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PHARR, Texas - When he was just 19 and studying at Princeton University, Thomas R. Garcia went back to his alma mater, PSJA ISD and told the then superintendent, Danny King, that he wanted to give back.

\\u201cI said, I want to give back to students now. I do not want to wait until I graduate from college,\\u201d Garcia remembers. \\u201cI knew what my friends were going through as high school seniors - the same mistakes and issues and systemic barriers I went through as a high school senior applying for college. Not knowing about resources. Even if you knew about them, you couldn\\u2019t access them because you did not know how to write a strong essay. Your teachers did not know how to help you.\\u201d

So, with King\\u2019s blessing and encouragement, Garcia started a near-peer mentorship program where he trained 19-23 year olds that had also gone to the best colleges to come back every summer and host summer institutes.

\\u201cWe taught them how to write college essays, how to apply for financial aid, how to go to-and-thru college as a college student from PSJA. We were able to do things teachers and counselors simply didn\\u2019t have the capacity to do.\\u201d

This led to the formation of the College Scholarship Leadership Access Program (CSLAP). The 501(c)(3) nonprofit has expanded to serve many school districts across the Rio Grande Valley.

As nonprofit\\u2019s website notes: \\u201cCSLAP hosts college access events and provides personalized one-on-one sessions for high school students attending schools in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in South Texas. CSLAP expands opportunities, enhances applications, and grants scholarships. In doing so, CSLAP aims to increase college enrollment rates and form a support system for students going to and through college.\\u201d

From 2013-2017, CSLAP hosted summer institutes for rising seniors at PSJA ISD. \\u201cWe raised awareness about applying to college through workshops, provided mentorship through year-long communication, and provided transition support for graduating seniors. Our curriculum became PSJA's University Scholars Enrichment Course.\\u201d

Garcia explained: \\u201cIn 2019, we became an incorporated nonprofit organization. We have continued our work by partnering with local school districts to teach college access lessons and with nonprofits to uplift our community outside the classroom.\\u201d

Garcia provided an example of CSLAP\\u2019s success. He brought all the chairs from the English departments at the various PSJA high schools together to discuss the importance of the college essay.\\xa0

\\u201cThe regular English courses for seniors, they were not assigning it. We were able to change that, systemically,\\u201d Garcia said. \\u201cSo, when they went to the Go Center for their college applications, they had the essay ready. Before, they would go to the college center, they would do the application and they would say, \\u2018I do not have the essay, I will come back later.\\u2019 And they would never come back. So, that little fix, bringing the high schools together to make the systemic fix, made a huge difference in college enrollment rates and college application rates. That is just one small example of the work we have done because of the fact that we are able to go to all these different schools and bring them together.\\u201d

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.