“Without the help of College Possible, a nonprofit that pairs college coaches with low-income and first-generation students, Merlin Padilla says he wouldn’t be attending the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in the fall.
‘Without my coach, I wouldn’t be where I am today,’ he told Teen Vogue. ‘It is a new experience that people in my family aren’t familiar with, and it was hard trying to explain to them how college functions. I couldn’t ask them for help if I was confused on something because they didn’t know what to do.’”