By Janelle Blakely, Director of Development
Incredible is how I describe Pivotal scholar, Monserrat. Inspired is how I felt after I sat down and talked with her.
Monserrat is very educational-oriented, a lover of learning and school. A first-generation college student, she will make her dreams a reality when she attends UC Santa Barbara this fall!
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by Peter Phi, High School Coach, and Christine Salinas, Manager of Grants and Communications
Pivotal High School Coach, Peter Phi, reflects on his year as a Pivotal Intern Coach. Peter shares a story about persistence and how working in the service of foster youth scholars has been a game-changer for him.
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By Melissa Johns, Executive Vice President
As we head full steam into June, Pivotal is on a mission to Save Summer 2020! Normally you’d find us spending the last days in May helping high school and collegiate scholars finalize the details of their summer internships, while calming their nerves as they prepare for their first professional jobs. But 2020 is no typical year.
Coronavirus has upended the tradition of summer internships, and young people across the country are feeling the...
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by Christine Salinas, Manager of Grants and Communications
Our friends at the Junior League of San Jose have been ardent supporters of both transition-age foster youth and women entrepreneurs for years. When they read our newsletters about Pivotal scholars' Covid-19 emergency needs, they came up with a plan to blend support for both populations.
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by Melissa Johns, Executive Vice President, and Christine Salinas, Manager of Grants and Communications
Nicole is a former foster youth who attends San Jose City College and has big dreams for herself. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, she completed her course assignments in the computer lab at her apartment complex. But when shelter-in-place forced her complex to shut down the lab, Nicole ran into a significant problem: How would she do her work without access to a computer? Pivotal stepped in to help.
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by Christine Salinas, Manager of Grants and Communications
We applaud the Silicon Valley corporations and foundations that are supporting nonprofits like Pivotal during COVID-19. Many wonderful partners such as Acer America, Comerica Bank, Pinpoint Foundation, Leo M. Shortino Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Sobrato Family Foundation, and Tipping Point Community have generously donated to Pivotal’s Emergency Assistance Fund.
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by Christine Salinas, Grants Manager, and Marilyn Rogers, Corporate Relations Officer
On March 18, 2020, Pivotal launched an Emergency Assistance Fund to provide immediate financial support to youth who have been negatively impacted by COVID-19. These youth had experienced a drastic loss of income and were worried about paying for essential needs like rent, groceries, and utilities. That's when Acer America stepped in.
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Getting teens to focus on their future can be tricky under normal circumstances, let alone a time hard-hit by a global pandemic. This era of uncertainty triggers a wide variety of responses, and for some, the response is to go quiet and withdraw. Pivotal coaches share their secrets for getting clever and engaging scholars during these tough times.
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by Christine Salinas, Manager of Grants and Communications
Pivotal is thrilled to welcome Ashlee Jemmott as Director of Strategic Partnerships. In her new role, Ashlee will work towards creating positive change within the foster care ecosystem. We caught up with Ashlee to learn more about her journey into nonprofit work and the road that brought her to this new role at Pivotal.
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By Christine Salinas, Grants Manager
Even under normal circumstances, foster youth don’t have families to take them on college tours. Each year, our high school scholars rely on Pivotal to help them explore their collegiate options, take them on local campus tours, and arrange introductions to professors and staff who can answer questions for youth.
But, as we continue to shelter-in-place, how do we help our kids explore colleges when everything is shut down? We get creative!
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When Silicon Valley began to feel the impact of Covid-19, our young people from foster care turned to us scared. As their college campuses closed down, many had no family home to return to. The hourly jobs that helped make ends meet were disappearing quickly. Many felt overwhelmed with worries about how they’d make rent, buy groceries, and pay for their internet service.
Our team knew we had to act fast. A week ago we launched the Emergency Assistance Fund to provide emergency financial support to foster youth whose lives have been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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