The San Diego Education Fund invests in the future by ensuring there are home-grown teachers and
STEM professionals ready for the workforce. We provide scholarships from the first day of college to
graduation for first-generation, ethnically diverse, low-income graduates of San Diego Unified School
District. For example, SDEF has returned over 405 former students as SDUSD teachers working in over
75 schools.
Our Scholars know first-hand the challenges of growing up in a poor neighborhood where schools are
often a haven and a teacher provided the need encouragement which helped build their self-esteem
and allowed their faith in themselves to blossom. In addition to investing in a Scholar for their entire
college career, SDEF scholarship support includes stipends every semester, a mentor/counselor to
assist/refer with scholastic and personal challenges, access to an emergency fund, networking
opportunities with fellow Scholars and professionals in education and STEM, and assistance with
employment at SDUSD once they obtain a teaching credential.
SDEF believes that education provides the basis for individual opportunity and economic vitality.
As Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann argued, free access to public education and the health of
our democracy are inextricably linked. To remain a strong democracy, public education must
provide the nation's youth with the knowledge, the foresight, the vocabulary, and the analytic skills
that responsible citizenship demands.
JOIN US TO INVEST IN THE FUTURE of 21st CENTURY LEARNING
The term "21st-Century skills" refers to certain core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem solving that schools need to teach to help students thrive
in today's world.
We know why a postsecondary degree or credential matters. The Lumina Foundation says that nearly
12M net new jobs this decade will require an undergraduate degree or certification, while only 80,000
new net jobs await those with a high school diploma or less. Beyond that, we know a postsecondary
education leads to higher earnings, lower unemployment, increases the tax base and offers greater
civic engagement.
JOIN with us to continue the SDEF legacy of providing scholarships for low-income, ethnically diverse
SDUSD graduates. It is now, more than ever, a critical key to rebuilding a strong economic future.
With the uncertainties of the present, there are certain facts that guide our future—there will always
be a need for teachers and scientists to educate, innovate, serve, and heal.
PLEASE CLICK THE BELOW DONATE BUTTON TO SUPPORT OUR SCHOLARS
