Zemaye (Slay-Z)

National Youth Mentorship and Empowerment Initiative 2023-2024

Zemaye Jacobs (she/her/queen) is dedicated to centering current and former foster youth voices. To be a catalyst of change, Zemaye has been diligently advocating on behalf of current and former foster youth in the Bay Area. Sharing her lived experience as a transitional age youth to motivate community programs to do more in order to have positive outcomes on the youth they are serving. By actively uplifting the stories of her community she continues to inspire, elevate, and bring awareness to the unique challenges foster youth faces. Zemaye's passion to be a catalyst for change energizes her to stand with the community and be grounded in youth-led grassroots efforts to increase funding that support wraparound services for young adults. Zemaye, currently serves as a Youth Representative for Box.org to lend her lived experience as a former foster youth to aid and produce cloud based products for Box. Zemaye previously served on Larkin Street Youth services youth advisory board as Co-chair, where she centered the clients of Larkin Street Youth services. Throughout all her service, Zemaye has been a trailblazer that is passionately vocal about foster youth needs. Zemaye double majored in Communication and Africana Studies at San Francisco State University. During her time at San Francisco State, she served as a Guardian Scholars Ambassador and served as the first Vice President of Social Justice and Equity for Associated Students. She wants to continue her work uplifting the stories that inspire, transform, and reimagine how our society views foster youth.