This area contains information about the individuals who help make up the IHAD-SF program. General contact information for the program can be found below or on the contact page.

See our printer-friendly fact sheet.

To Dream; To Empower; To Achieve

IHAD-SF ensures that local youth acquire the life skills necessary to obtain a higher education, realize their full potential, and help improve their communities. It does this by partnering with the families, children, staff and the local community to provide enrichment programs and financial and academic support.

Marshall Elementary: Class of 2010

The IHAD-SF program began in 2000 with the selection of 59 Dreamers from the 3rd grade class of Marshall Elementary School in San Francisco’s Mission District. Marshall Elementary is a feeder school for high schools in San Francisco Unified School District with historically low graduation rates, low percentage of students who attend college and poor scores on standardized tests such as the SAT and STAR. In addition to the grim academic statistics faced by Marshall’s students, the school was chosen because it represented a diverse, financially disadvantaged student body with a strong community of parents and teachers committed to the academic success of the students. IHAD-SF, Marshall Elementary and its other community partner, St John’s Tutoring Center worked together for three years, creating an after-school and summer program that provided high quality academic support and enrichment activities for the Dreamers and the other grades at Marshall Elementary. The entire IHAD-SF community came together in the spring of 2003 for the Dreamer’s graduation from Marshall Elementary. At the graduation, parents, grandparents, siblings, IHAD staff, tutors and mentors celebrated the success of the Dreamers in elementary school and reaffirmed their commitment to support the Dreamers for the next steps of their educational careers.

Moving on to Middle School

In the fall of 2003, the Dreamers began middle school, half of them going to various public and private schools throughout the Bay Area and the other half attending a new, small middle school in San Francisco, the Aim High Academy. IHAD-SF moved its offices to Aim High, developing a close partnership with the school. IHAD and Aim High staff worked together to assess the Dreamer’s progress, identify needed supports and services and collectively provide effective, comprehensive academic and enrichment programming to the Dreamers. In order to provide on-going support to the Dreamers attending other middle schools, the IHAD staff also created an outreach program and case management system. This system monitored the progress of each off-site Dreamer, identified needed areas of support and advocated for resources and programming that would help them succeed in their middle schools. In 2004, eleven more Aim High Students were invited to join the Dreamer class. These students were recommended by the Aim High principal and teaching staff because they showed a need for additional academic, social and emotional support, represented a diverse background and demonstrated the financial need and commitment to their education necessary to succeed in the IHAD program. We welcomed the new Dreamers and their families at our "New and Old Dreamer Fiesta" on Sunday, January 9, 2005. During the course of the year the new Dreamers were incorporated in every aspect of the program: they were matched with tutors and mentors, attended fieldtrips and events, and received visits in their homes and regular check-ins with their case managers.

At the end of their 8th Grade year, "I Have a Dream"-San Francisco's families, staff, volunteers and youth celebrated the Dreamers' rite of passage from middle to high school with a huge community celebration at the Women's Building of San Francisco that involved a DVD of the Dreamers' middle school years, a VIP only youth lounge in the balcony, performances by a few of the talented and brave Dreamers, and karaoke for all.

Preparing for High School

IHAD-SF recognizes that where Dreamers attend high school will make a dramatic difference in their development, attitude towards learning and likelihood to graduate from high school and attend college. As the Dreamers entered the second half of their 7th Grade year, the IHAD staff turned its focus to developing a high school application support system for Dreamers and their families. In one-on-one interviews and several IHAD community meetings, IHAD staff, the Dreamers and their families gathered information about each Dreamers’ high school preferences, goals, interests and priorities and discussed the many high school options in San Francisco. In the Fall of 2005, IHAD staff brought the Dreamers on numerous high school visits and after exploring the wide variety of high school options, the Dreamers and their families decided to apply to many of the most excellent public and private schools in San Francisco. IHAD staff provided extensive support and coaching for the youth and their families with the various independent, parochial, public, and alternative school application processes from essay writing to interviews to financial aid applications.

We are proud to report that almost every Dreamer received his/her first or second choice of SFUSD public high schools and 15 Dreamers were admitted to independent and parochial school of their choice. Of the 15 admitted to private schools, 10 officially enrolled and “I Have a Dream” – San Francisco launched an exhaustive and successful fundraising campaign to help raise the necessary scholarship money to help families afford the tuition at these schools. The majority of the Dreamers were accepted to their first or second choice of SFUSD public schools. The 64 Dreamers are now spread out at 25 different public, charter and private high schools in the Bay Area, and Southern California. In their first two years of high school, the Dreamers faced many new challenges and took advantage of many new opportunities.

See a summary of high school placements for the 2007/2008 school year.

Getting Ready for Life after High School

Vocational Program Visits (click to see the group!)

• California Culinary Academy
• Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising
• SF Police Academy
• Treasure Island Job Corps.
• Ex'Pressions College for Digital Arts
• Paul Mitchell
• Google
• NASA

Two and Four Year College and University Visits (click to see the group!):

• Trip to CCA
• UC Santa Cruz
• UCLA
• USC
• California State University Long Beach
• University of California, Berkeley
• California State University, San Jose
• National Hispanic University
• Stanford University
• California State University, Chico
• California State University, San Francisco
• City College of San Francisco
• University of Nevada at Reno
• California State University, Sacramento
• St Marys
• University of the Pacific
• East Bay College Consortium Fair
• Holy Names Visit
• College Case Study and College Fair at Making Waves
• UC Davis
• CSU College Fair

 

The Dreamers are a group of 64 10th and 11th grade students primarily from San Francisco’s Mission District. They represent diverse backgrounds – 75% Latino, 15% African American, 10% Southeast Asian and f or many, English was their second language. 75% of the Dreamers speak a language other than English at home and 77% qualify for free or reduced fee lunch programs. Over 75% of the Dreamers will be the first in their family to graduate high school and 92% will be the first in their family to attend college.

The Board of Directors

David Silberman, MPH, comes to the "I Have a Dream" Foundation-San Francisco with a wealth of experience from the fields of Public Health, Environmental Education and Financial Consulting.

David formerly served as the Interim Executive Director of "I Have a Dream" - San Francisco, helping to get the program off the ground in its first two months of operation. Previous to working with IHAD-SF, David served as the Director of Finance and Administration for Slide Ranch, a non-profit environmental education organization located in Muir Beach, California. At Slide Ranch, David was responsible for substantially increasing the level of fundraising for the organization and upgrading the administrative systems. He led Slide Ranch through an organizational strategic planning process, which has contributed to their growth and success.

David also served for three years as the Director of a National Symposium that focused on the prevention of HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and unplanned pregnancies. This conference brought together doctors, researchers, and public health officials from around the world to share their knowledge and expertise in the area of reproductive health.

Additionally, David also serves on the Board of Directors of DiversityWorks, a non-profit youth leadership program focused on improving cross community relations and providing opportunities for young people.

Andy Ballard joined the IHAD-SF board in March of 2004. Andy works for Hellman & Friedman in San Francisco, an investment firm focused on large long-term equity investments in companies, particularly those going through transitions. He focuses on investments in multiple areas of the economy, including business and professional services, financial services, and technology. Prior to Hellman & Friedman, Andy held positions at Bain Capital and Bain & Company.

Andy has consistently spent time focused on youth and education, and much of that time has been working with non-profits. He has been involved with camps and camp counseling, worked with several elementary school programs in Boston as a tutor, fundraiser, and assistant in program development, and been involved in IHAD as a volunteer since attending Standford Business School.

Andy graduated from Harvard College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Purva Dandona is a Bay Area local hailing from Fairfield, CA. After completing her Bachelors degree in Human Development from UC Davis in 2001, Purva went on to teach middle school for a year in Oakland and later became an advocate for pregnant and parenting teens in her hometown. In 2005, she obtained her Masters in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Multiculturalism from Fordham University in New York City. While in NYC, Purva worked in Queens providing counseling services in Hindi to youth at an Asian outreach clinic. She worked at Enterprise for High School Students for two years providing career counseling and college advising to high school youth. Currently, Purva works as a Vocational Evaluator for developmentally and physically disabled adults at San Francisco Vocational Services.

Originally from Maine, Melissa Rawlins graduated from Yale University in 2001 with a BA in Psychology. At Yale, she participated in a variety of community service activities, including co-creating and co-coordinating a College Resource Center at Hillhouse High. This experience helped spark her interest in education and working with at-risk populations. She joined the staff of Summer Search Boston as a Program Associate in 2001 and became Associate Director of the Boston office in 2005. Under the leadership of Boston Executive Director Emily Edwards, she helped oversee the office's most recent growth, increasing the new student class by 60% and taking the office from a staff of 4 in 2004 to 12 in 2006. Melissa moved into the role of Executive Director of Summer Search San Francisco in July of 2006.

Tanya Capuano - Founding Board Member

Tanya has been involved with the "I Have a Dream" Foundation - San Francisco from the very beginning, when she worked full-time on getting the foundation off the ground. Now as a Board Member, she enjoys advising on business issues, attending IHAD field trips and spending time with her wonderful mentee, Joyce.

Tanya is currently a manager at Hewlett-Packard and received her MBA, Masters in Education and BA all from Stanford University. She lives on the Peninsula with her husband, son and yellow lab, Bayley.

[See Founders]

Jane McClure holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from UC Santa Barbara and is a Licensed Educational Psychologist (LEP 1605). Prior to moving with her family to the Bay Area, she was the school psychologist and college counselor at a K-12 independent school in Santa Barbara. She began working as an educational consultant in 1983 where the focus of her work was, and continues to be, on college counseling and conducting psychoeducational evaluations. Jane has been a partner at McClure, Mallory & Baron for more than 20 years.

In 1990, Jane was named Educational Psychologist of the Year by the California Association of Licensed Educational Psychologists. She conducts workshops and participates in sessions at the annual conferences of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC). She has also, through College Board, presented workshops for guidance counselors related to counseling college bound students who have learning disabilities and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Jane is also frequently invited to speak at schools throughout California on various aspects of the college admission process. She has worked as a consultant for College Board on issues related to services for students with disabilities. Jane was also an instructor for several years in the College Advising Certificate Program offered through UC Berkeley Extension. In order to inform her work, Jane spends time every year traveling throughout the country visiting (and re-visiting) colleges and universities. Recently, she spent a week in the UK in order to become more familiar with British universities and their admission process. Jane works with students from public and independent schools throughout the Bay Area, and beyond (including the central valley and the wine country). Despite the number of years she has been doing this work, Jane finds each student and each family to be excitingly unique. The most important aspect of Jane’s work with students, she believes, is to find the best fit between students and the group of colleges to which they apply.

The Staff

Abby Rovner has been the Project Director for the "I Have A Dream" Foundation project in San Francisco's Mission District since its inception. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has extensive experience working with non profit and education programs serving children and families in the Bay Area and elsewhere. In her previous position she taught Language Arts, Literature, and English as a Second Language to middle school students at a Newcomer's program in Redwood City, California. Prior to that, she served as mentor and guide for Waking the Village, a non-profit organization in Sacramento that brought 18 at-risk and homeless youth on a bicycle trip across the country.

In 1998 Abby earned a MA in Educational Policy Analysis and Evaluation from Stanford University's School of Education. Abby received her BA from Stanford in 1993, with a focus on Latin American cultures and literature. Abby's enthusiasm for the IHAD project is based on her committment to empowering children to reach their greatest potential, both personally and academically. She is especially excited to be working in the community in which she lives.

Email Abby!

George Spencer, our College and Career Preparedness Director, is a recent graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he received a master's degree in Education Policy and Management. While in Boston, he served as a college preparation counselor at West Roxbury High School. George also worked with TERI (The Education Resources Institute), where he assisted with the planning and implementation of the New England Education Opportunity Association's annual Trio Day college preparation conference.

Before moving to Boston, George worked in conference planning at Northwestern University's division of student affairs. In 2004, he also graduated from Northwestern with a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication Studies and African-American Studies. While in Chicago, George has had the opportunity to serve as the Director for the LEAD Program in Business summer program at the Kellogg School of Management. With LEAD, he enjoyed working with a diverse group of high school students to provide a comprehensive experience in business related careers.

In 2006, George founded the Touch the Sky College Awareness Workshop in Chicago. For this program, he worked passionately to promote college awareness for high school students of color. With this same passion, George is ecstatic to be working with the students and families at the "I Have a Dream" foundation.

Lorilee Chien, a Lead Project Associate, brings her passion for youth, art and movement to the program. She has recently completed two years in AmeriCorps, one year as a team leader for NCCC on the east coast and one year as a VISTA volunteer as a Program Development Assistant/Special Projects Coordinator for the "I Have a Dream" Foundation - Oakland. The two years in AmeriCorps has proven fruitful, she's had the opportunity to work with diverse crowds and vastly different work environments from planting trees in the national forests on the eastern shore of Maryland, running an after-school program in the projects of Queens, NY, to doing more indirect administrative work for IHAD-Oakland.

A graduate of UC Santa Cruz, with a degree in Woman's Studies, she has experience working with women and children who have been affected by domestic violence. She has dreams of fusing her passion for youth and her love of the arts. She is currently a company member in a local Bay Area Hip-Hop company and does work trade at the San Francisco Dance Center. She is ecstatic about being given the opportunity to continue to work with the "I Have a Dream" Foundation.

Erin Kohl joined the "I Have A Dream"- San Francisco staff after serving one year at IHAD-SF as an AmeriCorps VISTA member. Erin graduated from the University of Minnesota with BA degrees in International Studies and Spanish Language. Erin spent a year interning in Northern Ecuador with a non-profit agency serving small-scale farmers and is bilingual in Spanish and English. Before coming to IHAD, she worked as a student coordinator of a service-learning program at the University of Minnesota, at a non-profit organization serving low-income women and their families and at a summer parks program for youth in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Erin is excited to continue working to provide young people with the resources and support necessary for them to pursue their dreams amongst a committed community of young people, families, volunteers, staff and board members.

The IHAD-SF program is modeled after the nationwide "I Have a Dream" Foundation which over the past 22 years has served over 13,500 "Dreamers" in 180 projects in 27 states. Today more than 79 IHAD projects exist in over 78 cities in 20 states, including Washington D.C., nation wide–with an international presence of 1 active project in New Zealand. Currently, there are over 6,000 Dreamers in active projects. Each project has individual sponsors who secure funding for the program and a project coordinator who runs the day to day activities and works directly with the kids. The sponsors and project coordinator stay with the program until the Dreamers graduate from college or achieve their academic, personal and professional goals.

For up-to-date news on National "I Have a Dream" Foundation activities and events visit www.ihad.org