Eric J. Weilbacher
The Herald-Zeitung
Published January 17, 2010

In 2006, Communities in Schools in New Braunfels began offering a program to help disadvantaged students bridge the gap between making it out of high school with a diploma and taking the next leap into life.

Aimee Victoria sits at the helm of Project Success, and spends most at the three campuses in Comal and Guadalupe Counties in which it operates — New Braunfels High School, Memorial High School and Marion High School.

This school year, the program is serving 100 students.

“It becomes very easy to find barriers,” Victoria said. Most of these students see the high cost of venturing into the college application process, she said, and immediately count themselves out.

“Take away some of those barriers, say transportation to take the SAT and a test fee wavier, and if they qualify for that fee wavier, the College Board gives them fee waivers for five college applications,” she said. Show them the way that all connects together, Victoria said, and they light up, realizing for the first time that college may be an option. In addition to help with transportation and fee waivers, staff in Project Success help the students fill out financial aid applications and apply for grants and scholarships.

The cost of taking the SAT or ACT and applying to universities is expensive, but pales in comparison to the expense of college tuition, room and board. The students served through Project Success come from impoverished or complicated backgrounds — some of their students are currently homeless — that make the idea of moving on with life after grade school feel like a pipe dream.

What many students do not realize, Victoria said, is that Texas offers tuition waivers at many state universities. Texas A&M has one of the highest tuition waivers in the state. Last school year, students with parents making up to $60,000 a year qualify for a waiver.

“Low income students have a lot of myths (about going to college),” Victoria said. “It (the tuition waivers) is a huge gateway for them. They say ‘Wait a minute, I could actually go?’”

Victoria said what makes this program different (their class of 2009 graduates had a 91 percent acceptance rate to two-year or four-year colleges and universities, or to vocational and technical school programs with a total of $255,000 in grants and scholarships awarded in 2009 alone) is they do not focus just on those disadvantaged youth deemed college-bound, but rather take a look at the whole student and examine every possibly avenue for them after high school.

“We have them take career assessments. Each high school has different career assessment software. We sit down with them at the computer and talk to them one-on-one about the results. It’s that one-on-one time after the assessment that’s critical,” Victoria said.

They also take some of the students overnight to Texas A&M for a leadership conference of first-generation college students in November, as well as other trips and programs that illustrate with real-life examples, the difference between high school and their potential future. Everything from four-year universities and technical schools to the military is scrutinized.

Andrew Padilla, 19, a senior at NBHS, is one of those students.

He has spent hours in the career center at high school searching for what to do with himself.

“I’d come in here and go to Ms. Crews,” he said, referring to the college and career center advisor and local scholarship coordinator at NBHS. “I thought I liked photography a little bit,” he said.

After a long search, he realized his biggest interest, automotive tech, could take him back to Houston. Universal Technical Institute has a campus in Houston, and for the year duration of study he’ll be specializing in collision repair and refinishing technology.

“He’s been very proactive, once he found out anything and with the parities involved he went with it,” Crews said.

UTI will even help find him a place to live in Houston while in class, though the hurdle of expense — total tuition for the program is $30,000 — can be daunting. Financial aid and scholarship applications can be turned in beginning in February.

Padilla is undeterred by the expense and knows UTI is where he’ll be attending school.

“They will help me find a job while in school … Classes start Sept. 13,” he said.