Jeraldine Mendoza trained at the City Ballet School of San Francisco with Galina Alexandrova and received a full scholarship to the SAB’s Summer Session. Ms. Mendoza was selected by Helgi Tomasson to become a trainee at San Francisco Ballet at the age of 17, and was the first American female invited to graduate in the Russian course at the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy (now known as Moscow State Academy of Choreography). Ms. Mendoza won first place at the YAGP San Francisco Regional Semi-Finals in 2011, and joined Joffrey Ballet later that year.