined

and in particular, there are concerns be about college goingness among our black and latinx students in the state. so this program is an attempt to do two things. it is to support the city in its efforts to get us back to normal by getting us as close to 100% as we can of vaccination rates. it's also about reminding students that there's nothing more important as they do their own upward mobilities and i appreciated the superintendent's story about the moment in which the availability of a grant made a difference for him. in san francisco state, we are particularly proud of our role as an engine of upward mobility and educational equity and, in fact, in the west by world news and report for our work in the upward mobility of our graduates. these scholarships provide us an opportunity to further public health goals and as

importantly, help the city and san francisco unified by building the next generation of leaders for the city's workforce. so again, we're grateful to the partnerships that were expressed today and i want to thank those of san francisco state and the city. i haven't been here for more than five minutes. it is now my pleasure to introduce dr. baba from the san francisco department of public health who she serves as a deputy director. thank you. >> thank you, president mahoney. this is such an exciting day and we cannot be more grateful for the everies around getting scholarships out to this cohoard. over 90% fully vaccinated, that's just incredible and that's really a tribute to both them as well as their parents. so if there's a way that we can

give back and save them a little bit on their educational cost, i think that's more than enough reward. we know that the 12% cohort as well as children in general have been through a lot throughout the pandemic. and, you know, the way to recover is to get them back together, to get them back into school and society be with the community so they can be out and volunteering and working and being with their friends. vaccination has been critical as part of that effort. we are really excited about this program. i want to mention the fact that our community-based partners have done a lot to make sure that the work gets out to our young population and we have over 100 vaccine sites to create low barrier access to vaccinations for the entire community. i think one of the things we know is that incentives can work in certain circumstances. we've hit 90% in this this age

group, but a little bit more of a push so we can get as close that 98% of the students are here and vaccinated. and i just want to say that, you know, i think one of the things that we all should offer is hope for the future and that there is hope for the future. we are ready to be out of this pandemic. we are ready to return back to life and school is part of that life and growing up and going to college is one of the things that a lot of people and kids look forward to. so i'm really excited to be part of this. and thank you for their work on this. [ applause ] >> we are now happy to answer any questions you might have either for the department of public health, the mayor, we also have folks in the audience who can help with specifics as

well. >> i have a question as a mother. considering we have so many kids who are vaccinated, i'm wondering there might be more the 12 and under, 11 and under. [inaudible] the state and the city the state of emergency in the city. >> we really want to get that vaccine approved for them right, dr. baba. do you have someone under 12 at home? you're asking for others. >> for others. >> i'm still going to get asked by potential students what's step one and step two how to go about. >> i hope you'll correct me if i'm wrong. we have things set up all across the city. we'll do that annually and run that against our add missions records. one of those schools have their tuition covered for eight consecutive terms.

>> do you mean physical or online? >> the physical site. we're going to send them out. >> thank you. >> placed across the city. >> i'm from the san francisco examiner. we know people from all walks of life and also the age group between 25 to 34 is really the lowest vaccinated age group right now. so can you talk about why this is specifically for the age group that it was and kind of what your thoughts are with kind of getting that younger adult age group vaccinated too. >> we're focused on this group because they are so far our largest incoming students. we'll see how this was. we'll see incentives for transfer students, but we started with students because this is the they are most likely to attend and live in

residence. we have a big run on the site those days. >> and just quickly, is the university paying for this? >> it's being paid for supported by the san francisco state university foundation board of directors. so it is our philanthropic arm. i'm very grateful because we couldn't do this without their support. >> thank you.