PSP Mentor and Board Member Terryl Martin recently took the scholars she mentors to Mount Saint Mary’s University Women’s Leadership Conference. Read Terryl’s post to learn more about how she helped the girls take full advantage of this conference and to read the girls’ own perspective on this empowering event. 

As a mentor for the Partnership Scholars Program I try to think of some different, outside the box, activities to expose the scholars to over six years. Recently, I took my three high school (juniors) scholars to the Mount Saint Mary’s University Women’s Leadership Conference.

We all attended the opening, closing, and Financial Fitness sessions. However, each scholar attended other separate sessions during the conference schedule so that all of the events were covered and when they shared their article we could learn about the sessions we didn’t attend.

As a part of the event they each wrote an article about their experiences and they were also required to meet someone at each session they attended and get their contact information/business card.

Valeria writes in her essay “As a female leader in my community I have found that it can become difficult to find a healthy balance between self-care and my responsibilities.” Read here to see how Valeria found meaning through attending this conference.

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On August 3-5, 2018 PSP hosted our 7th annual College Success Retreat. Fifty-six scholars and 18 mentors attended this knowledge-packed weekend at the University of Southern California. This year’s speakers hosted a wide variety of sessions, including representatives from the Plus Me Project, Dartmouth College and Questbridge. This year’s retreat included more small-group sessions so that students could get more individualized help. Mentors in attendance were very involved and provided immense support with serving as leaders for the small groups and helping us to lead discussions, provide feedback on college essays and encourage participation throughout the weekend.

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Partnership Scholars Program community celebrated the graduation of our 40 seniors in June. Each of these grads is going directly to college in the fall to continue their education, an achievement they worked hard for throughout their six years in PSP. The graduates shared their stories and their plans for the future at emotional ceremonies held in downtown L.A for our Lennox and El Monte students, on the North Coast  for our Mendocino and Fort Bragg scholars, and in Ukiah for the Ukiah students.

Each scholar reflected on their path to college, their experiences while in PSP and what’s next for them. You can read about their experiences and see pictures of each of our graduates below.

Southern California Scholar Reflections

Northern California Scholar Reflections

We also got to celebrate the contributions of some of PSP’s incredibly dedicated volunteers and supporters. The Langer Award, which honors our founder Dr. and Mrs. Langer’s legacy by recognizing a partner who has made a significant contribution to PSPs continued growth and success, was given to Francis Rutherford on the North Coast, Sylvia and Malcolm Boyce in Ukiah and Dr. Bruce McDaniel in Los Angeles. The Cultural and Academic Partner (CAP) Award, which honors someone who consistently gives of their time, effort and ‘elbow grease’ to ensuring that PSP is successful, was awarded to Rachel Binah on the North Coast, Jean Lincoln in Ukiah, and Rocio Centeno in Los Angeles. Each of these people has given incredible amounts of caring, financial support and time to make sure that PSP can continue to offer our unique program to motivated students.

We hope you enjoy more pictures from the PSP 2018 graduations!

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