Former Chief Scientific Officer for Celera, Thomas White, is one of our Leadership Council members whose dedication and generosity helped propel our SAGE Scholars through the school year and forward in their career paths. Tom became part of the SAGE Scholars community because of his firm belief that everyone should have the right to a higher education.

My name is Whitnée L. Garrett and I am a SAGE alum, Class of 2011. This fall I started my Ph.d program in Educational leadership at St. Mary’s college of California. I was in the SAGE Scholars Program starting my transferring year at UC Berkeley and I graduated a different person from when I began college.

The success of the SAGE Scholars Program is in large part due to its relationships with corporate sponsors. Several years ago, Jackie Geiger, Director of Executive Search at Kaiser Permanente, attended a SAGE graduation as a guest. Jackie recalls meeting several SAGE Scholars and was “impressed at how professionally they spoke about their SAGE experiences”.

Nairi Hartooni is a current SAGE Scholar double majoring in Molecular Environmental Biology and Molecular Toxicology with an interest in Pharmacology. Nairi’s commitment in developing her professional confidence and leadership skills is what sparked her interest in the SAGE Scholars Program. Prior to joining SAGE, Nairi struggled with professional development on her own.

This year, SAGE is trying something new. The SAGE Scholars Advisory Board has renamed itself the UC Berkeley SAGE Scholars Leadership Council, and along with the SAGE Scholars we have formed four committees: Marketing, Communication & Events Committee, Outreach, Fundraising and Development Committee, Program Development Committee and the Finance Committee. Each committee is chaired by one of our Leadership Council members and a SAGE Scholar is a co-chair.

The SAGE Scholars and Leadership Council is hosting a Development Training workshop facilitated by Darian Rodriguez Heyman which will focus on fundraising and communication.

Date: Friday, September 9th, 2011
Time: 3:00pm – 6:00pm

Enjoy photos from the graduation here!

For the past 11 years, the UC Berkeley SAGE Scholars Program has been successful in creating and implementing experiential learning programs for its low-income undergraduate population. We’d like to share these successful programs with your organization and also have the SAGE Scholars be role models for your students.

Considering the extraordinary financial and family challenges that our students face, the accomplishments of the SAGE Scholars this year continue to inspire me. You won’t want to miss our upcoming graduation celebration on May 6th, 2010. Please come and meet our extraordinary graduates and SAGE Scholars! The SAGE Scholars are grateful for the SAGE resources, and they have learned life skills that will help them in any career direction. These are our future leaders!

Dj is a 24-year old Cal student majoring in Nutritional Science. To him interning at ABC7 means fulfilling a childhood dream; an opportunity to debunk or reinforce what he thought news broadcasting and media production was about.

“The SAGE Scholars Program,” Dj states, “has given me critical professional skills that have led me to intern at ABC7.” In fact, Dj courageously and respectfully asked Cheryl Jennings for her business card during a SAGE Scholars’ visit at the ABC7 studios in San Francisco.