In 1996 The Meritus Scholarsip Fund launched a college scholarship program designed to reach San Francisco’s underprivileged students. The criteria were simple: if a student maintained a 3.0 GPA over the course of their high school career, he/she was then eligible to apply. Unfortunately, the foundation quickly learned that these standards cut out a wide swath of the population they were trying to reach, such as African American males. They circled back, created a separate scholarship called the San Francisco Achievers, and lowered the GPA requirement to 2.5. Then they called Joyce McMinn.
Joyce is one of Gateway’s Founding Mothers and still teaches and tutors at Gateway High School. When Joyce got wind of the foundation’s new program, she went straight to the student records and searched for potential candidates. At the time, only one African American male student met the criteria. Joyce sat back, baffled. How had Gateway’s standards of excellence let this particular group of students slip through the cracks? Not to be undone, Joyce circled the wagons. She created The Burl Toler Scholars, a structured study hall to help improve students’ grades and increase their chances at receiving the scholarship. She offered snacks, one-on-one support, and most importantly, her undivided attention.
“It’s really about Gateway establishing a positive relationship with students,” Joyce says. “The students get excited, they get comfortable, and then they all make a plan.”
As incentive, students in Burl Toler Scholars have the opportunity to receive Gateway High School letterman jackets. To “letter” students must maintain a 2.7 GPA for at least one quarter and attend at least 20 hours of work time/tutoring. Burl Toler’s son Greg, who sat on the Gateway’s Board of Trustees for the past six years, actively supports the Burl Toler Scholars program and presents the jackets to deserving students. “These jackets are to remind the kids to respect themselves,” explains Greg. “I say to the students, ‘I respect you, your teachers resect you, now you need to do the same.’”
Burl Toler, the man for whom both the club and the Gateway High School campus are named, came of age in the civil rights era. Born in Memphis, TN, Burl headed west because his mother knew things would be better for him in California. City College recruited him to play football - his first football experience - and ultimately, he played at University of San Francisco on the undefeated 1951 team. An injury forced him out of sports and into education where he served over two decades as a teacher at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School (GHS campus), and then as SFUSD’s first black principal. He also went on to officiate in the NFL as the first African American referee in the league.
In 1951, Burl’s USF team made the Orange Bowl invitational. Yet, Burl was not welcome because of his skin color. In response, the rest of the team declined the invitation due to the exclusion of black players. It is this same spirit of unity and inclusion that caused Joyce to open the doors to other students of color and girls when they, respectively, asked to participate. The Burl Toler Scholars now welcomes all students and incidentally, provides the only avenue in which a GHS student can letter.
Statistics show that 87% of the students who achieve jackets status maintain their GPAs throughout high school. Several students have gone on to receive scholarships from the San Francisco Achievers program. Most impressively, all of the Burl Toler Scholars from the last three years have gone to college. Joyce and the students of the Burl Toler Scholars represent the very best of Gateway Public Schools. When weaknesses are honestly confronted, they have the potential to transform into one's greatest strengths. The journey is easier with a little guidance; the key is learning to ask for it.