Did you miss the benefitEd 2015 celebration?

On May 7th, Citizen Schools students, families and supporters gathered at Tah.Mah.Lah, “America’s greenest home,” to celebrate the work of our brilliant students, connect our community with schools in need, and transform the future of public school education.

We celebrated the accomplishments of our apprentices in the WOW! gallery and enjoyed delicious food and wine (courtesy of Le Petit Cafe). We heard from a compelling line-up of speakers, including opening remarks from Ryan Smith, Executive Director of Education Trust-West and an inspiring keynote address from Jose Santiago Mendoza, 8th grader at Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto.

Cisco was honored as our 2015 partner of the year for their ongoing commitment to our students. In addition to contributing more than $1.5 million to Citizen Schools’ programs across the Bay Area and nationally, Cisco’s employees are among Citizen Schools’ largest contingent of volunteers with nearly 250 Cisco Citizen Teachers. During the 2014-2015 school year alone, Citizen Schools students benefited from 58 Cisco Citizen Teachers who taught 17 different apprenticeships.

We are thrilled to announce that benefitEd 2015 raised more than $100,000 in support of transformative learning opportunities for low-income students in public schools across the Bay Area.

Didn't make it out? Relive the memories with us by checking out this video featuring benefitEd honoree, Cisco and this gallery of photos from the event!