The 1995 photo of Nadia Hernandez and Laurie Mireles was taken during study break, during one of the many summers they came from Coalinga-Huron to learn and make friends. We don’t have a current photograph of Ms. Hernandez, who has since earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and is a credentialed teacher in the Central Valley—close to her hometown and her extended family.But we do have a May 2009 photo of Laurie Mireles, PhD, with her (justifiably) proud parents on either side of her at her graduation from the Graduate School of Education this spring. Pictured behind Dr. M are her brother and sister, both ATDP alumni. Gilbert (the other Dr. M, Yale 2005) is an assistant professor of sociology at Whitman College. Patsy, a graduate of Haverford College, teaches in the South Bay and is earning her master’s degree. Not pictured is Laurie’s brother Isaac, also an ATDP alumnus, who chose to attend his sister’s graduation instead of his own from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (MBA ’09), which was also held on May 17th. [Isaac isn’t in the photo because he was looking for a parking space near the Berkeley campus. As of this date, he is still searching.]
Looking at our students and their outstanding accomplishments, as well as our teachers and the joy they derive from working with students who love to learn, we know these are “the best of times.” Seeing in ATDP so diverse a group of young people, who otherwise are unlikely to have met, learning together and forming fast, enduring friendships gives further evidence that these times are very good indeed.Ironically, ATDP is in danger of becoming seriously hampered by its success. As you may already know, from the beginning ATDP has been self-sustaining—including meeting the full financial aid cost internally. Because we are an integral part of the Graduate School of Education and its work, we have access to wonderful campus resources—many of which are shared gladly with us at no cost by generous departments and faculty. Still, the bottom line is that all of our expenses must be met by tuition income—and tuition income is no longer sufficient to cover financial aid expenses. Financially, this makes the times most challenging (I don’t want to say “the worst of times”).
Our students come from homes across the range of family resources, including levels below the national poverty line, which for the Bay Area is very low indeed. In previous times about 10% of our students received financial aid. As ATDP has become more economically diverse, the need for financial aid has grown greatly, increasing each year over the past decade. With the current economic downturn, we have additional groups of people now in need. This year, the demand for financial aid exceeded our highest estimates and has more than doubled the demands of a decade ago.
At the same time, if ATDP were to increase tuition costs accordingly, we would be placing the program out of reach of ever-greater numbers of families. We must now turn to you for help in assuring that academic talent development remains a matter of choice not chance for ATDP students.
We gratefully acknowledge the generous donations made by the following wonderful friends of ATDP:
| Castro, Joseph Isaac Castro, Mary Gloria Chen, Mei K. Chen, Yi-Tso Jeff Fong, Diana C. Griffin, Dena Diane Griffin, Gary A. Landerfeld, Charles |
Lee, Stephen Ming Mogilefsky, Kelly McGowan, Cathy McGowan, Tom Ng, Joyce Temple, Frankie Temple, Ronald |
write a check payable to “UC Regents.” Send to:UC Berkeley ATDP
Graduate School of Education M/C 1670
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1670