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I have dedicated a few thousand hours of my life to College Scholarship Leadership Access Program - CSLAP. Beyond helping high school students go to and through college, I consider CSLAP a means to help young people tell their own stories. When I connect students to college graduates, they form mentor relationships through their shared stories growing up and attending school along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Contrary to popular belief, the college application process is largely a writing endeavor. GPA and test scores do matter, but more and more universities are shifting toward holistic reviews of students – including how effectively they can write about their backgrounds. In 2011, I wrote 11 college essays and 13 scholarship essays. Each essay was an exercise in finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. It was hard to do this with my own life as the subject matter, especially as a first-generation college student with no idea what mattered to anonymous college admissions readers.
In 2013 as a college freshman, I founded CSLAP as a summer institute for high school students at my alma mater school district. Essay workshops were a centerpiece of our programming, and they continue to differentiate CSLAP from other college readiness initiatives.
Primarily, I teach essay workshops from the pedagogical lens of a writer rather than an English teacher or counselor. When I transformed CSLAP into a high school course, I taught universal lessons on brainstorming, drafting, revising, and other writing techniques that could be applied across disciplines. With the college application process as the medium, I could focus on empowering my students to believe in their own stories.
Now that CSLAP is a nonprofit organization, I feel the titles of entrepreneur, small business owner, and executive director don’t convey the essence of my work. Yes, I complete a lot of administrative tasks and dive deeply into the minutiae of college admissions – but at the core of it all, I help young people tell their stories and connect to fellow young people over their stories.
Because that’s what I would have wanted at age 17. Thomas Ray Garcia
I'm looking forward to streaming on Wednesday on behalf of CSLAP while celebrating the end Hispanic Heritage Month! For $3, you can enter a loteria game, have a chance to win prizes, and support CSLAP.
CSLAP is a non profit organization that has helped many students in many ways from preparing them for college, supporting student their way through college and achieving their goals. This non profit organization has not just helped many student achieve their goals but has some awesome people behind it who take their free time to the best for you, it has impacted one of my family members and I am truly thankful. So, as a thank you I decided to donate to CSLAP and join in the raffle and now that I have donated for a good cause ones again CSLAP has impacted my family and because of them now another family member is able to do their homework for college and get through all her online college classes, seeing that smile in her face was priceless and for that I more than appreciated for CSLAP. I truly recommend for everyone to take a second of your time and actually look into them and find out how much this organization has to offer for you and your family. THANK YOU CSLAP! KEEP IMPACTING STUDENTS AND FAMILIES!
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