We are excirted to welcome Russell Warriner to our Board of Directors! Russell brings the energy of Oakland’s entrepreneurs and a true spirit of volunteering. Even while launching a new business and raising a young family last year, Russell found time to mentor with Oakland Serves. Now in his second year, he still helps students in academic recovery English classes at McClymonds and Castlemont.  “I was drawn to Oakland Serves to help young people. Life without a high school d

A mentor is someone who sees more in you than you do yourself. Peter Bank and Ms Emily Blumenthal with a 2025-26 student. Many of Oakland Serves mentors help students stay or get back on track.  And some, like Peter Bank, inspire them. ​For two years, Pete, a retired structural engineer, has been working in Ms Blumenthal's math class at Oakland High School. “Pete is such an amazing mentor and a wonderful asset to my classroom community. He knows how to make math feel fun and

We are so pleased to have Eli Smukler joins our Board of Directors!.  Eli is an Oakland resident and software engineering manager at Pandora's Oakland HQ.  He has a long history of working with students, initially as a math teacher. Since then he has taught web development with  CodeNation and MissionBit and fortunately for us, became a mentor for Oakland Serves (Algebra 1 at Castlemont HS!). His valuable expertise and passion for the importance of our mission will be a great

Our 2024-25 Impact Report is Out! High school students take many paths to graduation.  Some routes are direct, some are torturous and backtrack at times before reaching the goal. Oakland Serves supported students on many of those paths.  So where were we in last year? Last year we worked in Oakland High School and Castlemont HIgh School in six different math classes working with those students that had difficulty keeping up.  Remnants of lost learning from the pandemic still

It was a pleasure to participate in Summer HAcK* this year.  For the third year in a row, we’ve been part of this unique credit recovery program for 9th and 10th graders from multiple OUSD schools.    *Healing and Academics 4 Kids English 1 Credit Recovery This year at Life Academy, it was a great team of teachers with community partners: ArtEsteem , YouthBeat , Niroga Yoga and ourselves.  As in previous years, the program combined academic classes with an opportunity to exp

Here are two more fascinating graduates of Oakland’s public schools.  They came from very different backgrounds and had very different opportunities but each used their high school education as the start of a long career.  Can we give today’s students an opportunity to do the same? It’s great to profile ​Betty Reid Soskin , 1942 grad of Castlemont High School !   She was a park ranger at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front Nat'l Historic Park in Richmond until her re

Celebrate our Oakland public school graduates that have become leaders in their field! Oakland's public schools have graduated many men and women that went on to become leaders and agents of change in their fields.  For Black History Month, we are showcasing two iconic graduates that made a lasting impact in politics and sports. Politician and civil rights activist   Ron Dellums  (1935 – 2018) was a ‘52 grad of  Oakland Tech !   He served in the U.S. Marines before earning de

Count the ways that our mentors are AMAZING Oakland Serves mentors are amazing.   They are community members that dedicate time each week to a class of high school students, helping them succeed academically. What else makes them amazing? 1. Our mentors are from all over the community: college and graduate students, accountants, insurance agents, software developers, stay-at-home dads, entrepreneur, video game developers, police officers, former teachers as well as retired en

National Mentoring Day recognizes the important work that mentors do in schools, in the workplace, and in many other environments.  Oakland Serves' mentors give just 1.5 hours a week yet make a difference to many students that need help in the classroom; explaining material, focusing effort and giving confidence to those who are not connecting to school: "...worked with Yemeni students M__ and H__ on their spelling and punctuation assignments. " "...worked with three students

CONNECTIONS represented our work in the 2023-24 school year.  Last year we increased our connections within the schools and community to help improve the educational experience of Oakland's high school students.   Each connection opened up other connections bringing even more  requests and opportunities to us.  Last year we: doubled the number of class sessions we attended relative to the previous year increased 4-fold the number of math class sessions attended met "surprise"

What do the teachers think of our classroom mentors?    1. We go to where they are at, literally and figuratively.   2. We know what they need to do to succeed.   3. We re-enforce learning in real time.   4. We encourage class participation and independent thinking.   5. We celebrate their success. “[The mentors] had a tremendous impact on the overall functioning of the classes ... They were able to help my spanish-speaking students navigate the spaces they were in to make su

"Start Right to End Right" Redux Oakland Serves' mission is helping students that are falling off the graduation track.  To do so, we must identify the biggest stumbling blocks.  Inability to complete math classes is one of them.  Last May we kicked off our “ Start Right to End Right ” initiative to get more mentors into Algebra 1 and Geometry classes for the 2023-24 school year. We want students to pass the first time around and avoid summer school and remedial classes durin