On Wednesday, May 3, The Opportunity Network (OppNet) community gathered together to celebrate our 20th anniversary at the annual Night of Opportunity Gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. And celebrate we did: In the sold out Cipriani ballroom, our 1,100+ guests from the finance, entertainment, philanthropy, media, and business industries gathered to raise a recording-breaking $4 million in support of OppNet’s mission to close the opportunity gap and continue scaling our impact for young people of color nationwide.
This year's event recognized the service and achievements of our esteemed honorees: Blue Owl and Michael Rees, OppNet Board member and Co-Founder and Co-President of Blue Owl; Trevor Noah, comedian, best-selling author, producer, and philanthropist; and Anré Williams, CEO, American Express National Bank and Group President, Enterprise Services, American Express.
In addition to raising critical funds to expand educational and professional access, the evening featured powerful remarks from OppNet’s leadership, our honorees, and current and former OppNet Fellows who received this year's Opportunity Awards.
Richard Jefferson, Emcee and NBA Champion, kicked off the night, sharing how OppNet’s mission has personal significance for him. Growing up in a working class family, Jefferson was able to realize his dreams thanks to the support of those around him, in particular his father who purchased him a ticket to see an NBA game when he was 12 years old. This act “unlocked an opportunity” that has stayed with Jefferson his entire life. He also spoke about OppNet’s “special sauce,” our proprietary Career Fluency® framework. Jefferson said: “Career Fluency means knowing how to cherish the community you have while building a broad, vast network to expand your horizons and enrich other people’s perspectives.”
In his remarks, Dan O’Keefe, Chair of OppNet’s Board of Directors and Partner at Apax, also recounted the personal significance of OppNet’s mission, as a “product of the transformative power of education.”
In the end of his remarks, O’Keefe introduced to the stage President and CEO of The Opportunity Network, AiLun Ku, who celebrated the last 20 years of OppNet and shared her excitement and vision for the years to come. She said that OppNet started as “an idea that was rooted in addressing injustice—that some of us access economic opportunities through networks while others were kept out. [Founders] Brian [Weinstein] and Jessica [Pliska] took that idea and made a promise.” From first serving 10 Fellows in 2003, AiLun shared how over the next 20 years OppNet “built on that promise and turned that promise into a bonafide organization that now serves over 1000 students in all five boroughs of New York City annually,” and has cumulatively trained over 1000 educators and managers from over 160 corporations, colleges, and community-based organizations.
Ku also presented the first 2023 Opportunity Award of the night to Blue Owl and Michael Rees, who in his speech shared about his work in the Opportunity Ignited program and with OppIgnited interns. He shared his philosophy of building in “tiny advantages that compound in a positive way each day,” in terms of professional development. Additionally, Rees said the inverse is also true, and when faced with compounding structural inequities that act as barriers to opportunity for our young people, the work of OppNet is “come in and fill that gap… and provide the tailwinds” to bolster student success.
Community, family, and resilience were key themes throughout the evening. Alan Perez, First Year College OppNet Fellow and member of the Johns Hopkins University Class of 2026, shared advice that his family had given him when he was 10-years-old, and how it has returned to him as he’s grown older and faced new challenges and unknowns: in the words of his parents, Perez encouraged the audience to “give it all you’ve got, but do it well.”
Next Raquel Vargas Palmer, Managing Partner at KPS Capital Partners LP, took the stage to officially succeed Dan O’Keefe as Board Chair. Vargas Palmer said that what drew her to OppNet was “the quality of its programs, the results and unparalleled outcomes every year, far exceeding national averages. OppNet continues to prove that every student can build the life they want when they get access to opportunities, skill development, and support.”
Following Vargas Palmer, Opportunity Award recipient and 2016 OppNet Alumna Joy Funmi Akinfenwa shared her powerful journey—in both speech and video format—of immigrating to the U.S. from Nigeria at age 4, and overcoming bullying to find herself among like minded people as an OppNet Fellow. She spoke to the positive cycles that have come from her getting the support she needed: having a mentor to connect with “was life-changing because it meant that I didn’t have to go through it alone. I had to experience this myself to then give back to my community. I wrote a children’s book about anti-bullying and teaching children the importance of not being bystanders in situations where bullying is occuring.” Akinfenwa’s story is a perfect example of how each of our futures is bound together and that by increasing support and connection we can impact the world for years to come.
Watch the inaugural Alumni Opportunity Award film here.
Following dinner and a record-breaking pledge drive, Sarah Joseph-Donnelly, OppNet’s Chief Innovation Officer, and Ray Reyes, Chief Program Officer, kicked off a 20th Anniversary Founders’ Toast, where early OppNet Alumni Titi Oshinaya and Amanda Yepez and OppNet Co-Founders Jessica Pliska and Brian Weinstein shared memories and insights from their OppNet tenure. Oshinaya and Yepez both spoke to the ways that Pliska and Weinstein personally supported them on their professional journeys through one-on-one conversations and sharing their networks. Oshinaya is currently the Vice President of Business Development at Bad Robot Productions and Yepez is the Learning and Development Specialist at Spotify.
The next student recipient of the Opportunity Award was Luqmaan Bamba, 12th Grade Fellow in the OppNet Class of 2027. He shared his story of immigrating to the U.S. from Ghana, and how he found strength to persevere through change and culture shock. After sharing with the audience his plans to matriculate at Princeton University in the fall, Bamba said that even if his academic interests may change, he will continue to “rely on and trust in the OppNet community to support [him] with the resources to achieve success.”
Bamba also introduced honoree Anré Williams, who in his acceptance speech connected OppNet's mission of igniting the tenacity and passions of underrepresented students to his own family history growing up in Oakland, California. He said, “When I look out across this room, I see access, I see opportunity, and I see inspiration.”
Opportunity Award recipient Shun Ping Huang, OppNet Alumna and Babson College Class of 2017, shared moving remarks that highlighted the importance of having mentors you can look up to while also becoming confident in your own skills and knowledge. She also introduced the final honoree of the night, Trevor Noah, who as former host of The Daily Show was no stranger to public speaking.
In the last hour of the Gala, Noah captivated the audience with powerful reflections on community, agency, and opportunity. He noted that OppNet “bridges the gap between the opportunities that many take for granted and those who can make the best use of those opportunities.” He encouraged the audience to look at their networks and communities broadly and with open-mindedness, saying, “My honest advice to you would be just to see yourself beyond yourself. Deconstruct yourself to your core parts — what makes you who you are — and then find people like that because they will walk the path that you did.”
Congratulations to all of our honorees and student honorees: OppNet is proud to be in community with you. Thank you to all who attended the 16th annual Night of Opportunity Gala and celebrated 20 years of impact, 20 years of community, and 20 years of OppNet.
To read more about the evening see press coverage below:
- E! Online
- ET Online
- Forbes
- Hollywood Life
- New York Style Guide
- Upstract
- Variety
- Yahoo! Entertainment
