Nov 11, 2009 8:36 pm US/Pacific
Career Guidance Helps College Students Aim High
Jefferson Award Winner: Marjorie Weingrow
BERKELEY (CBS 5) ―
Students Autumn Andrews and Dante Dixson will graduate from U.C. Berkeley this year. Both have career ambitions and a clear vision of where they are going. But it wasn't always that way.
"I don't have anyone in my family who is a professional or works in an office," Autumn explains. "I come from a working class background, so I don't know, what does it look like to be in a professional setting, to be a leader in that sense?"
Dante adds, "When I was 13, my father left our family and I had to essentially fulfill that role in my family. You know, I had to make sure my little brothers and sisters brushed their teeth, went to school on time, got home, kept up with their homework, things like that."
Both Dante and Autumn credit SAGE Scholars Program at Berkeley for helping them prepare for professional careers, and say founder and director Marjorie Weingrow is an inspiration.
"SAGE stands for Student Achievement Guided by Experience," Marjorie explains. "What we do is experiential. Everything else that the students do here is theoretical."
Marjorie started SAGE at Berkeley ten years ago to help retain low income students and prepare them for the world outside academia.
"What we do is start exposing the students to careers," Marjorie says. "They start researching careers and getting really involved and meeting people in a variety of careers."
At weekly classes, Marjorie introduces SAGE scholars to different professional experts who teach them everything from presentation skills, to writing and business etiquette. In addition, every student is matched with a volunteer mentor. And a variety of corporate partners provide scholars with paid internships.
And though she manages over 100 volunteers, and is constantly pressed to raise the money that runs the program, Marjorie still stays connected to each and every student.
"I also have come from a low income background and didn't have opportunities available to me," she says.
She is part role model, part den mother, and full time advocate for her scholars.
Autumn says, "She really fights for us, so we have opportunities, and it changes our lives, it impacts us in a major way --and she just keeps doing it year after year."
And year after year, 100% of the SAGE scholars graduate.
"It's been very challenging being in education now, as everybody knows, but these students are totally extraordinary," Marjorie says proudly.
Dante says thoughtfully, "We learn about altruism in psychology class and you really don't think you see it out there, someone who dedicates their life to people they don't know, and that's sort of what she does!"
So for building a community of students and preparing them for professional futures, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Marjorie Weingrow.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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