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Making College a Reality

TCU’s College Advising Corps helps North Texas high school students plot their next steps.

By TCU Magazine

February 16^th, 2022

by Lisa Martin

As a high school senior who had moved to Fort Worth three years earlier from Myanmar, James Sang ’18 (MEd ’20) was worried about his English skills, his family and fellow refugees. He didn’t reserve much time to contemplate a plan for his postsecondary education.

His College Advising Corps mentor at Polytechnic High School changed everything, he said.

“I was so quiet and so scared to speak up, but she told me it was time to bring my story to life, to let the world know that I could achieve a lot,” Sang said of Natasha Zinsou ’13, who advised him while he applied to college. “I had someone who believed in me,” he said, and it changed his life.

Sang earned a spot in TCU’s prestigious Community Scholars program, which gives about 40 students per class full-paid tuition and housing. He went on to work for the College Advising Corps after graduating with a degree in education. He described the advising group as a domestic Peace Corps wherein recent college graduates spend two to three years in disadvantaged high schools in and around Fort Worth, working with students on their next steps beyond graduation.

Timi Ijabiken ’19 followed the same trajectory. The oldest of four children of Nigerian immigrants and a prospective first-generation college student from Arlington, Texas, Ijabiken said he didn’t have a clear idea of how to apply for college or how he could finance any kind of higher education.

“I definitely didn’t appreciate the ins and outs of college access,” said Ijabiken, who majored in psychology. “I didn’t even have a good idea of what college was supposed to be.”

The year Ijabiken graduated from college, Nikolina Djumic was a senior at North Crowley High School in Fort Worth. Though she desperately wanted to go to TCU, her dream school, the daughter of immigrants from war-torn Serbia struggled with standardized tests. Her college adviser, Cole Polley ’19 (MLA ’21), worked with her on test preparation and met with the university’s financial aid department on her behalf.

James Sang participated in the College Advising Corps as both a student and an adviser. Photo by Leo Wesson

“When the email from TCU came in right before I graduated, I called Mr. Polley and told him I needed him on the phone before I could open it,” Djumic said. “I think we both started to cry.”

Now a sophomore Horned Frog majoring in movement science, Djumic doesn’t believe she’d be at TCU without help from the corps.

The goal of TCU’s College Advising Corps is to make college a reality for all high school students, though the program serves schools in communities where students traditionally have less access to higher education.

As TCU graduates-turned-employees, advisers aim to meet with every senior on their high school campuses and in many cases juniors and sophomores as well.

Katherine Rodriguez mentored Timi Ijabiken while he was a student at Sam Houston High School in Arlington, Texas. Ijabiken returned to his alma mater as a member of the College Advising Corps. Photo by Rodger Mallison

Together they work to create postsecondary plans that best serve and support the students’ aptitudes, abilities, interests and goals.

A four-year college isn’t the only route advisers promote. The military, trade school or a two-year program at a junior college are often the best options for a graduating senior.

As an adviser at Crowley High School, south of Fort Worth, Elle Meyers ’18 (MLA ’20) worked closely with North Crowley counterpart Polley, often brainstorming ideas on how to reach their students, particularly once the pandemic hit.

Meyers also felt a surge of emotion upon hearing that Polley had helped secure a generous financial aid package for Djumic. She praised her colleague for his commitment to helping the students navigate the admissions process and figure out how to pay for college.

“We all love this job, but in a perfect world it would not exist,” said Meyers, who is now working toward a master’s degree in public policy at Georgetown University. “Because in a perfect world these kids would not need extra assistance, and we would be on an equal playing field.”

The goal of TCU’s College Advising Corps is to make college a reality for all high school students, though the program serves schools in communities where students traditionally have less access to higher education. Photo by Leo Wesson

Balancing the Scales

In terms of equity, higher education in the 21st century still has a way to go.

The latest numbers from the American Council on Education, reported in 2019 and based on 2017 census results, show that 65.8 percent of white people pursued education beyond high school, whereas only 39.7 percent of Hispanic people did.

For American Indians or Alaskan Natives, that number was around 50 percent, compared with 54.9 percent of Black people, 65.4 percent of individuals of more than one race and 71.1 percent of Asian people. Less than 32 percent of the U.S. bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2019 went to students of color.

Regarding the disparities in race and ethnicity in terms of postsecondary education, the authors of the council’s study, Lorelle Espinosa, Jonathan Turk, Morgan Taylor and Hollie Chessman, wrote, “This is a troubling trend given what we know from research, namely, that those with a postsecondary education are more likely to be employed, earn higher salaries, own homes, vote, live healthier lifestyles and volunteer in their communities.”

In 2020, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that those with a high school diploma earn a median salary of $38,792. By contrast, workers with a bachelor’s degree earn a median of $64,986 a year.

The network of advisers working for TCU’s chapter of the program seeks to increase the numbers of students who will go on to college.

Nick Torrez, principal of Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth, has seen firsthand how a college degree changes families and communities.

A student might graduate from high school and decide to become a bricklayer to help out with the family finances, Torrez said. As a 17- or 18-year-old, that future bricklayer might not consider how a college degree and a white-collar job can result in more income over a career.

TCU’s advisers work with seniors in 24 area high schools. Photo by Leo Wesson

“For students who want to help their families,” Torrez said, “there’s no better way than to get a college education.”

Founded at the University of Virginia during the 2005-06 academic year, College Advising Corps partners today with 32 colleges, including Duke University, Davidson College and the University of Southern California.

The program is working toward the goal of enrolling 1 million low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students in postsecondary education by 2025, changing communities along the way.

The College Advising Corps first came to TCU in the 2011-12 academic year, employing 16 recent Horned Frog graduates.

For the 2021-22 academic year, the program grew to 64 advisers, making it the largest branch in the nation. The Rainwater Charitable Foundation enabled the expansion by donating $2.2 million to the TCU corps.

The imprint those 64 advisers make on tens of thousands of students is too profound to measure. “Students who work with our advisers are 26 percent more likely to apply to at least one college,” said Matt Burckhalter ’11 MEd (MBA ’14), director of TCU’s arm of the national organization. “That’s thousands of high school seniors.”

TCU’s advisers work with seniors in 24 area high schools, where some graduating classes exceed 800 students. To date, TCU’s College Advising Corps has worked with more than 100,000 area high school seniors.

Michelle Hooten mentors high school students as a member of the College Advising Corps. Photo by Leo Wesson

A Matter of Money

Principal Torrez said he appreciates the assistance on his campus. “The advisers make sure none of the students slip through the cracks.”

School counselors at Polytechnic High School focus on scheduling a student’s classes. They also might deal with everything from social emotional problems in the classroom to students — and their families — in crisis.

What the counselors don’t have time to do is help students fill out college applications, which includes tasks such as sending transcripts and obtaining teacher recommendations.

Nor do the school counselors help students find financial aid.

Enter the team of advisers at Polytechnic. They work in a room called the Go Center, which “is filled with students on the hunt for money,” Torrez said. “The advisers tell them over and over that college is a doable goal and that there is money out there for them if they can find it.”

The national data also shows those who have met with advisers might have an easier time paying for college, as they are 24 percent more likely to apply for at least one scholarship.

Working with parents to understand the financial implications of college is one of the most critical tasks the advisers take on as advocates for their students.

“I’ve met with many parents who think the sticker price on a pamphlet is the price one has to pay,” said Michelle Hooten ’19 (MEd ’21), who noted that the federal financial aid forms can be daunting, particularly at first glance.

While advisers do not actively recruit for TCU, these recent Horned Frog graduates said they take particular delight in seeing their students matriculate to their alma mater.

“One of the highlights of my career was helping Nikolina get into TCU,” Polley said. “Applying for college, particularly your dream school, gets to be intense. I am really grateful to be a small part of these students’ journeys.”

“Growing up in Fort Worth, TCU felt equivalent to Harvard, like the dream I could never attain,” said Hooten, who attended Brewer High School. “It gives me goosebumps and makes me very emotional to think that I can return the favor and help someone else go there.”

Hooten never would have joined the Horned Frog community were it not for her adviser, Lindsay McClain ’13, who offered insights and guidance.

“She had the most recent high school experience of anyone at that school, which helped a lot,” said Hooten, who came to the U.S. from Mexico with her parents at age 5.

“I’m the oldest daughter and had no idea what I was doing. I was desperate for help,” said Hooten, who spent her first two years as an adviser at Fort Worth’s North Side High School, which the Fort Worth Independent School District describes as 94 percent Hispanic. For the current academic year, she moved to Western Hills High School, just west of TCU.

“The fact that my adviser was only a few years older and was so relatable,” she said, “made everything that much easier.”

Michelle Hooten, who came to the U.S. from Mexico at age 5, achieved her dream of attending TCU with help from the College Advising Corps. Photo by Leo Wesson

The Near-Peer Connection

TCU’s College Advising Corps currently sends five advisers to each of six Fort Worth high schools, Polytechnic included. Eight other Fort Worth high schools have three advisers.

Ten high schools outside of Fort Worth have one adviser apiece. They include schools in the Arlington, Birdville, Crowley, Everman, Lake Worth and White Settlement school districts.

As Hooten discovered, recently graduated near-peers relate better to high school students thanks to the narrow gap in age.

“A lot of students don’t think teachers and staff understand what they’re going through,” said Ijabiken, who completed two years as an adviser at Arlington’s Sam Houston High School, his alma mater, in June 2021. “But I lived it, and not that long ago, either.”

As TCU employees, the advisers typically have a dedicated space on the high school campuses where they work. These Go Centers might be an unused classroom or a corner of the library. Meyers decorated her decommissioned classroom at Crowley High School with college pennants. Brochures and pamphlets about colleges, the military and financial aid programs were prominently displayed.

She worked to make her space a safe haven for the students. During pre-pandemic lunch breaks, seniors would gather to talk about college or just hang out.

In his first two years as a college adviser, Jacob John Trevino ’19, shared his office area at Juan Seguin High School in Arlington with the school’s social workers. Now in his third year, he is working at Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth.

“I think it was during my junior year at TCU when I got an email from the College Advising Corps,” he said. “I’d received a lot of assistance in high school from a number of people, including my college adviser, and felt this was a way to pay it forward.”

Trevino worked hard during the lockdown to reach nearly 400 high school seniors virtually. He texted, organized group chats, hosted Zoom meetings and took to social media to keep his group of imminent graduates on task.

“It took a lot of creativity to connect with students, including emotionally,” he said.

Polley, now in his third year as the only adviser on the North Crowley campus, also harnessed technology to meet with most of the school’s 650 graduating seniors.

Jacob Trevino is now pursuing a master’s degree in Higher Education Leadership at TCU. He wants to continue helping young students prepare for a successful future, no matter what they endured in the past. Photo by Joyce Marshall

Michelle Hooten and the other advisers, all recent TCU graduates, spend two to three years at disadvantaged high schools helping students chart their future paths. Photo by Leo Wesson

“It’s the relationships that motivate me to do this work in the first place, so the pandemic has been really hard,” said Polley, who noted that his colleague Meyers went so far as to make home visits when most of her students were attending classes virtually during the 2020-21 school year.

Now that students are mostly back on campus, most of the Go Centers are hubs of activity, with advisers brainstorming ideas for college essays, administering mock SATs or ACTs, or speaking with a student’s parents about financial aid options. Particularly during the fall and winter, application deadlines are critical, as is helping students navigate the lingo, such as early decision versus early action or loans versus scholarships and grants.

A lot of the students Sang advised in his three years at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth wanted “to do better in life than their parents,” he said. “They don’t want to live like their parents anymore and want to provide better futures for their families.”

In June 2021, after wrapping up his time as a college adviser, Sang took a job as a dual credit coordinator at the south campus of Tarrant County College.

When he was working in the high schools, Sang often told his students, “Just because you came from a war-torn community, if you have the will to succeed in life, you can do it.

“You can achieve your American dream if you are trying every single day.”

James Sang is now a dual credit coordinator at Tarrant County College. Photo by Leo Wesson

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