2018 Holiday Happy Hour 

Summer Search was founded in 1990 by Linda Mornell an adolescent counselor in private practice, who was inspired by the positive impact of her own children's transformative summer experiences, and wanted to provide more young people with similar opportunities. In their first year, Summer Search sent fourteen students from low-income backgrounds on wilderness education programs, to help them strengthen the skills needed to succeed.

Recognizing that students would benefit from year-round support, Summer Search began to offer long-term mentoring by trained staff, as well as college access and success support, thereby redefining itself as a leading innovative youth development organization.

Today, Summer Search has a national presence, working with young people, most of whom will be the first in their families to attend college, in five regions across the country—the Bay Area, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Seattle.