Opinion | We help students find their path to college

Nomar Leonardo Melo Cabral was weeks into his first semester of college when an unexpected bill from Stony Brook University arrived in his inbox.

Nomar, 19, is the first in his family to attend college in the United States, and he panicked. Instead, he turned to a resource many young people in his position don’t have: an advocate from OneGoal New York, a mentorship program he’s worked with since high school. “I thought, ‘I have a bill, it’s all over,'” Nomar recalls. A OneGoal counselor helped him resolve the college issue so he could focus on his classes again. “I realized, ‘I have someone to help me,'” he said.

Nomar is one of 15,000 students across the country enrolled in OneGoal, a Chicago-based nonprofit group that helps low-income students prepare for college and navigate an admissions process that is difficult for even the wealthiest families in the world United States is stressful.

Following last year’s Supreme Court decision to ban affirmative action, OneGoal is a particularly timely and vital balm. The vast majority of OneGoal students qualify for free or reduced lunch; 94 percent identify as a member of an ethnic minority. Americans committed to fairness and justice and who want to help such students must find creative ways to do so.

That’s one reason the New York Times Community Fund supports OneGoal.

The OneGoal program begins in the first year of high school. Students form a cohort within their existing high school and together receive intensive academic advising, from help with personal essays to the byzantine process of applying for financial aid. OneGoal also seeks to boost the confidence of its students, who often attend overburdened schools.