Haas program is a powerful engine of social mobility for teens from underserved communities.
When Kaitlyn Chiok began thinking about college, her high school guidance counselor steered her away from Berkeley, describing it as beyond her reach. “She told me to target state schools and not to apply to Berkeley or any of the UCs,” says Chiok, who graduated from UC Berkeley in May. Fortunately, Chiok had other advisors in her camp.
At the time, she was attending a program for high school students from underserved communities called Boost@BerkeleyHaas. The fully subsidized, four-year program (formerly known as Young Entrepreneurs at Haas) helped Chiok see that not only could she get into Berkeley but that she could thrive there. And that’s exactly what happened. She took the MCAT in June in preparation for med school.
Chiok is one of more than 1,350 students who have graduated from Boost since it was founded in 1989 by then-Haas Dean Raymond Miles. Each year, Boost provides mentorship, business skills training, and college advising to about 120 Bay Area teens. Unlike Chiok’s guidance counselor, the program encourages students to dream big.
The Boost advantage
There are many reasons why a college education matters. One is economic: A 2024 study found that median annual earnings of full-time workers were 86% higher for college graduates than for those with only a high school diploma. Others are less tangible: a chance to reach one’s potential, find satisfaction, and have an impact on the world.
Simply put, Boost offers kids the gift of possibility. And it works: 96% of students who participate—the program refers to them as Boost scholars—are from low-income families and ethnically diverse backgrounds. Of those who go on to graduate from college, 94% are the first generation in their families to do so. This is a significant success: A 2019 study found that only 20% of adults whose parents didn’t attend college had a bachelor’s degree, compared to 60% of adults who had one parent with a bachelor’s.
Program director Lucas Abbott, who’s in his 18th year with Boost and whose passion and vision have been instrumental to its success, says that Boost is quite likely the only program of its kind. He notes that while there are community programs that run for several years and short summer programs on college campuses, he isn’t aware of anything else that brings together the key ingredients that make Boost such a powerful engine of social mobility.
Just what are those key ingredients? Number one is Haas itself. The majority of Boost activities take place at the business school, and the classes and projects are led by Haas undergrad and graduate students, both current and alumni, who serve as supportive mentors.
“That’s part of the special sauce,” Abbott says. “Having the kids physically on campus breaks down some barriers. And then having these extremely high-achieving academic role models sitting with them at the same table and teaching them is really impactful.” In many cases, the mentors are only a few years older than the Boost students, and some—like Chiok—are themselves Boost alumni who volunteer with the program, showing the Boost scholars that they, too, can pursue their dreams.
All of this, says Abbott, helps chip away at the feeling some students may harbor that they don’t belong in such a hallowed, prestigious place. From day one, the program emphasizes that Berkeley, and campuses like it, are exactly where they belong.
It was an important message for Antonio Hernandez, who didn’t always plan on college. His Mexican immigrant parents worked long hours at fast-food restaurants to raise their three kids in Antioch, California. “They were always supportive and encouraged us to pursue our dreams,” Hernandez says, “but I think their main aspiration for us was to make sure we graduated high school. Anything beyond that was bonus points.”
Hernandez’s college ambitions began to take shape during his Saturdays at Boost. “Berkeley was the first college campus I ever went to and the first exposure I had to a four-year university. It made it a tangible reality that this was something that not only existed but was something someone like me could pursue.”
And pursue it he did. He earned a BA in economics from Stanford, and now he’s getting his MD at UC Davis and a master’s in education at Stanford. What’s more, he also serves as the president of the Antioch School Board.
“Having the kids physically on campus breaks down some barriers. And then having these extremely high-achieving academic role models sitting with them at the same table and teaching them is really impactful.”
—Lucas Abbott
A practical education
Another crucial aspect of Boost is its length, which spans all four years of high school. Each summer, a new group of rising freshmen attends a weeklong summer academy. Then, over the next four years, they come to campus one Saturday a month. Every year has its own curriculum, with an emphasis on business and entrepreneurship, financial literacy, college readiness, and the college application process.
Prospective college students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to have access to informational resources about college, a gap that helps perpetuate disparities in educational attainment. So, as it’s evolved, Boost has put greater emphasis on college readiness and the application process. But students also spend significant time on real-world business case studies and leadership communication skills. They also conceive of a product or service and develop a business plan, which they then present to a panel of judges. Summers include internship opportunities and college tours.
Two years ago, Boost also added financial education to the mix with the help of the Charles Schwab Foundation. Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, the foundation’s former president and a Haas School Board member, suggested the program. The yearlong curriculum, known as Moneywise America, teaches teens about savings and budgeting, investing for retirement, and debt management. It’s taught by Schwab employees, some of whom are Cal alumni.
Measuring impact
Boost is part of Haas’ Institute for Business & Social Impact. Last year, IBSI’s new executive director, Adam Ross, wanted to understand Boost’s influence. Nearly everyone who comes into contact with the program agrees it’s powerful, even life changing. But there was little hard data to back this up. “We had lots of anecdotal evidence and some basic statistics about how many graduates had gone to college,” Ross says. But he wanted a retrospective study to better understand the outcomes in order to inform future program design and fundraising efforts.
Devoted Boost volunteer James Schlinger, BS 06, agreed. “We’re a college readiness program, and we help students get into college,” he says. “But how ready are they? How do they do?” To find out, Schlinger built a database to track down the 275 Boost alumni who completed the program between 2010 and 2019.
“Coming from an immigrant Hispanic family and being a first-generation student, I didn’t have knowledge about the process and the requirements for college.”
—Michelle Mariscal-Lona
The results were astounding. More than 98% of the Boost graduates enrolled in a higher education institution, and more than 80% got their bachelor’s degree—nearly half from a UC school and nearly a third of those from Berkeley. Comparatively, in 2016, just 35% of low-income students in California enrolled in a post-secondary program upon graduation from high school. Boost is flipping that script.
Ripple effect
Growing up in San Pablo, California, Michelle Mariscal-Lona was no stranger to the Berkeley campus. She remembers walking with her parents and younger brother along the paths and imagining one day being a UC Berkeley student. Her parents are immigrants from Mexico, and from an early age, Mariscal-Lona had her sights set on college. Back then, she only dreamed of attending Berkeley, but this fall she’ll be part of Cal’s freshman class, an accomplishment Boost helped her achieve.
More than 98% of the Boost graduates enrolled in a higher education institution, and more than 80% got their bachelor’s degree.
For youth like Mariscal-Lona, the many steps needed to get into college can be mystifying. “Coming from an immigrant Hispanic family and being a first-generation student, I didn’t have knowledge about the process and the requirements for college, which is why I’ve always looked for opportunities—like Boost—that help me achieve my undergraduate and professional goals,” she says.
Mariscal-Lona and her family learned so much about the educational process that they made the decision to switch her to a different high school so she could take rigorous, advanced classes. She also completed online college courses each summer. Her effort paid off. In addition to being accepted to Berkeley, this spring she was one of six students to receive Boost’s Ray Miles Scholarship, a $1,000 annual award (renewable for four years) named for the program’s founder. Now Mariscal-Lona is sharing much of what she learned in Boost with her younger brother, who’ll soon be applying to college himself.
This ripple effect is one of Boost’s underlying strengths. Alumnus Steve Leke—the third in his family to attend Boost—is a rising junior at Berkeley and the first Boost graduate to be accepted into Haas’ competitive Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology program, which awards dual degrees in business and engineering. While still in high school at Oakland Tech, Leke had internships at BlackRock and elsewhere—which his Boost mentors helped him apply for. Now, in the M.E.T. program, Leke is growing the company he founded, Blacked Solutions LLC, which houses his various software-development programs. One, called VeeVee, helps restaurants and corner stores optimize food-delivery platforms to increase their sales and visibility.
“The Boost program played a significant role in helping me navigate the process and gain a clearer understanding of my options.”
Boost ripples out in other ways, too. After attending the program, Cecily Martinez-Caloca and her younger sister, Monica Rodriguez, achieved a significant milestone as the first in their family to graduate from college. Martinez-Caloca reflects on the experience, saying, “The Boost program played a significant role in helping me navigate the process and gain a clearer understanding of my options.” She currently serves as a faculty assistant at Haas. Meanwhile, Rodriguez has flourished as a lead motion designer specializing in animation, editing, and art direction at Philo, a TV streaming company. Their mother was so inspired by their college journeys that she recently returned to school and earned an associate’s degree.
Making a difference
Students aren’t the only ones inspired by Boost. Boost’s board chair, Anthony Brekke, MBA 03, says it was one of the most satisfying experiences he had as a Haas student. “Working with a small group of kids and helping them get on the path toward college was very fulfilling,” he says. A few years after he graduated, Brekke re-engaged with the program and has been a part of it ever since, both on the board and as a significant donor.
Schlinger, too, has found his Boost involvement to be hugely rewarding. He’d long known about the program: His father, Norman Schlinger, BS 75, is Boost’s biggest financial supporter, but it wasn’t until 2020 that he sat down with Abbott and asked how he could help. In addition to producing the alumni impact report, Schlinger has spearheaded several key projects, and in May he was named Boost’s Volunteer of the Year.
Now, Boost is fundraising to grow the program. The incoming class will have a cohort of 53 students, an increase from 35. The aim over the next four years is to nearly double the number of students Boost serves—and, by extension, the impact those students provide to their communities.
Charles Conner has long wanted to inspire others with his Boost experience. He grew up in a rough neighborhood in Richmond, Calif., and enrolled in Boost at the urging of his mother. Any initial uncertainty he had about going to college soon dissipated.
“I realized I wanted to be able to enjoy my life,” he says, “and not be stuck trying to figure out how to make it day to day.” He saw a college education as an opportunity to better his situation and maybe influence those around him. “Considering the area I grew up in and the people I was around, I wanted to show them it was possible,” he says.
In 2016, Conner graduated from Texas A&M, and since 2020 he’s been teaching business and coaching football at a high school outside Dallas. This year he taught a class on entrepreneurship. Conner, who won the business plan competition when he was in Boost, is now teaching his students to give similar presentations. “It’s crazy how it’s come full circle,” he says.