Cisco has supported the communities where its employees live and work for close to 30 years.  We leverage our resources and technology to multiply individual and nonprofit efforts to improve people's lives. One area Cisco focuses on is improving student performance in education, particularly in underserved communities. Cisco istherefore proud to partner with nonprofit City Year, a member of the AmeriCorps network. City Year recruits recent college grads who devote one year to help at-risk students stay in school.

Cisco is a national leadership sponsor of City Yearand a local team sponsor in San Jose, California, the home of Cisco headquarters. Cisco funding recently supported 8 dedicated corps members at the Cesar Chavez Elementary School. Working full time for 10 months, corps members help high-risk students improve attendance, behavior, and course performance in English and math-the factors known as the early warning indicators for high school dropouts.

The Cesar Chavez School team just graduated after providing the school and community with over 15,000 hours of service with impressive results. Eighty-one students participated in individual and small group literacy tutoring: 92% of the students who were tutored experienced growth in their literacy scores and 42% of those students achieved their end-of-year goals. The corps members also helped students learn through an extended learning time program to provide additional instruction to help students succeed. This year over 100 students were enrolled, with an average daily attendance of 85 students. Through this program students received after-school instruction, adding 90 additional school days!

Cisco thanks City Year and the AmeriCorps team for providing such important service to help students stay in and succeed in school. Congratulations from all of us at Cisco to the graduating team on the job well done!