Passing the Torch: Supporting Tomorrow's Leaders

Passing the Torch describes the remarkable achievements of public university students from marginalized populations who transcend oppression and poverty to become powerful leaders for social justice. Ruth and Bill Goldman drew upon their expertise in mental health and higher education to launch a scholarship program in the San Francisco Bay Area which provides assistance to people of color, recent immigrants and others from marginalized populations, in order to help them become leaders for social change. In addition to tuition assistance, they offer a package of wrap around benefits to replicate the support higher income students receive from their families. To date, every single participant graduated from college and more than seventy percent earned graduate degrees from prestigious universities. Ruth Goldman’s personal story as a Holocaust survivor and Bill’s as the grandson of Jewish refugees who fled discrimination inform the program and draw a parallel to the plight of modern day refugees and the disenfranchised seeking opportunity in the United States today. Passing the Torch shows how the New Leader Scholars overcome poverty and discrimination in order to acquire an education while sustaining their idealism as they strive to achieve greater equity and justice for all.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter One In Search of Social Justice Chapter Two Finding New Leaders Chapter Three Giving Students a First and Second Chance Chapter Four Mentors: A Cornerstone of the New Leader Scholarship Chapter Five Lessons Learned and Disappointments Chapter Six The Scholars and their Impact Chapter Seven You cannot see what you do not know Chapter Eight Things Worth Doing Acknowledgements About the Authors and Collaborator Appendices: A: New Leader Scholar Fact Sheet B: Graduate Schools Attended C: Interview Assessment Form D:Mentor checklist E: NLS Annual Program 2017 F: NLS Retreat Agenda 2017 G: Named Scholarships H: New Leader Scholar Biographies

About the Author :
Ruth Goldman is chair of the New Leader Scholarship Advisory Board and professor emerita of psychology at San Francisco State University. Her retirement from teaching inspired creation of the New Leader Scholarship. Bill Goldman, a psychiatrist, has directed major public mental health service systems throughout his career, including those of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the County of San Francisco. He was a longtime clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. Chris Black is a former journalist who worked as a political reporter for the Boston Globe for twenty years and as a White House and congressional correspondent for CNN.

Review :
What Ruth and Bill Goldman have created struck a very personal cord with me. As the child of immigrants who worked full time jobs during the day and an additional part time job cleaning an office building at night, it was thanks to the generosity of people like Ruth and Bill that I was able to afford the cost of college and law school. Like Angel, I often accompanied my parents when they went to their night job as office cleaners because they had no one to leave me with. A combination of scholarship support, modest family savings and a good amount of loan debt got me through Florida State University and Georgetown Law School. Each time I received any kind of scholarship support I called my parents and asked if that meant they could cut back on their overtime, or if my mother could finally stop working on Saturdays. As the book notes, the scholarship support Ruth and Bill are providing goes far beyond the direct impact on the student. Its ripple effect touches every member of the family, making the entire unit more resilient. Ruth and Bill's expectations for these scholars is also worth highlighting. By instilling a sense of duty to give back in these scholars, they are ensuring that this endowment stretches far beyond what the dollars themselves acquire. They are extending the impact into communities across our country where the horizon for young people often does not stretch beyond their block. Deploying scholars into their neighborhoods with a clear mandate to inspire others like them to imagine a limitless horizon, they are doubling down on the power of their philanthropy and putting us all on a path to a more just society.