The East Palo Alto Stanford Summer Academy (EPASSA) serves about 30 youth from the Raveswood and Redwood City School Disticts. Both districts feed into the Sequoia Union High School District and serve East Palo Alto, the Belle Haven area of Menlo Park, and the Fair Oaks community of Redwood City. All of these are low-income communities populated predominantly by African Americans, Chicano/Latinos, and Pacific Islanders. These areas stand in stark contrast to the neighboring cities of Atherton, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto which are predominantly white, middle to upper class areas. Students from the Redwood City and Ravenswood Districts must compete with students from the neighboring cities who have the opportunity to learn outside the pressures of living in an inner-city environment.

Sequoia Union High School Distict estimates that 28% of their students "drop out" before graduation. While this figure is indicative of the problems of the Sequoia District, it does not accurately reflect the specal problems of students from EPASSA's target areas. According to a survey by the Community Development Institute in East Palo Alto, 60% to 70% of students who enter the Sequoia District from the Ravenswood Distict do not graduate. The comparable figure for Spanish-surnamed students from the Fair Oaks Community of Redwood City is 45%.

The Ravenswood City School District, serving the largely non-white, low-income communities of East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park, has hisorically suffered a number of obstacles diminishing the quality of education. Since 1985, the dynamic and dedicated school superintendent, Dr. Charlie Mae Knight, has made a dramatic impact on the morale and profile of the Ravenswood schools. Dr. Knight has successfully mobilized a broad base of community support to supplement district programs with human, material, and financial resources. In addition, Dr. Knight has established a good working relationship with the Stanford Community, helping students and University departments create programs that reflect sensitivity and meet the educational needs of both Ravenswood and Stanford students.

The growing commitment among Stanford students to participate in community service activities reflects a growing movment of public service on college campuses nationwide. Thousands of students are volunteering for community projects and agencies, with a healthy percentage of students involved in tutoring and other programs at local public schools. In the Stanford community this growing commitment has been especially noticeable in the collaboration between the Stanford campus and the Ravenswood City School District. The Eats Palo Alto Stanford Summer Academy (EPASSA) is one of a number of projects developed by students committed to helping Ravenswood youth achieve educational success.