Jody Priselac, former ED&IS Associate Dean, Executive Director of Center X, and UCLA alumna, and family establish support for students from Mann UCLA and UCLA Community Schools who attend UCLA.
A new fund has been created by Jody Priselac and her family to support graduates of UCLA Community School and Mann UCLA Community School in attending UCLA.
Priselac, a triple Bruin who achieved her bachelor’s degree, teaching credential, and doctorate at the University, says her work in creating the two community schools was “a highlight of my time at UCLA. It was just a really important moment in my career, so I was trying to figure out how to keep supporting it.”
A “community school” is a public school that serves as both an educational institution and a hub for community resources. In addition to academics, community schools partner with families, universities, health providers, and local organizations to provide services such as health care, mental health support, after-school programs, family engagement, and college and career preparation.
While at the helm of UCLA’s Center X, Priselac worked with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to create a memorandum of understanding establishing the UCLA Community School in 2009. She also served on the school’s institutional-design team, contributing her expertise in mathematics education. Having taught math at Los Angeles High School for 12 years and having served as Director of the UCLA Mathematics Project at Center X, she takes great pride in preparing and supporting math teachers in underserved communities.
“When I was at LA High, it made me realize the need to support teachers and to come into areas that could be more challenging, where our students have more needs, and what teachers need in order to do that work,” says Priselac, who also was part of the team that created UCLA Center X. “While I loved teaching and being in the classroom with kids, I realized there was a need for a greater role in terms of supporting teachers as they worked in the city with our kids.” The solution included the community-school model, which helps teachers by supporting students and their families.
In keeping with the model, the UCLA Community Schools serve neighborhoods that are majority lower-income; the figure is 95% for Mann UCLA and 97% for RFK. At the same time, since their establishment as community schools, each campus has been a model of academic success, with near-perfect graduation rates and six Mann UCLA students admitted to UCLA in the graduating class of 2026. They exist in mutually supportive relation to UCLA, which sends researchers and teacher-trainees to the campuses.
The Priselac Family Scholarship Fund is aptly named as Priselac’s husband, Tom Priselac, was an adjunct professor in UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health.
“My husband has been a great support,” says Dr. Priselac. “During the week before UCLA Community School was going to open, Tom was there with me, cleaning up, opening rooms, dusting, delivering books, so he’s been a big part. When we went to Mann, he helped do the landscaping out front with the teachers and the Chancellor. He’s been engaged because it’s been such an important part of my life, and he was very happy that we could do this together.”
Indeed, Ed&IS is something of a family tradition for the Priselacs. In addition to Jody and Tom’s involvement, their son Brian Priselac earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and was one of the first undergraduate minors in education at UCLA. Brian also volunteered at the UCLA Community School after graduation, continuing the family’s legacy at the school.
“When he graduated, Aimée Dorr (former UC Provost and UCLA Ed&IS dean) let me be onstage to greet him and hug him,” says Priselac. “It was a very sweet moment.”
The next chapter of the Priselac family’s support will help strengthen the pipeline from the UCLA community schools to UCLA.
“Oftentimes, our kids go to other schools where they get more financial support,” she notes. “I want to help in any way, to support them to attend UCLA, to give them the opportunity to decide to participate in this institution and then decide their own future.
“The getting in is the hard part,” Priselac says. “The money shouldn’t be what keeps them out.”
The Priselac Scholarship fund is beginning with an endowment of $100,000, the proceeds of which will be awarded to UCLA Community School students who are admitted to UCLA. The award amounts will be determined by the number of admittees as well as the size of the endowment as more funds are added by additional donors.
To sustain support for graduates of the UCLA Community Schools to attend UCLA, the Priselac Family hopes that other Bruins will contribute to their Scholarship Fund. “I know the schools have deep support and engagement across UCLA,” says Priselac. “They are a source of pride for our entire university and I’m hoping that the people who support the schools will see this as an important way to continue their support.”
Priselac says that two points of pride for her around the UCLA Community Schools are the quality of the teachers and the bright futures that the schools’ graduates have achieved.
“Especially because of my background in teaching, I am most proud of the amazing teachers, who go above and beyond to support their students,” she says. “Every time I visit the schools and see them interacting with students and how they support them, that, for me, is almost like a dream come true—that teachers are playing a key role in providing opportunities for their students to succeed.
“The other piece,” says Priselac, “is the students who are coming out of our schools and going on, and their success in the world.”
For more information on giving to the Priselac Family Scholarship Fund, visit this link.