Last December, San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College (K2C) program welcomed a new program manager, Mohan Kanungo. Prior to joining K2C, Mohan served as the Director of Community, Innovation, and Impact for the Children’s Council of San Francisco, which advocates for quality education and financial support to empower families and communities.

He also brings a personal connection to the CSA field and an equity lens to his new role. Recently, the Children’s Savings team at Prosperity Now caught up with Mohan to discuss his new position, the impact of COVID-19 and his goals for K2C in 2021. 

Mohan first heard about the CSA field more than 10 years ago, when he began looking for educational and savings opportunities for his two younger siblings after their mother’s passing. He felt a sense of responsibility and a desire to support them in their pursuit of education, so he created an online savings account and learned about K2C. Later, as Director for the Children’s Council of San Francisco, Mohan oversaw a program that supported thousands of low-income families in navigating childcare options and securing financial assistance. He also successfully advocated for equity-based improvements to the city’s waitlist for subsidized childcare. As K2C program manager, Mohan intends to continue using this equity lens to provide targeted incentives to families at underperforming schools, while encouraging the long-term investment in college savings. 

Like many programs throughout the country, K2C was forced to adjust its program operations and address the growing immediate needs of participating families because of COVID 19. The changes included a shift to virtual engagement and text messaging to stay in touch with families, enabling emergency withdrawals from program accounts and offering families support with accessing their stimulus checks. As program manager, Mohan will build on K2C’s efforts, utilizing community learning hubs located throughout San Francisco to engage the highest-need students. Under Mohan’s direction, K2C is also developing a plan for distributing funds to the first participant cohort, which will graduate from high school in the next few years, and a new method to evaluate the success of the program over the past 10 years. 

As the oldest universal, municipal CSA program in the country, K2C is a leader in the CSA field, and Mohan Kanungo is well-positioned to lead the program through its next chapter. His passion for equity, human-centered program design and a community-based approach that focuses on the needs of low-income families will be an invaluable asset to the CSA field, moving forward. Congratulations to Mohan, and best of luck to the K2C program in 2021!