By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Rappahannock County High School senior Evan Shankle wanted to beef up his math skills to get ready for college but wasn't sure where to start. A classmate needed help with a financial aid form. Another was stumped by a question on an SAT practice test.

All three sought help one afternoon this month from 23-year-old Lauren Ross. She is one of 19 recent University of Virginia graduates working as "college guides" in schools across the state in an initiative meant to broaden the ranks of students on the college track. These guides help students pick colleges, craft admissions essays and find ways to pay. They even take students on campus tours.

Ross and an adviser from a community group "helped me and pushed me," said Shankle, who plans to attend Ferrum College in southwestern Virginia. "Without them, I don't know where I'd be."

Two years ago, 55 percent of high school graduates in Rappahannock, a farming community nestled along the Blue Ridge Mountains, went on to college or trade school. Last year, 72 percent did. Expectations are even higher this year.

Rappahannock senior Jesse Palmer was accepted to Stanford University and will be the first in his family to attend college. Another student got into Georgetown University, believed to be a first for the high school.

The guide program, launched by U-Va. two years ago with a grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, has made similar headway in other schools. In March, the foundation announced grants of $10 million to replicate the program at colleges and universities in nine states.

Loyola College in Maryland, one of the recipients, plans to train eight graduates to become advisers in schools including High Point High in Prince George's County and Glen Burnie High and Annapolis High in Anne Arundel County. Pennsylvania State University, Brown University and the University of California at Berkeley are among the other participants.

"There are a lot of kids who don't have college on their radar," said Victor R. Delclos, chairman of Loyola's education department. "The idea is to identify kids who have the ability but don't have the vision and help them."

Nationwide, 52 percent of young adults in college are from families with incomes in the top 20 percent, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. In recent years, educators have been pushing to get more bright students from low-income families into college, and several top universities have replaced loans with grants for many students in need.

William G. Bowen, a former Princeton University president who studies socioeconomic diversity in colleges, said one-on-one attention from guides can help students find places that play to their talents and interests.

The guides, who went through the angst of college admissions and SATs only five or six years ago, connect with teenagers who fear they don't have the smarts or won't be able to pay. "We remember what it was like to apply to college," Ross said. "We remember thinking, 'I don't know how I'm going to go away from home.' We speak the same slang."

The program was conceived in spring 2004 when the Loudoun County-based Cooke Foundation was seeking to support nonprofit groups that would work directly in schools to guide teenagers through the admissions process. The foundation had about a dozen meetings statewide with educators, business leaders and community groups.

Nicole Hurd, an assistant dean at U-Va. who attended one meeting, knew college students who wanted to spend a year or two in a public service program such as Teach For America or the Peace Corps before heading to graduate school. It seemed a perfect match. "They have credibility," Hurd said. "They can say, 'If I can do this, you can do this, too.' "

Hurd sold the foundation on the idea. In 2005-06, U-Va. placed guides in 14 schools. The number of students in those schools who went on to college increased an average of 15 percent, she said. This year, the program expanded to 22 high schools and three community colleges. Guides earn a modest salary and serve one or two years.

Gains have been highest in the state's poorest areas. In Patrick County, on the North Carolina border, the portion of college-bound seniors jumped from 61 percent to 86 percent.

Unlike students at affluent schools where SAT test preparation classes and college visits are typical, students in rural areas such as Patrick County or in inner-city schools often are not exposed to the college-going culture. The guides are trying to change that. They said they see signs of progress when younger students hear that a senior is going to college and decide it's time to talk about their own future.

"Seniors set the mold. What does every freshman want to be? A senior," said Tiffany Meertins, whose work as a guide last year inspired her to drop law school plans and return to U-Va. for a master's degree in education.

Some guides have gone to Northern Virginia, including Edison High in Fairfax County and T.C. Williams High in Alexandria. There, they often work with students from immigrant families.

Ross said most of the students she's known want to go to college but need a sounding board. One girl she advised wrote a lackluster essay about her desire to become a doctor to "help people." As Ross talked with her, the girl realized she was motivated by her own struggle with juvenile diabetes. She rewrote the essay.

One afternoon this month, Ross helped students practice for the SAT at Rappahannock High. Adam Gessner wandered into the room, reached into a basket stocked with candy and popped an Atomic Fireball into his mouth.

"They said no, didn't they?" Gessner said nervously. He was waiting to hear whether he had gotten into Indiana University of Pennsylvania and had called the university that day from the guide office. The university returned the call while he was in class but still didn't have an answer, the advisers told him.

No matter how that turns out, Gessner will be packing for college in August -- something his parents never did. He applied to Clarion University of Pennsylvania and wrote an essay even though one wasn't required. The school rejected him at first because of a low SAT score. But after hours of study sessions with Ross and another adviser from a community group, he retook the test and boosted his score more than 300 points. Clarion decided to give him a chance.