By Mary O’KEEFE

For about nine years, Glendale Unified School District board member Nayiri Nahabedian has been working with local individuals, organizations and elected officials who support education and want to give students a leg up on their academic future. This year all the hours of work and countless emails paid off, literally, with the establishment of the Glendale Unified College Success Fund.

Thanks to the support of the Glendale Education Foundation (GEF), which funded the initial pilot program, and a $200,000 grant from the California Student Aid Commission, the Every Kid Counts College Savings Program was started. The funds mean that every GUSD first grader this year received $50 to start their college fund. 

“We started the pilot program in 2017[/2018],” Nahabedian said.

She had reached out to GEF in late November/early December 2016 for a donation to start a college savings pilot program for elementary students. She asked for $10,000.

“They agreed and we started with 100 Cerritos Elementary and Roosevelt Middle School students,” she said.

The program had great support from the principals of both schools and school counselors. The pilot program allowed students in the program to get a $100 deposit for their college fund and at the time School Share 529, California’s college savings plan, matched the deposits dollar for dollar so the students had a college account that started with $200.

During a presentation at a recent GUSD board meeting, students from the program thanked the district for that account and for the chance to go to college. The kids were not just grateful but also confident that they were going to college. They shared, via video, what they wanted to be when they grew up. Goals ranged from scientists to actresses and doctors. The obvious feeling shared by these children was one of hope and confidence in their college future.

For Nahabedian, this is exactly the kind of reaction she had hoped for after first reading “The Welfare of Children” by Professor Duncan Lindsey when she was a graduate student at UCLA. That book became a foundational building block for her life and her career as a professor at California State University, Los Angeles.

“I was struck by his assessment of and compassionate concern for the wellbeing of children and his ongoing search for policy ideas that have the potential to help secure a better future for America’s youth. One idea I was particularly struck by was his proposal for Child’s Future Security accounts, similar to the Social Security program for older adults. Well, I carried that idea with me through the years until I found just the right moment to pursue a similar policy in my own work,” she wrote in a recent newsletter.

She wanted to see how this program could work at GUSD.

“I was looking through my emails for a timeframe and back in 2014 I met with Ed Kashadourian [from Opportunity to Assets]. We met at the district office where we had a [virtual] meeting with Margaret Clancy at Center for Social Development at Washington University [in St. Louis],” Nahabedian said.

Clancy is the CSD policy director for College Savings Initiative and SEED for Oklahoma Kids. This program, according to Nahabedian, was a strong advocate for children’s savings programs.

“I knew her research and Ed had worked with her so we [virtually] met and talked about what we could do in the City of Glendale,” she said.

As with everything in education, for ideas to go from first thoughts to planning to reality it truly does take a village of supporters. Nahabedian credited many others for helping this initial program to move forward including GUSD board members and GEF.

That’s not to say that everything went as planned. The group had met with the City of Glendale’s then-city manager Scott Ochoa in hopes of finding support and although city officials liked the idea they “didn’t feel they had the financial ability” to support it, she said.

But that didn’t deter the organizers and they went on to apply for more grants and talked to everyone who could help them. The battle paid off because this year first graders in GUSD have a college account.

Wesley Walton and Raffi Ashdijian from Glendale Area School Credit Union are working with the district to establish the free accounts for students. Parents can create their own accounts to add to the initial $50. The funds deposited by GUSD are required to be used for college or trade school.

“If we hadn’t had that initial pilot program I don’t think we would have [received] the grant,” Nahabedian added.

The $200,000 grant is only for this year and the hope is it will continue to be awarded for years to come; however, due to COVID-19 and budget cuts, there are concerns. The grants that were offered previously have been cut. But Nahabedian is still hopeful the district will receive another grant. The district is also looking for private donations to help continue to fund the program.

Nahabedian has worked beyond GUSD and brought the savings idea for students to Sacramento.

According to a 2019 release by the district, “Earlier this year, Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian led efforts to include $25 million in the state budget to create a statewide child savings account program known as the California Kids Investment and Development Savings [KIDS] program. Glendale Unified Board Member Nayiri Nahabedian initially introduced the initiative to Assemblymember Nazarian and served as an advisor on the KIDS policy. On Oct. 2, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 114, which expanded the KIDS program to families at all income levels and authorized ScholarShare to open a KIDS account and provide a small seed deposit for every California resident born on or after July 1, 2020.”

“I am proud of our district’s forward-thinking approach to promoting a college-going culture by creating college savings accounts for every student,” said GUSD Board of Education President Jennifer Freemon. “We are thrilled that the governor has approved a plan that supports our mission, and we thank Assemblymember Nazarian and Board Member Nahabedian for championing this important initiative at the state level. Ms. Nahabedian was a strong advocate of its essential components throughout the legislative process.”

Anyone who is interested in donating to this program or would like more information can contact board member Nahabedian at nnahabedian@gusd.net.

  Mary Okeefe