Getting Help for College  

You’re a senior in high school. Your thinking about how you are going to find the money to go to college. You know you didn’t get the best ACT score and your family is looking forward to you going off to college. You are starting to get stressed and wondering what else you could have done to better prepare. 

If you are a senior, at Papillion LaVista High School, wondering what you could have done to prepare, you should have checked out a program called College Possible. College Possible has been at PLHS, for about five to six years, helping students get to and through college.  

In order to get into College Possible, you go to their office, located in room 413f. College Possible coaches‘ interview, give you papers for you and your parents to fill out, and give recommendation papers to your teachers. You also attend a meeting in the auditorium to get more information about it. 

“The purpose of College Possible is to get students to and through college and break the gap between students from low income backgrounds and their peers,” junior College Possible coach, Allie Van Houten said.  

For seniors, College Possible is a way to help them prepare for what’s a head.  

“Having info and doing something with it, they have to self-advocate and try and learn to be adults,” senior College Possible coach, Sarah Swanigan said. 

Students start College Possible as juniors, attending sessions that are held twice a week, for two hours after school. This year, the junior cohort only obtained thirty-four students.  

“In session, we do ACT preparation and college access preparation,” Van Houten said.  

For the seniors, College Possible sessions are different.  

“We spend every day in the computer lab applying for colleges,” Swanigan said. “Learning to deal with the finance in college and discussing financial aid.” 

In the Omaha area there are only ten other high schools who have College Possible and there are only seven College Possible programs in the country: Omaha, Portland, Organ, Twin Cities, Minnesota, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Both coaches believe that all schools should have the benefit of College Possible and they recommend every student to at least apply for it.  

“It helps students learn and prepare for their future while meeting new people and exploring their interest.” Van Houten said. “It helps financially and helps you through processes you didn’t know.” 

Swanigan believes that it is good for students to have as many resources as possible. 

“We have a good guidance office and having College Possible helps them out,” Swanigan said. 

Last year College Possible had fifty percent of their students, who applied for the Buffet scholarship, receive it. 

“The past two years more people have heard about College Possible,” Swanigan said. 

Teachers at PLHS suggest students to them. History teacher, Mrs. Bre Wilton is one of the few teachers who suggested many of the students to College Possible. 

“College Possible is a great program that makes an impact on high school experience and forms students and guides them through college,” Van Houten said.