School benefit celebrates the ‘Preuss Promise’

The Preuss School on the campus of UC San Diego in La Jolla presented its annual “Preuss Promise” benefit to further its mission to help its students become the first in their families to attend college.

The fundraiser on April 28 at the San Diego Marriott Del Mar hotel included a cocktail reception, dinner and a Q&A with Hong Van Pham, who graduated from Preuss in 2009 and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s in public affairs from Princeton.

The Preuss School’s 800 students come from low-income households in 40 neighborhoods across San Diego County. It is led by Executive Director Helen Griffith, who grew up in southeast San Diego — “the same neighborhood where many of our scholars come from,” she said — and graduated from UCSD.

— La Jolla Light staff ◆