History
The Gooden Family Scholarship Fund was established as a 501-(c) 3 non-profit organization in June 2004 by Andrew M. Gooden to serve students in the West Contra Costa Unified School District in Northern California. Mr. Gooden was motivated to start this organization when he observed that people of color are not well represented on college campuses. Many bright low income students – particularly those of color – are often left behind because they and their families are ill-equipped to tackle the college and scholarship application process. Mr. Gooden also observed that many under-represented high school students in his community of El Cerrito, California were often the first in their family to consider college and that too few of them made it there. The GFSF was established to offer financial, academic and college counseling support to these academically capable, low-income, under-represented students and their families throughout the college and scholarship application process. In this way, GFSF contributes to an increase in the number of under-represented students on college and university campuses.