State-Sponsored Illinois College Guides Put High School Students on College Path - Op Ed by Executive Director Andy Davis

A few days ago, I stood in a donut shop at sunrise.  “Five-dozen doughnuts and one medium cup of coffee, please,” I told the cashier.  She said, “Coming right up.” I was relieved she didn’t ask: “for here or to go?”

Then I was off to Roberto Clemente Community Academy in Chicago’s Humboldt Park community for an early-morning bon voyage party for 30 Clemente students who were taking a day trip to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

This was the third such trip this year organized by Illinois College Guide Jennifer Juarez (previous campuses visited were University of Illinois-Chicago and Northern Illinois University). Ms. Juarez is one of the five Illinois College Guides participating in this new program operated by the University of Illinois system with the cooperation and support of my agency, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC).

As an Illinois College Guide, Jennifer is in the vanguard of a new approach to high school counseling: “near-peer mentoring”. Only a few years older than the students they counsel, these near-peers are uniquely qualified to serve as a sounding board for high school students, thereby forging trusting relationships and leading them on the path to college.

The Illinois College Guide initiative was created by the State of Illinois in response to the fact that some high school students have never considered post-secondary education. Some may be the first in their family to even envision themselves as college students.  And high school guidance counselors face the daily challenge of working with a staff-to-student ratio that in many cases exceeds 500:1, a crushing caseload.

The five Illinois College Guides chosen for the initial phase are all recent graduates of one of the three University of Illinois campuses and underwent intensive training during the summer. They have all relocated into the community where their assigned high school is and spend all day doing one-on-one college counseling, convening Parents Nights and organizing campus trips such as the one that was about to depart from the corner of Division Street and Western Avenue.

I got on the bus to say hello and give a little pep talk, but one of the students beat me to the punch:  “Hey, who are you?”  I said, “Well, thank you for the set up. My name is Andy Davis. I work for the State of Illinois and have two responsibilities. First, I bring the doughnuts.  Secondly, it is my job to help you and all of the other students in our state go to college.”

I explained to them that we - ISAC - are there to support them - the students - in their pursuit of a college education. Each of them, I noted, had already beaten the odds by making it to their senior year with grades and test scores that were high enough to make them eligible for this field trip.

They were eager, nervous and serious about the business of exploring U of I as a real college option. For some, this would be their first time on a college campus.  It was also clear that this trip to East Central Illinois was well outside the usual experience for some of them, too. One young man, Angel, politely asked me if I thought he would get to see cornfields. I confirmed that the chances were good.

I explained to them that the University of Illinois is not only one of the top schools in the state, but is among the very best schools in the entire United States. This brought a noticeable, if quiet, sense of pride and determination to their faces. This was a trip that could change their lives.

These young men and women clearly understood that while the Western Avenue bus may stop in front of their school every ten minutes all day, every day, the bus that goes to Champaign-Urbana is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. On behalf of the State of Illinois, I felt so proud on that crisp autumn morning to know that we were fueling that bus.

For confirmation, contact Claude Walker, 312-814-4455, cwalker@isac.org

About ISAC
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission is the State’s centralized provider of financial assistance aimed at helping students and families access postsecondary education and/or training. Each year, the Commission awards an estimated $400 million in scholarship and grant aid to nearly 185,000 qualified students, and also provides an additional $740 million to borrowers through its student loan programs. The agency offers credit-based alternative loans, a 529 prepaid tuition program known as College Illinois!, and a broad array of outreach and informational services to ensure that families have access to the information they need to pay for a college education. More information is available by calling toll-free 800.899.ISAC (4722) or visiting the agency’s Web site at www.collegezone.com.