Paying it forward: how mentoring organizations are helping students with college admissions
- Jan 15
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 16
By Andrinika Aimable, Isabella Chavez, Bethel Kifle, Alani Schwertfeger and Samuel Wang
Youthcast Media Group®
Monica-Grace Mukendi was the salutatorian at Fordham High School for the Arts in the Bronx, and participated in extracurriculars. But when she learned that her college career could be threatened because she didn’t qualify for financial aid, she felt betrayed.
“I didn’t think college was in the cards for me,” Mukendi, now 26, said. “We didn’t have money, and I didn’t have access to the same scholarships as other students.”
Her worries eased when she connected with OneGoal, a national nonprofit that partners with high schools in 10 states to provide students with guidance and support for postsecondary pathways, including attending college. The program helped Mukendi navigate applications, connect with college administrators and secure grants to ease financial barriers related to her status as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient. With that support, she went on to receive a bachelor’s degree from Binghamton University and is now pursuing graduate studies at Syracuse University.
Mukendi’s experience is mirrored by many lower-income students across the country, and a growing number of mentoring programs are helping to narrow the divide between students who have access to robust postsecondary guidance, mainly through better-funded schools, and primarily lower-income students who face financial and other barriers. A 2021 study by Mentor Collective found that mentored students were more likely to follow through with college plans, reducing the “summer melt rate” (students who are accepted to college but do not enroll) from 73% for students without mentors to only 47% for those with mentors.
School-based mentorship programs may offer meaningful guidance to help students navigate financial aid and college applications, and stay on track once they’re enrolled. But these programs have limits: not every district partners with them, and access often depends on where a student lives or whether their school has resources to support the work.
“We are one piece of the puzzle,” said Lauren Hurley, senior director of program for iMentor Chicago, which works with 45,000 students across low-income communities in Baltimore, Chicago, and New York City. “If there could be more folks in young people's lives who can support them on that journey, we see how that works.”
Affording college a big worry for students
One of the biggest worries for students about college is cost. About 30% of students were “very worried” about affording college and more than half were “a little worried,” according to a Youthcast Media Group survey of 85 students at a variety of schools across the country. Their biggest worry was having a lot of debt at graduation (40%) followed closely by being a financial burden on their families (30%).
Their worries are well-founded: The average cost of tuition and fees at a four-year public college is about $11,950 per year for in-state students and around $31,880 for out-of-state students, while two-year public colleges cost about $4,150 per year, according to College Board.
And financial aid does not go as far as it once did. The maximum Federal Pell Grant, a need-based award from the U.S. Department of Education to low-income undergraduate students, covered less than one-third of the cost of attending a four-year public college, compared to about 75% of that cost in 1975, according to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
“College costs are one of the single biggest reasons why people say they’re unable to complete their degree,” said Anika Van Eaton, vice president of policy with uAspire, a national organization that helps students navigate the complex process of attending and affording college.
It is not always clear to students that the cost of a degree will be worthwhile.
“We're telling students who are 18 to take on more debt than they can fathom to pay for a degree that may or may not actually result in a job,” said Stephen Barker, communications director at OneGoal. “It is such a huge gamble. And it is no wonder that a lot of students are asking themselves, ‘Is college worth it?’”
Even so, many experts believe that college is still one of the most reliable paths to financial security. Despite rising tuition and living costs and growing skepticism about the return on investment, they argue that a degree continues to open doors to higher-paying jobs, broader career opportunities, and long-term financial stability.
“Going to college is an investment,” said Sandy Baum, senior fellow at the Urban Institute. “Even if you have to borrow money to do it, it's worth it because you're going to make enough money afterwards to pay back those loans, assuming that you go to college and you manage to graduate.”
Students face ‘epidemic’ of lack of information
Support systems are essential for high school students navigating the college‑application process, but many students receive minimal guidance, leaving them unsure how to handle applications, financial aid and career planning, said Barker of OneGoal.
“If you're trying to plan all of this and you've never done it before, no one in your family's ever done it before, the system basically sets you up for failure,” Barker said. “There really is kind of an epidemic of a lack of information getting to students.”
Tiffany Perera, 18, a senior at Miami Lakes Educational Center in Miami and a first-generation college applicant, experienced that firsthand this school year. She’s felt lost, despite help from college counselors and friends.
“I feel like I haven’t had enough information because every college is different,” she said. “They make the process very general, but once you look into specific colleges, it can get confusing.”
D’Avora Williams, 18, of Miami, received a need-based grant from Hamilton College in New York to help cover the cost of attendance, allowing her to enroll without taking on large debt. But receiving the grant effectively increased her family's income, meaning she did not qualify for additional scholarship funding.
“One of the most difficult processes for myself was actually filling out anything financial aid wise,” she said. “No one really tells you how to fill those things out, especially when it comes to scholarships.”
Mentoring organizations step in to fill the gap
OneGoal is among many organizations working to close the opportunity gap. Their model provides an elective course for juniors and seniors in its partner schools, and the organization also trains teachers to become postsecondary coaches, guiding students—particularly academically average students—through everything from identifying career interests to navigating college applications and financial aid forms.
“It is really targeted towards students who are typically not mentioned in the college or post-secondary conversation,” Barker said.
The support doesn’t end after high school; OneGoal continues mentoring students through their first year of college to help them stay on track.
“Having OneGoal there through my first two years of college made a huge difference,” Mukendi said. “I can’t even imagine what it would have been like without that support.”
iMentor aims to match every 11th and 12th-grade student in their partner schools with a mentor who commits two years to a single student to close the gap in equitable access to college, said Hurley.
“Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not,” Hurley said. “Our belief is that we can really work to close that talent or opportunity gap and support students in reaching their full potential.”
Mentoring pairs have the option to continue their relationship through the first two years of college.
“Mentors are able to provide their own lived experience, helping students break down the process and see what it really takes to succeed,” Hurley said.
These organizations have shown measurable results. For iMentor, 72% of students who worked with the organization enrolled in college immediately after high school, and two-thirds of them returned for a second year of college, according to the organization’s 2023-2024 impact report. And OneGoal reported that 80% of its students enrolled in a post-secondary institution, with 72% of them persisting one year after high school graduation.
Mukendi is one such student. Now the assistant director for recent graduate and student engagement at Syracuse University, Mukendi is not only pursuing her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy, but she is also supporting other students facing similar obstacles, including mentoring a high school student in the Bronx through iMentor.
“When you don’t see people who look like you in college, it’s hard to imagine yourself there,” Mukendi said. “Having someone close in age and experience to share guidance helps students avoid unnecessary detours and encourages them to reach their goals.”
She said she loves helping students who face the same doubts and struggles she once had.
“I hope every student gets to experience the care I did,” Mukendi said. “It can make all the difference in whether you see yourself in college or not.”
Andrinika Aimable and Isabella Chavez are juniors at Miami Lakes Educational Center in Miami; Bethel Kifle is a junior at Bellaire High School in Houston, Alani Schwertfeger is a junior at Nazareth Academy in Chicago and Samuel Wang is a junior at Palatine High School in Illinois. They worked with Youthcast Media Group journalist mentor Sarah Meehan on this story.
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