When I first got involved in this kind of work I was passionate about education as an instrument of socialjustice, a tool for achieving the equity that our Founding Fathers wrote about. I still have that passion, but have since learned that sometimes this work is largely about buses and food! Not quite true, although sometimes it feels that way: for example, the cost of transportation is about 80% that of our algebra readiness program. Peninsula Bridge is best known for its Summer Program, so you might think that winters are quiet. Quite the opposite! Here are some of the things that we've been doing to prepare for Summer 2012:
- Learning about new approaches to language arts and algebra readiness;
- Exploring connections with other organizations so that our students will have wrap around support during the school year and when they go on to high school;
- Developing a transitions program for our eighth graders and their families to improve their success in high school and beyond; and
- Collaborating with our nine Site Directors to ensure the best possible Summer 2012 program for our students.
we will be staging our first ever SummerFest. SummerFest 2012 will celebrate the London Olympic Games which begin in July on the last day of the Bridge summer program. Our sites will incorporate many curricular connections to the Games with an emphasis on history, geography and fitness. Students will be exposed to Olympic sports which are new to them. Two sites will hold a track and field event at a local college. Most exciting is that our students will walk to London: they will compete in our own Olympic Bridge-a-thon. Teams will compete within sites and across sites to see who will walk the farthest, and who will get there first - 5,731 miles or 8,645 kilometers! There will be opportunities for a variety of sponsorships. Look to our website soon to find out how you can become part of the Bridge-a-thon to London. Meanwhile, keep training for summer!
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The Castilleja School gardening club students explored global issues of food sustainability through One Hen's Good Garden program. The
Good Garden based on a story of a young girl in Honduras. The Good
Garden program empowers children to be social entrepreneurs who combat
global hunger through agricultural enterprise. Students participate by
reading the book, exploring the website, and playing the newly released
Chutes and Ladders®: The Good Garden Edition board game. Students
translated the lesson taught in Good Garden to real life community
service action to help fight hunger in their communities. 
Collin is one of our newest board members, and is active both in the non-profit sector and as a private investor. In addition to his work with Peninsula Bridge, he is the current president and Board chair of Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto. He is passionate about youth education, also having worked with Peninsula College Fund. Collin was President and a Board member at NorthStar Systems and an EVP at Advent Software. Prior to Advent, Collin worked in the private equity business and was a consultant at Bain and Company in San Francisco and Boston. Collin earned a B.A from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He and his wife Shoshanah have two children: son Riley, and daughter Meredie. In his spare time, Collin coaches basketball and plays piano. Welcome aboard Collin! ]]>
