Building Support - New Major Gifts For Access Facility

Click the photo for a 3-minute video of the facility

Access is proud to announce two new capital gifts in support of our Southeast San Diego facility. We are so grateful to Price Philanthropies for its contribution of $450,000, and to Malin and Roberta  Burnham for their gift of $150,000. The generosity of these two investments has an effect that transcends their financial impact: gifts like these from some of San Diego's most respected philanthropists show our students that the entire San Diego region believes in their potential to become champions, both on the squash court and in all of our communities.

Together with major gifts from board members Blair Sadler, Ted GurneĆ©, Henry ManiceRobert Merritt and others, Access has raised $2,335,000 to date for this 8-court Squash and Education Facility.


Access Finishes Strong at 2018 Urban Nationals!

On the weekend of January 20-21, 2018 in New York City our boys and girls teams secured 2nd place in their perspective divisions at the 25th Urban Team National Championship Tournament hosted by SEA (Squash + Education Alliance). 

The trip started off with a red eye flight consisting of little sleep and a lot of excitement. Once in the city, the team took a walk to Grand Central Station to watch the pros play at the Tournament of Champions. Coach Yuri took this opportunity to talk the students though strategy and form using the pros as examples of what to strive for. 

Our girls' team (Lynh, Djuila, Rahel, Angela, Gicel, Diana) played first on Friday afternoon winning their matches 5-0. And just like that, we were off to an amazing start. After getting a short night sleep, with the time change not working in our favor, the boys and girls had a long day of squash playing ahead of them. The boys team (Richard M., Kevin, Richard N, Quang, Kebron, Bezalel) played first. Trending with the girls' team, they had a great start winning their matches 4-1. Their second matches of the day proved to be a tougher challenge and they lost 1-4. After a short break and a pep talk from their coach, the boys took their final match 5-0 and landed in 2nd place. 

Meanwhile, the girls were fighting hard on Saturday, winning their first match 3-2 but losing their next match 4-1. They had one final match on Sunday morning and were determined to stay strong. They, like the boys, finished off with a win of 5-0 to also place 2nd in their division. 

I t was an exciting weekend with a great finish. Coach Yuri commented "As a coach I'm really proud of every player and we are looking forward to keeping up the hard work and bringing the title home next year."

Access Student Wins National Essay Contest
Each year, Squash + Education Alliance holds an essay contest in coordination with Urban Team Nationals. We are proud to announce that   Djulia S.  was selected as the winner in the U-17 age category for her powerful essay about connecting to her culture and finding herself through music.

Pictured: Djulia S. and Sharon L. help clear invasive plant species in the City Heights watershed. Access Youth Academy volunteered with San Diego Canyonlands and I Love A Clean San Diego as part of California Coastal Cleanup Day.

"The culture that I carry inside me is the little that I learned when I was with  my parents in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That little culture I have is what burns inside me daily and I cannot wait till I'm old enough to explore it more in depth."


NEW Access Website!
We are excited to share that our new website is now live. Visit and read about our students, board members and staff. Find out how you can help through volunteering or donations. Check out the plans for our new facility and watch videos highlighting our students and programming. Click Here To See The New Look!


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