Helping Alameda County Unhoused Students Pursue Further Education
Advisor: Ms. Abodouma
Internship Location: Fremont Education Foundation
Onsite Mentor: Kathy Kimberlin
The San Francisco Bay Area is generally perceived as relatively affluent because of its proximity to Silicon Valley, the world's technology capital. Despite this, there Are still hundreds of houseless K-12 students in Fremont Unified School District and thousands in Alameda County. The state of California defines McKinney-Vento (MKV) children and youth as “individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.” Aside from housing, these students often struggle with basic needs like food and expenses for day-to-day living, drawing their attention away from schoolwork. This research will provide insight into What perpetuates the houselessness cycle and why many MKV students do not continue their educational journeys, drawing on primary sources such as interviews. This project also aims to provide financial support through a sustainable, replicable grant program for local MKV high school seniors, encouraging and enabling them to pursue higher education.
Project Blog
Post 1: Blog #0: Welcome to my Blog!
Hey everyone! I’m Allyson, and welcome to my first Senior Project Blog post. Most of us have been there: feeling stressed about college apps, from writing essays to prepping for interviews. We often take access to higher education for granted, but for some of those around us–our classmates, clubmates, or friends–college is a dream. Knowledge, unlike food or shelter, is something that can never be taken away. Once you truly understand a concept, it stays with you forever. And the key to knowledge is education.
There’s a stereotype that the San Francisco Bay Area is affluent, courtesy of its proximity to the technology capital of the world, none other than Silicon Valley. Despite this perception, there are thousands of students in the Bay Area under the California McKinney-Vento (MKV) Act without stable housing. Your calculus classmate may be living with a foster family, or your basketball teammate might be crashing on his friend’s couch. For these students, the idea of college can take a back seat to basic needs, like finding a place to sleep or figuring out their next meal.
So where does my Senior Project come into the picture? Here’s some background information. I have experience working with McKinney-Vento Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) through my organization FEMchess. In one of my email conversations with the FUSD Student Services Liaison, it came to my attention that many MKV students often do not pursue higher education after graduating from high school, so I set out to help change this. As the student board member of the Fremont Education Foundation, I created a financial grant program called the Pathway to Success Grant, helping 6 unhoused high school seniors transition to higher education by supporting them with $2,000 each.
For my Senior Project, I aim to replicate the Pathway to Success Grant to Hayward Unified School District, which has a higher proportion of houseless students. I’ll raise funds to replicate the program, work with Hayward Unified School District to implement it, and create a short documentary that incorporates research and interview clips.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Blog #1!
Post 2: Blog #1: More Essays and an Interview…But Not For College Applications
Hello again, and welcome back to my blog! This is Blog #1, the first official blog of my Senior Project. So what’s been happening with my project recently? I’m a student board member of the Fremont Education Foundation (FEF), and a few months ago, I applied for the Fremont Social Services Grant. I’m excited to share that the application has reached the interview stage! If all goes well during the interview next month, FEF will be granted $90,000 over the next three years to support Fremont unhoused high school seniors in pursuing higher education. Depending on how this funding is allocated to students, we could potentially support all McKinney-Vento (MKV) high school seniors in the school district, approximately 15 to 20 per year (California Department of Education, 2022-2023)!
However, it’s not that simple. Before the interview with Fremont Social Services, I have to answer Social Services’ additional questions about the Pathway to Success program—in essay form. I’ve been tackling those this past week, and I’ll keep working on them next week.
FEF and FUSD have officially launched the 2025 Pathway to Success program! Two MKV students have already filled out the application form, and I’m expecting more to do so in the coming weeks.
That’s what’s been going on with the Fremont portion of my project, but what about Hayward? I had a great meeting with Hayward Unified School District, and they’re on board with bringing the Pathway to Success program to Hayward! I just have to work out some logistical details…more on that to come.
Thanks for tuning in, and see you next week!
Sources:
https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQCensus/HmlsEnrByDTLevels.aspx?cds=01611760000000&agglevel=District&year=2022-23
Post 3: Blog #2: Interview Prep and More Pathway to Success Grant Applications
Hello! I can’t believe the second week of Senior Project is already over—and that it’s March already! I finally finished and submitted my answers to the follow-up questions from Fremont Social Services (regarding my application for $30,000 per year for the next three years). I’ve also been preparing for the interview by creating a master Google Doc to consolidate the documents and spreadsheets I’ve made over time. This makes it easier for my external advisor, other Fremont Education Foundation board members, and internal advisor to go over the information for the interview. I’ve also been reviewing my application answers to make sure everything is accurate and in order.
Great news! This week, two more McKinney-Vento (MKV) high school seniors filled out the Pathway to Success grant application, bringing us to four applications from MKV unhoused students at Washington, Irvington, and Robertson High. A couple of them don’t quite meet the minimum 2.0 GPA threshold yet (the GPA required to graduate high school), so I plan to reach out to their respective Youth Mentors at each school who will encourage them to try to get their grades up. Part of the goal of the Pathway to Success grant is to give MKV students something they can look forward to earning and working toward. This is also the reason why I try to have a long application window, not only for students to work directly on filling out the application questions, but for them to have time to raise their grades as well.
On the Hayward side of things, I’ve been following up with Hayward Unified School District about finding a Hayward nonprofit to accept our sponsor’s funds and redistribute them to Pathway to Success grant awardees, but I have yet to hear back again from my point of contact. This may be due to the organizational changes HUSD is undergoing, so I’ll send another follow-up email next week. Fingers crossed!
That’s all for this week. See you next time!
Post 4: Blog #3: More Emails and Google Sheets
Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog.
Good news! This week, two more MKV students applied for the Pathway to Success grant, bringing the total to 6 applicants (FUSD has a total of 32 MKV high school seniors). These applicants come from Robertson High, Irvington High, and Washington High, which is half of the total number of high schools in FUSD. I hope to get as many students to apply as possible, so I’ve reached out to my FUSD Student Support Services point of contact, who will message each student’s respective Youth Mentor and encourage students to apply. One student who filled out the application didn’t write enough in her essays (only two sentences), but I’d hate for her to not be able to receive the grant because of this. The essays are extremely important because they help me and the Fremont Education Foundation visualize the various challenges each student faces as well as how receiving the grant will benefit them and their future education. I’ve already reached out to my FUSD contact, who will hopefully encourage this student to resubmit the application to qualify for consideration.
As for the Hayward Pathway to Success grant, despite following up several times throughout this and last week, I’ve unfortunately still not been able to reach my HUSD point of contact. This is likely still due to the organizational changes that the school district is currently undergoing. Next week, I will reach out to a different person to see if she can redirect me to someone else. Fingers crossed!
In between sending and replying to emails, I’ve been adding to my funding tracking spreadsheet. For some context, when I created the FUSD Pathway to Success grant last year, it was difficult to keep track of everything—all the emails I sent, who replied, and potential sponsors, so I created a Google Sheet to keep myself organized. This week, I conducted some research on new potential sponsors I can reach out to, including local banks, hospitals, and larger companies. Different companies have varying philanthropic goals and requirements for agencies requesting funding, so I need to dig deeper into each one to see if the Pathway to Success program would fit their criteria and align with their philanthropic missions.
That’s it for this week. See you next time!
Post 5: Blog #4: So Many Applications!
Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog! I can’t believe it—11 students have already applied for the Fremont Pathway to Success Grant, and there are still almost 2 weeks until the application deadline. There are 5 students from Washington High, 3 from Irvington High, 2 from Kennedy High, and 1 from Robertson High, representing two-thirds of all FUSD high schools. To make sure that every student who applied is a qualifying McKinney-Vento student, I’ve reached out to my FUSD contact, who will double-check with each school.
These students have faced so many challenges, from mental health disorders to relatives facing alcoholism to fleeing war-torn countries, yet they are still pushing forward and pursuing their goals. Every student has their own aspirations. Applicants have written about wanting to become an ultrasound technician, kinesiologist, EMT, clinical therapist, and so much more. The Pathway to Success grant will hopefully encourage these deserving students to keep fighting for their goals and show them that there are people who see them and believe in them.
It will be extremely difficult to determine which students will receive the grant, as we just don’t have enough funding to support every single applicant. I’ve started reviewing the applications and created a Google Doc with my initial thoughts. However, I will be sending each application (anonymous) to other Fremont Education Foundation board members for a holistic committee review. This review will be based on criteria such as the type of challenges applicants face and how the money will be used to further their educational journey (either directly or indirectly). To protect students’ anonymity and keep opinions unbiased, I have assigned codes to each applicant to de-identify them. Final decisions will likely be made sometime in April and awards distributed in May.
On the financial side of things, our fiscal sponsor has received the Fremont Education Foundation invoice and W-9 that I sent and will keep me posted on the fund disbursement timeline (FEF will likely receive it this month or in April).
That’s it for this week. See you soon!
Post 6: Blog #5: Shift to Focusing on FUSD?
Hi everyone, I can’t believe the Senior Project is already halfway over! Time sure flies by quickly. After following up several times with Hayward Unified School District, I unfortunately don’t think the Pathway to Success grant program will be able to be implemented in Hayward in time for the end of the school year. The timeline just doesn’t work out, as there isn’t enough time to work out logistics with HUSD and give potential applicants time to fill out the application. When I realized this. I was disappointed as I really wanted to try to expand the program to Hayward to support as many students as possible. However, I’m determined to turn this negative into a positive by considering redirecting the funds to FUSD for this year.
More students filled out the FUSD application than originally anticipated…with 3 days still remaining before the application deadline, 11 students applied—more than one-third of all current FUSD MKV high school seniors! If all of the current $19,000 raised is redirected to FUSD, the program will be able to support nearly every student who applied. This higher award proportion will also motivate incoming seniors to apply for the grant, as their chance of receiving it is higher.
This week, I’ve continued reviewing applications and will be sending my thoughts to the Fremont Education Foundation board for them to review. Additionally, I’ve emailed my point of contact at FUSD Student Support Services to make sure that every applicant 1) is a qualifying McKinney-Vento student (under CA designation), 2) is on track to graduate and meet the minimum 2.0 GPA requirement, and 3) meets the application essay minimum word count.
I’ve also started working on a short outline of my plan for my final product, a short documentary. I hope to interview my FUSD Student Support Services point of contact, the Ohlone College Basic Needs Coordinator, and possibly a Pathway to Success grant applicant (or previous recipient). If interviewing students isn’t possible due to identity protection and privacy reasons, I will create a survey for them to fill out anonymously.
That’s all for this week. See you in April!
Post 7: Blog #6: Technical Difficulties
Hi everyone, I can’t believe we’re more than halfway through Senior Project! March really flew by fast. Applications for the FUSD Pathway to Success Grant officially closed on Monday (3/31)! There were 11 applicants, almost double the number of applicants from last year. I’ve gone through each application and written down my initial thoughts, as well as sent each application (anonymously) to the rest of the Fremont Education Foundation (FEF) Board for them to review.
Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) hasn’t been in communication with me/FEF for over a month, so my external advisor and I have agreed to ask our sponsor to redirect the $7,000 originally intended for HUSD to FUSD, enabling us to support every qualifying FUSD grant applicant. I’ve emailed our sponsor to ask about this and also updated my program tracking spreadsheet to reflect this change.
This week, it’s come to my attention that there’s a technical issue with some online donations. A few months ago, I created an online donation campaign to raise funds for the Pathway to Success Program, and we were excited to see that the campaign raised over $1,400. However, for some reason, donations through that campaign have begun bouncing back through the donation platform (e.g. Paypal). I’m not sure yet why this is happening, but we have reached out individually to each donor to notify them and ask if they would be willing to re-donate. I have a theory that there might be a problem with the donation campaign setup (e.g. not linked to the bank account properly). This issue came as a surprise since the campaign happened a while ago, but hopefully we’ll be able to work everything out.
On a brighter note, I’ve received the high school graduation awards night information from my contact at FUSD! Since we have applications from 4 high schools, we will hopefully be able to attend their awards nights and personally give them their award. Last year, I was able to go to one of them, and the grin on her face when she received the award was truly heartwarming.
That’s it for this week. See you soon!
Post 8: Blog #7: Final Product Planning
Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog! I’ve been working on a plan for my final product, a short documentary. I’ll begin the documentary with some background information on the McKinney-Vento Act and students, the Fremont Education Foundation, and the Pathway to Success Program. This week, I brainstormed interview questions for FUSD Student Support Services that will hopefully provide deeper insight into the challenges that MKV students face as well as how the school district supports them through these challenges. I also aim to interview the Basic Needs Coordinator at Ohlone College, a local community college. He can lend insight into how MKV students transition to higher education and the resources provided to help them adapt.
As much as I would like to speak to an MKV student to hear their firsthand perspective, privacy laws protecting their identities prevent me from doing so. However, I will include snippets of anonymous grant applicants’ essays.
On the financial side of things, my EA and I have agreed to redirect the funds originally intended for the HUSD program to the FUSD program. The Fremont Education Foundation bookkeeper sent me a new invoice that I have forwarded to our fiscal sponsor, who will keep me in the loop about the fund disbursement timeline.
I’m still not sure exactly how much of the Facebook campaign donations were able to be recouped, but I’m working on getting that information together. Even in the absolute worst-case scenario that no one who originally contributed to the campaign chose to re-donate, with an extra $7,000 redirected to FUSD, the program will be able to support approximately 9 MKV students. But fingers crossed that most of the money can be recouped!
I’ve finished my review of all grant applicants and have sent my thoughts to my EA and other Fremont Education Foundation board members, who will complete a separate review. After final decisions are made, we’ll provide the names of award recipients to my contact at FUSD, who will notify the students’ respective schools. We don’t tell students that they’ve won until their Senior Awards night to keep it a surprise!
That’s it for this week. See you after Spring Break!
Post 9: Blog #9: Interviews
Hi everyone, happy National College Commit Day! I can’t believe we’re so close to graduation and actually going off to college. This is the second-to-last week of Senior Project, and time is just flying by.
Last year, many of the grant winners weren’t at their Senior Awards night to receive the award, which was a little disappointing. However, this year we hope to have all grant winners there to get the award they earned! All of the grant winners will be contacted via their youth mentor before the ceremony. Hopefully, their knowing they’ve won an award will encourage them to attend their awards night.
This week, I mainly focused on my documentary, which will be my final project. So far, I’ve interviewed our FUSD Student Support Services Liaison and two MKV youth mentors who work with MKV students directly. Through these interviews, I’ve learned a lot more about the support services in place for these students, from transportation to gift cards. I also plan to interview my external advisor (and Fremont Education Foundation President) early next week. I’d love to talk more about the interviews, but I wouldn’t want to spoil the documentary! Stay tuned for my final product to watch the documentary, which will have many more insights from the interviews.
Aside from interviewing, I’ve been planning out the format of my slideshow presentation, trying to find a balance between enough information (including bumps I’ve run into throughout the process) and staying within the time limit.
We haven’t yet heard back from Fremont Social Services about whether FEF will receive the $90,000 grant, but the interview went well. We’ll be notified of their decision in early May. Fingers crossed! Our other fiscal sponsor told me that the $7,000 check for this year’s program funding will also be sent in early May.
When applying for the grant, some students put their school emails instead of their personal emails, but we’d like to keep in touch with them, both to verify their enrollment in a higher education program and just to see how they’ve been doing since graduation. Fortunately, our FUSD Student Support Services Liaison reached out to the youth mentors, who have been able to provide me with most of their personal email addresses.
That’s it for this week. Tune in next week for my final blog!
Post 10: Blog #8: Nearing the End!
Hey everyone, I hope you had a great spring break! Only two weeks left to go in Senior Project—time sure flies. Over spring break and this week, quite a bit has happened.
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to recoup the money that was lost when the PayPal campaign donations bounced back, bringing down FUSD grant funding from a previously anticipated ~$19,100 to around $17,700. This is disappointing news, but we are still working on contacting everyone. Hopefully, we’ll have some success with getting back some donations after following up with donors.
After I wrote down my initial thoughts on the Pathway to Success grant applications, other Fremont Education Foundation board members also gave their thoughts. We’ve finally decided on the 9 award winners! Reading all of these students’ stories, I’m in awe of how much they have overcome and their drive to succeed to build a better life for themselves and their families. One applicant has struggled as a refugee from Afghanistan but has worked to learn English and wants to become a kinesiologist after attending community college. Another student has been a victim of domestic violence but is now free of it, with the goal of not only becoming successful in her career but also wanting to use her success to give back to the community. A third student’s essay was heart-wrenching yet heart-warming: “My journey may not have been easy, but it’s made me who I am, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.” She plans to attend Ohlone College and hopes to become an EMT. Oftentimes, these students are overlooked as just a statistic, but each person is truly unique, with their own challenges, hopes, and dreams. Reading these applications has reaffirmed my belief in the Pathway to Success grant program. Beyond the financial support, the award tells these deserving individuals that we have confidence in them; we see them, are right by their side, and are rooting for them to succeed.
This year’s 9 award winners come from 4 out of 6 FUSD high schools! Unfortunately, all of the high school senior award nights are on the same night, so I’ve matched a FEF board member who will present the award certificates to each school.
On the financial side of things, Fremont Education Foundation has received the first $5,000 check from our generous program sponsor, and we are waiting on the second check of $7,000, which will likely be sent in early May. The interview last month with Fremont Social Services for the $90,000 of funding for the program over 3 years went well, and we will be notified of the city’s decision in May. Fingers and toes crossed!!
I’ve reached out about interviewing students’ youth mentors at each school for my documentary but am still waiting to hear back, as FUSD is currently on their Spring Break. Hopefully, hearing from the point of view of youth mentors will provide more insight into the support system these students have. Separately, I’ve also started designing this year’s grant award certificates.
That’s it for this week. See you in Week 9!
Post 11: Blog #10: The End!
Hi everyone, I can’t believe Senior Project is officially over! It seems like just a few weeks ago that I was figuring out how to write Blog #0.
Last Friday, I interviewed 2 MKV Youth Mentors from Irvington High and Robertson High, so I was able to interview 3 people in total (the third being the FUSD Student Support Services liaison). These in-person interviews were extremely helpful in helping me take a look behind the curtain and understand some situations. For instance, I learned that teachers are not notified of which students are unhoused, so they don’t give any leeway to those students if they miss class or turn in assignments late, which in turn further contributes to students’ struggles with academics.
I’ve spent pretty much all of the time working on my SP on my documentary this week. I’m pretty new to video editing, so it took me a while to experiment with different editing apps. I ended up using Videoshop, and I’m glad I did—even though I don’t have much editing experience, Videoshop has a very user-friendly UI. Over the past week, I’ve discovered how time-consuming video editing can be. It took me 3 hours to edit 5 minutes of content! It’s definitely been a steep learning curve, but I had a lot of fun playing around with the different features and figuring things out as I went.
On another note, I have amazing news! I heard back from Fremont Social Services this week, and my funding application for the Pathway to Success grant was approved! The Fremont Education Foundation will be receiving $20,000 per year (subject to funding availability) during the 2025-2028 grant cycle, meaning that the program is fully funded for the next three years! I was admittedly worried about the long-term sustainability of this program, mostly due to finances, but this funding means that the program will continue for at least another few years, and we’ll be able to support at least another 30 unhoused students in their pursuit of higher education!
Thank you so much for following along with me as I navigated this crazy journey full of twists and turns! It’s been such a wild ride, but I had a great time and have learned so much along the way. Not everything went according to plan (like the partnership with Hayward Unified School District or the PayPal campaign), but I’m happy with the way things turned out, and I couldn’t have done this without the support of Ms. Abodouma (my IA) and Councilmember Kimberlin (my EA)!