Anna Tuschimoto Description

Jasmine Yong Description

Taiki Nishihara Description

I mentored with Sage during all 8 semesters of my college career, and it was the absolute best choice I made at Cal! Sage helped me grow in empathy, patience, and leadership, and it was truly a blessing to work with so many bright-eyed, hopeful children in the bay area! During my term in 2015, I was very proud of our leadership team’s efforts to increase membership and better integrate the community through outreach events like the new Sage 5K.

Overall, Sage gave me a new perspective on privilege and opened my eyes to the amazing growth a single mentor can facilitate for their mentee. Some of my favorite Sage memories include dressing up as a superhero with my mentee, learning the trumpet so I could help him in music class, and leading my first-ever Sage info session! 

After graduation, I plan to attend medical school and focus my career on promoting racial and economic equity in healthcare. I know that my passion for Sage will stay with me forever, and I hope that you can find this experience as wholly transformative as I did!

XO, Allison

My experience with Sage was the highlight of my college career.  When friends and family would ask about school, I would gloss over my classes and instead talk about Sage. Through this program, I have made connections with fellow undergraduates, mentees, and teachers that last to this day.  I am currently finishing my Berkeley degree and preparing to apply to medical school where I hope to help continue Sage's mission.

I was president of Sage Mentors during my senior year of college-- back in 2012! I started mentoring Amelia when I was a freshman in college, and it was incredible seeing not only her growth, but the growth of the organization over the next four years. I recently finished my Teach For America commitment in Houston, Texas, where I teach High School Physics. Although working with high school students is vastly different from mentoring elementary school students, the bonds and the importance of stability and consistency are aspects of Sage Mentors that has helped me be successful as a teacher. My college experience would not have been the same without Sage Mentors-- I hope that you find it as rewarding as I did!

What has stayed with me most since my time with Sage has been my understanding of the importance of relationships. The relationship with my mentee meant a tremendous amount to me as did the relationships I held with the other student-mentors and the Sage leadership team. Sage played a significant role in my own development during what was the most important and formative year for me at Cal. Shortly after graduating from Berkeley I moved to Buffalo, NY where I began my career as a community organizer. I currently work as the Lead Organizer of a faith based community organizing coalition called VOICE-Buffalo. My time with Sage and what I learned about myself during that period ultimately inspired me to commit myself to this field of work. 

Lindsay Timmerman Description

Brandon Foo Description

I joined Sage as a mentor the first semester of my freshman year at Berkeley, and it has been one of the most impactful decisions I have made in my life. Not only did I get to enjoy building a relationship with my mentee and act as one of her biggest supporters, I had the privilege of working with some of the most amazing, capable, woke, devoted visionaries, outspoken listeners, and thoughtful advocates on the Berkeley campus, to carry on the mission for equitable education and holistic development of young children in the city! 

​

Building on our predecessors’ accomplishments and momentum, the 2016 Sage team and I got to imagine up and implement innovative ideas to reach greater audiences, encourage stronger mentor-mentee relationship, and provide events and services to enhance the Sage experience for all our mentors, mentees, their parents, and teachers. I LOVE this organization so much & I CANNOT be more appreciative of the experiences, relationships, and memories that it has given me, so I highly recommend joining as a mentor or partnering with Sage as a collaborator! 

Kimberly Sabraw Description

My involvement in Sage was the most rewarding experience I had at CAL. I've learned lessons in patience, leadership, and commitment that will stick with me for a lifetime. Upon starting a full time job, I realized that time was limiting and it was not easy to mimic my Sage experience. Therefore, it's been really important to me to make the extra effort to follow my passion and commitment to Sage's mission. Currently, I volunteer at a non-profit education-focused consulting firm called Inspire, and conduct projects for school districts, individual schools, mentoring and tutoring organizations, etc. I am also involved in Breakthrough, a non-profit that assists middle school students with limited opportunities in developing academic and personal skills required for college. I miss Sage every day, but being involved in my community here in SF allows me to still make a difference doing something I love!

I was Sage President from December 2009 thru June 2011. I was a member of Sage since I was a freshman at Cal and helped expand the program to many school in Berkeley and Oakland. I loved being paired with my elementary school mentees and working with them in the classroom and playing sports with them during lunch and after school. There is no question that my time with Sage made a lasting impact on my life. I learned valuable lessons in leadership, responsibility, and working with others that I was able to implement during my time in law school and look forward to drawing upon as I begin my career as an attorney. I work for the law firm Wood Smith Henning & Berman in Newport Beach, CA.

With the realization that there was a great need for a mentorship program that grounded itself in forging powerful, long lasting relationships with the youth in the greater Berkeley and Oakland community, Alejandro founded Sage in 2008. Alejandro began Sage with a vision of creating a program in which UC Berkeley mentors could be paired up with an elementary student and serve not only as teachers, but also as friends and role models. To this day Alejandro is very close to his mentee, Cleveland.

Since his graduation, he has gone on to have a very successful career driven by the same entrepreneurial spirit to find ways to better the world around him. Alejandro now serves as the co-founder of Back to the Roots, an Oakland-based business that sells mushroom kits and AquaFarm fish tanks to retailers nationwide. Since co-founding BTTR, Alejandro has even been named as one of Inc.’s 30 Under 30, Poder's 2010 Influential Hispanics Under 40, Forbes’ 30 Under 30, CNN’s 10 Next Entrepreneur’s to Watch, and been recognized by President Obama!