Summerbridge San Francisco

Summerbridge, founded in 1978, is an award-winning, tuition-free, year-round intensive academic enrichment and advocacy program. Founded by Dennis Collins, then head of San Francisco University High School, and two pioneering faculty members, Lois Loufbourrow and Mal Singer, the program they envisioned would utilize the resources of University High School to serve the city of San Francisco. For 38 years, Summerbridge has advanced three primary goals:

• Preparing ambitious middle school students from under-resourced circumstances to enter and thrive in well-matched high schools, for the purpose of securing admission to, succeeding in, and graduating from a four-year college.
• Providing intensive summer teaching internships for high school and college students who are passionate about the power of education, and creating meaningful volunteer experiences throughout the academic year for members of the UHS and San Francisco communities.
• Transforming lives through the unique and powerful relationship between the Summerbridge and UHS communities and their families.

These three intertwined and complementary goals unify our work. In 1989 Summerbridge San Francisco received a grant to expand the program nationally and in 1990 Summerbridge New Orleans was founded. Today there are over 25 Summerbridge programs around the country and even two programs in Hong Kong all under the auspices of The Breakthrough Collaborative.