For many, the summer is a time for vacation, rest, and retooling. Here at Coro, the summer is a time for activity, excitement, and accomplishments. In June, we began the 13th year of our Exploring Leadership program. The San Francisco Youth Fellows are trained right here in the Coro office, so we can see the fruits of their experience! Enthusiasm and a creative spirit are palpable. It is an exciting and fulfilling time and we would love to share the Youth Fellows’ accomplishments with you. We invite you to the culmination of the Exploring Leadership program’s summer which will occur the week of August 8th. Two events will highlight the work of our students, the Community Action Project Show Case and their graduation, the Stepping Up, Stepping Out ceremony. We will be sending out invitations with the details soon and we hope to see you there.
Other work continues at Coro, for the second year, we will facilitate the orientation for the incoming class of students in the Masters in Public Affairs and Practical Politics at the University of San Francisco. At the end of the month, the 65th class of Coro Fellows in Public Affairs will be arriving! We will be sharing their bios with you in the next Journey.
I am also proud to announce some staff changes here at Coro. Minden Bennion, who was our Director of the Fellows Program, has been promoted to a new position, Senior Director of Leadership Development. She will manage all the programs and is in the process of hiring a Manager of the Fellows Program who will help her with logistics and be an assistant trainer.
Yolanda De La Paz has been promoted to be Director of External Relations. She has already begun working with me on outreach to our corporate supporters. She will help produce events this year and she will still be responsible for recruitment for the Fellows Program and our annual Selection Day. While we are on the subject of recruitment, please tell anyone you know who is interested in any of our programs to contact Yolanda at ydelapaz@coro.org to obtain more information.
Finally, Tracey Jones who has been with Coro for 15 years is our new Director of Alumni Relations. She will also help with our planned giving outreach. So alumni, you will be hearing from Tracey in the near future. Ben Polansky remains as the Director of Youth Programs, and we hired a Manager of Youth Programs, Alison Traina. Alison just returned from Vanderbilt University after having obtained her Masters Degree in Education. Last summer Alison was a trainer for Exploring Leadership. We were very pleased that she not only wanted to return to Coro to work with the program, but to join our staff as well.
Toni Cassar’s new title is Director of IT and Finance, and she will continue to run this office, we can’t do this without Toni!
We have a terrific team and we have an exciting year ahead of us. And to end on another bright note, our fiscal year which ended on June 30th, showed that our hard work and your committed support reaped rewards. We ended the year in the black, music to an Executive Director’s ears! And finally, while I know it seems like we just saw you at our Leadership Luncheon, please save the date of Friday, May 11, 2012, for next year’s Luncheon. We are changing venues, and we look forward to seeing you at the Westin St. Francis next year, more to come! Have a wonderful summer and I thank you all for your generous support. We would not be here, but for your commitment, helping us create the next generation of leaders.