Stanford’s Black Community Services Center tapped the mayor of Stockton, Calif., Michael Tubbs, ’12, MA ’12, to receive its inaugural Ira D. Hall Under 30 Service Award. The award celebrates young alumni with a deep commitment to service.
Only 26, Tubbs became America’s youngest-ever mayor of a city of more than 100,000 people, as well as Stockton’s first African-American mayor, when he assumed office earlier this year. He earned his bachelor’s degree in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and a master’s in policy, organization and leadership studies while simultaneously running a successful campaign to sit on Stockton’s city council.
During his time at Stanford, Tubbs helped expand educational opportunities for underprivileged youth by founding the Summer Success and Leadership Academy, aimed at making college more accessible, and by launching the Phoenix Scholars program to assist low-income, first-generation students with college applications. “I wrote my ‘Why Stanford?’ essay about the Haas Center [for Public Service],” says Tubbs, recalling his own admissions essay. “Public service was never really a question for me — it was just to what extent.”
