Alumni Teach-In: Environmental Justice and the Dakota Access Pipeline
We invite all Urban alums and their guests to join us on Saturday, June 3, from 10 - 11:30 am, in the Salkind Center for our third annual Alumni Teach-In. Dean of Equity and Inclusion Clarke Weatherspoon and Science Teacher Sarah Clowes will be facilitating a discussion around this year's topic, Environmental Justice and the Dakota Access Pipeline.

We’ll meet in the Salkind Center on 1639 Oak Street at 10 am, for coffee and pastries in the Alumni Blues Lounge before heading into the Redwood classroom. Parking is available on the street level only of the Salkind Center parking lot.

We hope you can join us for this unique opportunity to engage in thoughtful dialogue with two of Urban's extraordinary faculty members!

Please RSVP by Thursday, June 1.

Message from Freshman/Sophomore Dean Riley Maddox
On behalf of the Urban School, thank you to the 45 Urban alums who hosted Sophomores at their workplaces during April’s Career Visit Days! This was the second year of this unique program and we couldn’t have done it without such an extraordinary response from Urban’s alumni community. It was valuable for our students and we are grateful for the time and energy you put into creating meaningful experiences for them.

We hope you enjoy this slideshow highlighting a few of the days’ activities.

If you are interested in participating in Urban's Career Visit Days in future years, or serving as a career resource for our current students or alums, please email Director of Alumni Relations Marianne Evans or fill out our networking form. Thank you again for making our Career Visit Days possible for our students.

Need a good summer read?
As the summer fog of San Francisco begins to settle in, we encourage you read the Fall 2017 UrbanReads book selection, Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco, by Urban alum parent Gary Kamiya (Celeste ‘14). The SF Chronicle describes the book as “...a rhapsody to San Francisco.... [Kamiya] set out to explore systematically both the familiar and the secret corners of the city, using two wheels or two feet, and also to see and hear through senses augmented by history and literature.” Gary will be in conversation with Urban English teacher Amanda Moore for our fall UrbanReads tentatively set for Sunday, October 1, at the Salkind Center. Save the date and enjoy the book!

Paving the way for future Urban students
Thank you alums and Urban trustees Jon Kropf (‘99) and Misha Olivas (‘94) and alum Hannah Sears (‘12) for serving as this year’s Alumni Annual Fund and Class Fund Co-chairs. 

As alums, your support ensures that Urban continues to thrive, and that the Urban education you experienced continues to transform the lives of talented and deserving students.

If you haven’t already, we hope you will make a gift to Urban's Annual Fund or your Class Endowment Fund today. We need 70 alum gifts to reach our goal of 230 gifts by June 30. Each gift, regardless of size, makes an impact.

Thank you for your support!

Urban at 50!
We have added new videos to the Urban Legends section of the Urbanat50 website and are pleased to share the latest - Urban’s performing arts teacher and theater/Peer Theater director Frances Evens, and Urban alum and Head of School Mark Salkind (‘70). Access the videos here.

It has been a joy for us to interview longtime Urban faculty and staff over this past celebratory year. These individuals are truly legends - educators who students have learned from and cared about so much throughout the years. Thank you to everybody who participated in our Urban Legends series and Urban’s 50th Anniversary and here's to Urban’s new legends and next 50 years! 

From the Alumni Council
Another year in the life of the Urban School is in the books and what a year it was -- from a 50th anniversary that drew nearly 1,000 Urban community members to the school, to the unveiling of the beautiful new Mark Salkind Center, to an alumni career visiting program that connected dozens of Bay Area alumni with current Urban students. If you haven’t had the opportunity, I encourage you to visit the school’s 50th Anniversary website, urbanat50.org, where you can view video interviews with the school’s longtime teachers, our Urban Legends.

It has been my pleasure to serve these past two years as your Alumni Council President and I’m glad to report that the Council is stronger than ever with 18 members, including newcomers Erika Lenkert ('85), Natalie Holland ('02) and Jesse Brown ('06). I hope you’ll also join me in providing a warm welcome to our new slate of Council leaders: President Jared Dowell (’99), Vice President Andy Nguyen (’99) and Secretary Claudia Mercado (’02).

I also hope that if you are free this Saturday, you will join us for Urban’s third annual Alumni Teach-In where Dean of Equity and Inclusion Clarke Weatherspoon and Science Teacher Sarah Clowes will facilitate a discussion on the topic of Environmental Justice and the Dakota Access Pipeline. Saturday, June 3, at 10 am, in the Salkind Center on Oak Street. Click here to RSVP.

As the academic year wraps up, so too does the school’s Annual and Class Fund campaigns. I hope you will join me in making a contribution or even an additional contribution to these essential mechanisms for keeping the school as accessible as possible to all students, including those in need of financial aid in order to attend. Our goal is that at least 11% of our alumni will support the school annually. So far this year, 157 alums have given toward this target, so we just need 73 more—your gift will make all the difference. You can do your part here. Thank you for your consideration!

Yours Sincerely,

Kate Jessup
Urban School Class of ’95
Alumni Council President

Jack Detsch (‘09): Jack has been working at the Christian Science Monitor covering cybersecurity in Boston. The paper is moving to a daily subscription model and he is relocating to Washington, D.C., where he will be carrying on cybersecurity coverage under the CSM banner and working the intelligence and defense beats. Jack shared that he is always looking for intriguing stories to tell in the national security and digital realms – and is happy to hear from you or you can follow him on Twitter.

Hannah Dreier (‘04) is working as an AP reporter in Venezuela, you may have heard her on NPR’s Morning Edition reporting on the country’s latest developments. In March, Hannah won an Overseas Press Club of America Award - best newspaper, new service or digital reporting from abroad for her work Venezuela Undone.

Eve Ekman (‘98) and her father Paul have created an Atlas of Emotions, an interactive tool designed to build emotional awareness. They spoke with The San Francisco Chronicle about the project last March. You can also read about the fascinating project on the UCSF website.

Congratulations to Urban alum and poet Molly Fisk (‘73) who became the inaugural poet laureate of Nevada County, California, last month (April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018)! Read more about Molly’s appointment here.

Mara Rose (’90) recently launched Hatch Lab - inspiration, education and tools to help you make more of the things you eat and use, to overcome your fears and self-doubt, and to have fun getting your hands dirty, being creative and building community. Each month, they scour the country to find inspiring artisans who are creating kits, tools, and finished products and then Hatch Lab shares the artisan stories, their guidance, and their goods on the website. Mara would love suggestions from the Urban community of artisans to profile; consider nominating a “hatcher”: https://hatchlab.net/nominate-hatcher.

Tirien Steinbach (‘88) was this year’s faculty speaker at Berkeley Law’s May 2017 commencement address. See and hear her beautiful speech here.

ALUMNI TEACH-IN - with Clarke and Sarah

Environmental Justice and the Dakota Access Pipeline
Saturday, June 3
10 am
Salkind Center
1639 Oak Street
RSVP Here

Decade Reunions for Classes Ending in “7”

We are happy to help you plan an event. Email us to get started. 

UrbanReads - Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco

Sunday, October 1 (tentative) in the afternoon

The Salkind Center

Tuesday - Friday, May 30 - June 2
11:30 am

Wednesday, June 7
7 pm

Page Campus Gumption Theater

CLASS OF 2017 GRADUATION

Friday, June 9
11 am
Stern Grove Park, 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard, San Francisco