Bridge builders

Witnessing the gaps in local medical care in his South Texas border town, Fabian Robles was left with a single, crystallized vision — he would go to college, become a pediatrician, return home and serve his community.

Just how he would pull it off wasn’t so clear.

As a high school student in Johns Creek, Georgia, Noor Abi Rached dreamed of studying health science at a top-tier research university. By her junior year, an honest conversation revealed the tough reality: it was simply beyond her parent’s budget.

Attending a small-town high school in Southern California, Julybeth Murillo never considered applying to an out-of-state university. Among family and friends, there were no college graduates, leaving Murillo to research schools and the application process on her own.

Bright, talented, ambitious students, all — yet convinced their academic horizons were hopelessly limited.

But in each case, those dreams would find a new life at Emory University through QuestBridge, a national nonprofit organization that serves as an “aggregator of excellence,” connecting bright, often first-generation students from low-income backgrounds with some of the nation’s leading universities.

It works like this: Qualified high school students apply to the QuestBridge National College Match program, ranking their interests among 42 top partner colleges and universities, which have done the same with the prospective students.

Students whose interest is “matched” with Emory’s are offered early-decision admission with a guarantee of full financial support, whether they choose to start at Emory College of Arts and Sciences or Oxford College. Students who are not immediately matched are encouraged to apply to Emory through Regular Decision; those who don’t receive full financial support will receive generous need-based offers through Emory’s Office of Financial Aid.

For students like Robles, now a second-year student at Oxford College on a pre-medicine track; Abi Rached, set to graduate from Emory College in May with a degree in neuroscience and behavioral biology; and Murillo, who graduated from Emory College this year with dual degrees in sociology and Spanish; finding a pathway to Emory through QuestBridge  proved to be a transformational opportunity.

“I had this expectation of what I hoped that Emory would offer — meeting new people with different backgrounds and cultures, amazing professors — but the reality has just blown so far beyond that. I could never have guessed how amazing it would be,” Robles says.

“QuestBridge put colleges on my radar I had never even heard about,” acknowledges Murillo, who is now working on a PhD in sociology at University of California, Irvine.

“Although I was admitted regular decision, Emory’s financial aid package was better than what I was finding at public universities in California, which allowed me, for the first time, to consider attending a private school,” she says.

“For me, it was a great option. Once I stepped foot on campus, the support I felt from the community of QuestBridge students showed me this was where I belonged.”

Academic equity and student success

Growing up in nearby Decatur, Georgia, Richard Nwakamma was virtually raised in the shadow of Emory. But with a college-bound twin sister and older brother, attending a private university seemed out of the question.

So when he learned a friend would be attending the University of Chicago with full financial support — thanks to QuestBridge — Nwakamma felt a glimmer of hope. “If not for QuestBridge, I don’t think I would have ever applied to Emory,” admits Nwakamma, a junior studying chemistry in Emory College.

Still, it was a transition. “My parents are from Nigeria; they came here in the 1990s to allow us to have better opportunities,” he says. “My first year at Oxford, I was dealing with ‘imposter syndrome.’ I kept comparing myself to other people; it was crazy to me that some students’ families could afford to pay full tuition.”

The support he found among mentors and peers through the QuestFam program helped, he adds. Created through the QSN, the program places new QuestBridge scholars into small groups led by older students who serve as mentors, checking in weekly, answering questions and offering practical advice as needed.

This semester, Nwakamma is mentoring his own QuestFam via Zoom meetings and phone calls. “We talk about classes, time management and how to balance school and social activities and not over-commit yourself,” he says. “In my own life, it really helped me along my way.”

QuestFam and the student organization Emory First-Generation Low Income Partnership (FLIP) are among a series of student-led initiatives which help scholars from first-generation and/or low-income families make the leap into college life, says Pamela Scully, vice provost for undergraduate affairs, who leads the Emory Undergraduate Project in supporting academic equity and student success.

“As an institution, we also really want to make sure that we are supporting the flourishing of everyone within a diverse student body that is accessible to excellent students of all backgrounds,” says Scully, whose office is advised by committees comprised of Emory students, staff and faculty that focus on first-gen, low-income issues.

This year, the Office of Undergraduate Affairs is sponsoring Emory’s First-Gen Week, a series of virtual activities, panels and programs to be held Nov. 6-13 “to lift up and enhance the  experiences of our first-gen students, faculty and staff, who bring so much to Emory in terms of rigor and courage.”

“Having students from all backgrounds in the classroom brings the world into the classroom in a way that educates us all,” Scully notes. “And regardless of the paths that have brought our students to Emory, we are committed to making sure they find an equitable experience, with access to classes that they want, academic and financial support and all that they need to flourish.”