Photo by Erin Nelson.
Lance Beverly, with Vidal Access, talks with Sister Maria Thuan Nguyen’s AP English class about the college admissions essay at John Carroll Catholic High School on April 12.
“A kid is a kid.”
That’s the philosophy of VIDAL Access, a nonprofit college access organization that provides in-school college consulting services to primarily low-income students.
VIDAL Access is partnered with John Carroll Catholic High School, Coosa Valley Academy, and Magic City Acceptance Academy, and it has also performed work for Birmingham City Schools and Lee High School in Montgomery, Alabama. Beyond our school partners, "at-large" students can also reach out to us for support, just as Kennedy did (the Indian Springs student).
Historically, VIDAL Access has received funding support from the MG Goodrich Foundation, Daniel Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, EBSCO Industries, and Hugh Kaul Foundation.
The nonprofit “pushes in” college consultants to high schools throughout the Birmingham area to provide students with essay support, SAT and ACT preparation, and resume building and editing assistance, among other services.
“Our method of ‘pushing into’ the schools is a reflection of our values,” said Lance Beverly, president and CEO of VIDAL Access. “We’re not trying to cherry pick the top five kids from Ramsay High School, the top three kids from Woodlawn, the top three kids from John Carroll who happen to fall into that ‘diverse bucket of students.’ We have that full-fledged model of ‘pushing into’ the schools because every kid matters.”
The U.S. Department of Education reports that students only receive 38 minutes of college counseling per year, Beverely said, which stems from the overwhelming caseloads and responsibilities of school counselors.
School counselors around the country have a lot of responsibilities such as testing coordination, conducting surveys, social and emotional development and class scheduling, Beverly said, which means only 22% of their time can be devoted to college counseling related tasks, according to the College Board.
The American School Counseling Association recommends a 250-to-1 ratio of students to counselors, but the national average is 480-to-1 and in Alabama that number is 450 students for every single counselor, he said.
“When only about a fifth of your time can be devoted to college counseling, and you’ve got 450-ish students under your purview, it’s no wonder that the U.S. national average is 38 minutes of college counseling per year in high school,” Beverly said.
Beverly refers to Birmingham high schools as VIDAL Access’ primary “offices.” VIDAL Access puts college consultants in schools for 8 hours because it believes it shouldn’t be the responsibility of students to reach out to them, he said.
“Our aim is to provide low-income, lower-middle class students with the same level of college consulting support that an affluent family would seek in the private market, but we’re providing that on-site at the school,” Beverly said. “The fact of the matter is most of the students we serve come from a single parent household where mama’s got a couple jobs or maybe you’ve got a couple of siblings you have to look after.”
Beverly has had a passion for college access work since he was 13, he said. When his grandmother died after he graduated college when he was 28, it encouraged him to pursue his longtime passion for college access work, Beverly said.
“It’s as simple as this: A kid’s a kid,” Beverly said. “We see the kid, we help the kid. That’s why we’re partnering with a devout Catholic school, and that’s why we’re partnering with a LGBTQ-friendly school, because a kid’s a kid.”
