Annual event raises funds for the President’s Innovation Fund

The annual President’s breakfast held on March 22 at the South San Francisco Convention Center was the largest in the event’s history, hosting more than 300 people.

The event is conducted each year as a fund raiser for the President’s Innovation Fund (PIF). The PIF is designed to bring in seed money for projects that will help support the college’s goals and strategies.

Projects like the Phi Theta Kappa’s seminar series, “Gold, Gods and Glory: The Global Dynamics of Power” as well as “Making the Connection: Plug into College” event that provides high school students and their parents with informational sessions about higher education, are funded by the President’s Innovation Fund. This same fund brought the “Diverse-Ability: Culture and Community” film festival presented by the Museum of Tolerance (MOT) Alumni Group to the Skyline campus.

Featured speakers at the breakfast included San Bruno Mayor Larry Franzella who gave the introduction and Skyline President Dr. Victoria P. Morrow who introduced a video presentation that explained the importance of the President’s Innovation Fund. Last spring’s video has won an award from the statewide Community College Public Relations Officers.

Skyline 2006 graduate Daniel Tostado, who is now attending the University of California Santa Cruz spoke on his experiences at Skyline. Tostado is the recipient of the UC Santa Cruz Karl S. Pister Leadership Opportunity Award.

Skyline student Sonya Pope, whose poetry and short stories were recently published in a book called “From the Walls Inside: Recorded Conversations with Myself,” talked about how Skyline has helped her overcome many obstacles that she has had to endure and Pope closed with a reading of her poem, “I was, I am.”

“I believe in education in all its various forms,” said Carolyn Livengood, who serves on the President’s breakfast committee and has since its inception. Livengood, who lives adjacent to Skyline, was the winner of the very first Skyline Shines award. “It’s an award I am very very proud of,” she said. Livengood believes so much in Skyline that she even picks up trash on campus during her morning walks. “It’s a labor of love,” Livengood said.