First Graduate

Philanthropists Ann-Eve Hazen and Anaflor Smith founded First Graduate (formerly b.a.y. fund) in November 2000. Their goal was to seed the creation of a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving college access for low-income youth.

Programming began in 2002 under the leadership of its first executive director, Rozanne E. Junker, Ph.D. The program was based on the premise that helping the first child of a family to graduate from college would result in exponential benefits for the family as a whole -- both economically and by spawning a college-going tradition.

The program's challenge was great, but clear -- to provide services for aspiring first-generation college graduates that would replicate the advantages enjoyed by students with college-educated parents.

First Graduate's first class included 24 students, rising 8th graders recruited from two San Francisco public middle schools. That same year, Tom Ahn joined the program as director of programs. Since 2008, he has served as executive director.

Today, the program includes more than 200 San Francisco-based students. In the spring of 2010, First Graduate enrolled its 10th class, completing our first 10-year pipeline of students we support from middle school through college graduation.