On Friday, sophomore and junior students of Marin County had their last chance to apply for the 10,000 Degrees summer program.  The organization’s intent is to provide high school students from low-income families with education equity, and to ultimately guide teens to realize their potential as students and as citizens.

By joining the program, students get to experience a week-long summer program that is designed to prepare them for college.

“Over 80% of our students are the first in their family to go to college,” said 10,000 Degrees Director of Communications Seth Goddard.

According to Goddard who was referenced the Marin Community Foundation, only 24% percent of students in low-income families in the nation actually go to college.  “We take a student with a 24% chance of graduating college and turn it into at 84%,” he said. According to the 2012 Annual Report for 10,000 Degrees 84% of students that go through the program and get into a four year college also get a degree.

10,000 Degrees has helped over 17,000 students earn college degrees since the program’s inception in 1981. Noa Raman, a Redwood alumni and current student at Lewis and Clark, is one of those students.

“It really helped me get where I wanted to be,” Raman said.

According to Raman, the summer program is a sleepaway camp located at Dominican University, where students are provided workshops on UC essay writing and college applications essays classes on how to apply for scholarships and a mentor to help with the college application process.

College counselor Paula Vantrease praised the program’s effectiveness in helping kids to and through college. “I think it’s a really good program,” she said.  “I’d definitely like to see a lot more students doing it.”