Video Produced by Jennifer Howard, Michigan Media All photos by Eric Bronson, Michigan Photography

By Greta Guest, Michigan News

HOLLAND, Michigan—Flor Sanchez, a student at Holland High School, described her anxiety about talking to the college adviser.

“Honestly, the first thoughts I had about college … it was impossible. The word impossible was in my mind, hearing about how much it cost, about the process. It’s a long process. Getting accepted, doing essays for me was impossible,” she said.

And then Sanchez met Freddie DeLaRosa, who was once very much like her—a student unsure about if college was for him. He’s working with Holland students through a partnership with the University of Michigan where he’s part of the Michigan College Advising Corps program.

The MCAC helps high school students across the state determine and pursue their post-high school academic goals. They do this through training—and providing guidance to—a team of advisers, all recent college graduates, who work full time in schools across the state, through a mutually beneficial and financial partnership between U-M and the high school.

“I would guess we have hundreds of our kids that wouldn’t have gone to college, wouldn’t have reached their fullest potential without this program. I think it’s incredible that the University of Michigan is paying for this program to help kids get into any college.”

~ Bob Zwiers, a teacher at Holland High School.

The program, started in 2010, has helped more than 20,000 students throughout the state select and apply for colleges and scholarships.

“He helped me open doors. Without Mr. DeLaRosa, I couldn’t have done anything to go to college and thanks to him, I had the confidence to keep going,” said Sanchez, who plans to attend Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University in Grand Rapids to learn illustration and printmaking.

“I even saw there were opportunities that I never really had in my life,” she said. “So I changed my mind and I said ‘OK, it is possible, and if these people are helping me it is because they see something in me, and now I have to see it.”

After four weeks of training over the summer, the MCAC advisers work in high schools across the state, anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours away. They live in those communities and are typically involved with the program for a year or two.

Along with Holland, the program’s 16 advisers serve students in 25 schools around the state including Saginaw High School, Pontiac High School, Chandler Park Academy High School, Holland High School, Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Battle Creek Central High School and Flint Southwestern Classical Academy.

They work primarily with senior students, sometimes juniors, and determine what the next chapter could be for those students—community college, a university, potentially U-M.

And the impact over the past decade has impressed Bob Zwiers, a teacher at Holland High School.

“I would guess we have hundreds of our kids that wouldn’t have gone to college, wouldn’t have reached their fullest potential without this program,” he said. “I think it’s incredible that the University of Michigan is paying for this program to help kids get into any college.”

And DeLaRosa was one of those students and counted Zwiers as a teacher and mentor.

“So my goal to come back to Holland was definitely the fact that Holland was very influential in me getting to the University of Michigan through the scholarships, through the support of my high school and the community,” DeLaRosa said. “I was able to get into the University of Michigan, and I wanted to give that same opportunity to students.”

DeLaRosa figured he’s met with 90% of the seniors at Holland High to support them through whatever their next steps may be—whether that’s college, the military or the workforce.

Michael Turner, associate director of K-12 partnerships for the Center for Educational Outreach and program manager for the Michigan College Advising Corps, stresses that the program isn’t a recruiting tool for U-M.

“It’s really about outreach and making sure things are equitable,” Turner said. “So that students, no matter what their background, are able to map out some sort of strategy.”

‘Getting the funds necessary’

A critical piece of the puzzle for many students who strive to attend college is how to find scholarships, grants and other financial aid. And that’s a specialty of the Michigan College Advising Corps.

Tiffini Hollins, a school counselor at Battle Creek Central High, said the U-M trained advisers have been a tremendous help to her and the students and she’s grateful for the partnership.

“The challenge with students is the knowledge and the equity and the opportunity to have access to college scholarship opportunities,” Hollins said. “And for us, in my opinion, the Michigan College Advising Program solves that program.”

Noah Hollander, executive principal at Battle Creek Central, said the school serves an under-resourced population and a big barrier that students face when contemplating college is how they will pay for it.

“How do I make that dream a reality? By getting you the funds necessary to help you through school,” Hollander said. “So having that support system in the school that they can access that says, ‘I will walk you through the process of figuring out how you make this financially possible’ is incredible.”

Partnering with U-M has also brought a greater sense of credibility to the school’s advising efforts, Hollander said.

“There’s that expectation of excellence and then being able to have access to a school that many of our kids never even thought was going to be a thing for them,” he said. “So understanding that there’s a connection point in our building to the University of Michigan, that is powerful.”

Even more powerful for individual students is the self-confidence they gain from working with someone like DeLaRosa or Charlotte Pierce, the MCAC adviser in Battle Creek.

Pierce said that with a lack of resources and knowledge about different educational and career paths, students are often uncertain about where to turn.

“All of these students are capable of moving on to the next step after high school, but they just don’t realize it yet,” she said.

One of her students, Kameilah Mullen, said the advising made students more confident about their futures. At first, she didn’t think higher education was something for her. Neither of her parents finished high school, she said.

But with Pierce’s guidance, she got a spot at Jackson State University in Mississippi to study business administration.

“She was introducing opportunities to me, giving me more confidence,” Mullen said. “I’ve dealt with confidence issues for a long time. But hearing that from a second person, instilling that into me was like ‘OK, maybe I can do this.'”