California

Key Stats
Established 2014
2,348 students served in 2022
Serving Hayward, Oakland, San Francisco

Despite the vast wealth and innovation associated with the Bay Area today, not all communities have benefited from the technology booms of the past few decades. In the East Bay region, for example, 71 percent of students are considered low-income and the majority would be the first in their family to graduate from college. Currently, only one out of every 10 Oakland ninth graders will complete college within five years of high school graduation.

uAspire expanded to the Bay Area in 2014 to address this opportunity gap and inequity in higher education attainment. Last year, we supported 3,779 students from San Francisco, Oakland, and Hayward and through programs run by the University of California.

The Bay Area launched our Succeed advising program in for college students who were highly engaged with 85% responding to their advisor over text. The Bay site also completed the implementation of a multi-year randomized control trial study in San Francisco Unified School District high schools.

We work in partner schools and nonprofits—within BUILD, Envision Education, and San Francisco Unified School District—for whom at least 60 percent, and as many as 94 percent, of students are identified as low-income.

Program Partners

We are honored to work alongside our extraordinary partners. Together, we are removing the financial barriers that keep too many of California’s young people from graduating college and reaching their potential.

Oakland Unified School District

uAspire advises 300 Oakland Unified School District students on college affordability.

Fewer than 500 Oakland public school 12th graders graduate college within 6 years of high school graduation each year. We're proud to help Oakland Unified achieve its vision to dramatically increase the number of college graduates from Oakland public schools by 2025.

Meet Juan

"The college process caught me off guard, but I have uAspire and my college counselor."

With a little help, Juan Ochoa’s dreams are coming into focus. Once unsure how, or even if, he would get to college, Juan, 17, a senior at Envision Academy of Arts & Technology in Oakland, has already been accepted at three California schools and is on his way to securing the financial aid needed to cover the cost of tuition at whichever one he ultimately chooses. keep reading