Celebrating 10 Years of
First-Gen Impact.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2026
Jazz at
Lincoln Center’s
Frederick P. Rose Hall
Broadway at 60th Street,
New York City
Once-In-A-Decade GALA WAs aN EVENING TO
celebrate first-gen impact with the energy and occasion it deserves.
As we markED this milestone, we BROUGHT together a new generation of leaders to honor what THE Basta COMMUNITY has made possible. IT WAS a memorable evening of powerful stories, special performances, and featured talent.
The evening began with cocktails, followed by dinner and a celebration of 10 years of Basta, with stories from across our community, a look at the decade behind us and what comes next, special messages from Michael R. Bloomberg and Sheri Schultz, and a rare performance by longtime collaborators and former Arcade Fire bandmates, acclaimed musicians Will Butler and Sarah Neufeld.
ONCE-IN-A-DECADE GALA PHOTO GALLERY
Revisit the unforgettable moments, the people, and the energy that made Basta's gala a night to remember.
An evening hosted by Vicky Nguyen
Vicky is an NBC News chief consumer investigative correspondent, anchor of NBC News Daily and New York Times best selling author of the new memoir “Boat Baby.” She reports for the Today show, Nightly News with Tom Llamas and NBC News Now.
Special Performance
For the first time in years, longtime collaborators and former Arcade Fire bandmates, acclaimed musicians Will Butler and Sarah Neufeld will share the stage again
for a rare, intimate performance at Basta’s Once-in-a-Decade Gala.
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Will Butler is an award-winning musician and composer. He wrote the music for the 2024 hit play Stereophonic, for which he received two Tony nominations for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations. As a member of the band Arcade Fire until 2022, he released era-defining records such as Funeral and The Suburbs, which won the 2011 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Along with Owen Pallett, he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Score for the Spike Jonze film Her. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Emma Stone, Terry Gilliam, Greta Gerwig, choreographer Ryan Heffington and comedians Jo Firestone and Patti Harrison. He is currently working on theater projects and releasing music with his band Will Butler and Sister Squares.
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Sarah Neufeld is an internationally acclaimed Canadian violinist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer based in New York City. A longtime member of Arcade Fire and a founding member of the contemporary instrumental ensemble Bell Orchestre, she is also known for her celebrated work as a duo with saxophonist Colin Stetson. Alongside her solo work, Neufeld is currently recording and performing with her trio alongside Richard Reed Parry and Rebecca Foon.
Neufeld’s work inhabits the space where sound, movement, and emotion meet. Rooted in the physicality of the violin, her music is kinetic yet deeply inward—music of bodies in motion, of tension and release, of shapes unfolding and dissolving. Her compositions embrace both precision and messiness, finding beauty in the organic, the unresolved, and the unexpected.
First-gen impact: from 40 to 85,000
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The Beginning
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First-gen job outcomes
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Becoming a New York anchor for first-gen students
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First-gen talent becomes undeniable
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Expanding our model through Seekr
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Working with Higher Ed institutions and nonprofits to increase impact
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Mentorship with SWE volunteers to close the first-gen employment gap in tech
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Impacting students outside the tri-state region
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Thousands of students getting clearer career paths through AI-enabled Seekr
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Basta is expanding to Philadelphia and to HBCUs across the Carolinas
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Accelerating job outcomes for 85,000+ students
with gratitude to our champions
THANK YOU TO our STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Blackstone Foundation
Where You Work Matters
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Franci Blassberg and Joe Rice
Jamie & Tyler Craig
Anjali Salooja & Kevin Rinker
Since 2016, Basta has grown from a local nonprofit into a tech-enabled national organization reaching over 85,000 students on more than 300 campuses. In the past year alone, Basta has expanded its reach tenfold, combining data-driven, AI-enabled career navigation with
partnerships across higher education and leading employers to broaden access to career opportunities.
Today, Basta participants are thriving at Bloomberg, Google, BNY, Comcast, Justworks, and more than 100 other companies. Building on a decade of impact, Basta is working toward an ambitious goal: impacting one million careers by 2030.
ABOUT BASTA
