My Nonprofit Reviews

My first interaction with A Call to College (ACTC) was in Middle School, when staff members would come to our classrooms and present lessons designed to get us thinking about our futures. Every year until Junior year of high school, ACTC would provide different workshops designed to make sure no one fell through the cracks when it came to graduating from high school and pursuing postsecondary education. Though the specific activities changed with each grade, the message was clear and consistent: you, too, can go to college.

By my Junior year I was able to meet regularly with an advisor at A Call to College to begin planning for the ACT and preparing application materials. Not only did ACTC cover the cost of the ACT for everyone in my grade, they provided free training and preparatory materials as well. I was able to take the ACT a second time because my first one was paid for by A Call to College, and the second opportunity allowed me to increase my score by 3 points. By Senior year, I was meeting with my ACTC counselor every week to finalize a list of colleges to apply to and complete applications. I was able to gain admittance to my first choice of schools and enrolled in Ohio State.

After I finally completed the college application process and had a spot at OSU, I thought my help from A Call to College was over. However, shortly before graduation I was informed that I was the 2016 recipient of the Marion D. Wetzel Scholarship, a $15,000 a year scholarship that is renewable for four years. This scholarship has allowed me to study abroad at Oxford University in England, intern in the office of a Member of Parliament in Canada, live in Washington, D.C. for a semester to work for the nation’s leading think tank, and pursue countless other opportunities that would not have been made available to me without this huge financial assistance.

These experiences have prepared me to pursue a PhD in Economics after graduating from Ohio State. I know that if it were not for ACTC and their countless interventions in my academic career, I would not be able to think about pursuing such a profession. I cannot overstate the importance of this organization in shaping my educational trajectory and I continue to feel humbled and incredibly grateful for the doors that ACTC opened up for me.