LYNN — On Friday, 45 low-income high school seniors enrolled in the La Vida Scholars program gathered at Uncommon Feasts to announce their college acceptances. The students — 39 from Lynn, and six from Chelsea — smiled for photos in their college sweatshirts to celebrate going off to college with little to no student debt, an achievement that might not be possible without La Vida Scholars.
Lynn’s La Vida Scholars program helps low-income and high-achieving students from grades 10-12 pay for and navigate their potential college careers. Although La Vida’s college support program began as a program for Lynn teenagers, Executive Director Peter Barros said that this year’s expansion to Chelsea will continue to grow.
“The big, exciting news is we piloted an expansion in Chelsea this year, or we did a pilot that started last summer. We served some students in Chelsea last summer, and that turned into serving six seniors in Chelsea this year,” Barros said. “We expanded to become a three-year program. This fall we’re going to do a bigger expansion in Chelsea; we’re going to try to serve 25 students in Chelsea over two years.”
Barros said that thanks to La Vida, over 250 students have been accepted into colleges with full-ride, or almost full-ride scholarships.
“Most of those students are getting almost full-ride scholarships. That’s sort of our mission: helping our students be exposed to, connect with, and get into top colleges where we know that they’ll get great financial aid. And we know that they’ll get private scholarships,” Barros said.
La Vida Scholars assists both students and families in preparing for post-high school careers, college entrance exams, and college trips. This summer, La Vida will host its five-week Summer Academy program for students and families from Lynn and Chelsea, for the third year.
Barros said that in the last two years, La Vida began helping families overcome the financial and cultural barriers to college visits.
“In the last year or two, we started covering the expenses for families to visit colleges. We covered a student’s trip to California to see a school, because we really want parents to be involved in that search process,” Barros said. ”If we get a family comfortable enough to see a college once, it’s likely that they’ll keep doing it.”
This support includes translators for college tours and paid college visits for prospective students.
“In American culture, to take your kid to college, to go see colleges, is not uncommon. But for families that are predominantly immigrant families, or for first-generation college students, they don’t understand the American concept of the college process. And sometimes they go to colleges and things aren’t in their languages, or they won’t have tour guides that speak their languages,” Barros said.
He also said that Friday’s celebration could not have been done without his staff.
“It was a fantastic event with friends and supporters that we plan to make an annual tradition […] all of this couldn’t have been possible without our amazing staff, Angelica and Jesina, as well as our Americorps Mass. Promise Fellows Kat, Sarah, and Jack,” Barros said.
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
