The Open Doors Education Group first opened its doors to first generation college students at the beginning of April. This group’s founder, president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ramon Rios, is an alum of Elizabethtown College and a few current students are helping out with the organization.
This organization is based in Lancaster, and Rios says the organization’s goal is to “provide advisory services to college bound first-generation students and increase their acceptance at selective and highly selective colleges and universities that best match their needs.”
The group will help guide families through the admissions process and help students by identifying college resources, revising their essays, aiding them with their athletic and professional resumes, obtaining letters of recommendation and connecting students with faculty and staff in order to gather as much information as possible before they make their college decision.
Open Doors has been addressing the issue of college affordability and the financial burden of college to many families across America by helping decipher the FAFSA and financial aid letters from schools so that they can show families an estimated full cost of college attendance over four years.
Once students are in college, Open Doors checks on the students throughout their first semester to see how they are adjusting to their new environment. They will continue to be an outside referral service and help students use campus resources.
Rios credits his time at Etown for having provided him with the resources and experiences needed to run this organization. Rios himself was a first-generation college student, who considers himself to have been “fortunate enough to navigate the college admissions pathway and be accepted at Elizabethtown College.” Rios said the “support [he had] during [his] time at Elizabethtown College allowed [him] to thrive and reveal [his] passion for higher education.” It was through his work at Etown that Rios came to realize that he ultimately “wanted to give back to future students looking to attain a college degree.”
While at Etown, Rios was in the Momentum Program and ended up becoming the head peer academic advisor of the program. Rios particularly valued his time at Momentum because the program “helps current students who are either first-gen, low-income, or from diverse backgrounds navigate the Elizabethtown College curriculum and help students discern their purpose and educational passions.” Along with being the president of his class, Rios got to work with administrators of the college where he mainly focused on investigating different tuition models for Etown. “It is important to me that we as a society begin to level the playing field when it comes to college and university admissions,” Rios said in a post on the Open Doors Facebook page.
Given the particular influence of Etown and the Momentum program, Rios “sought out other Elizabethtown College graduates and current students who resonated with the mission of Open Doors Education Group.” Current members include junior Samantha Straub and senior Olivia Lee.
Staub said that the goals of the group are student-centered and they are there to aid students with applying to whatever school they want, from community colleges to Ivy League schools. Open Doors offers advisory services in navigating the admissions pathway for these first- generation college students.
Another main goal is to break down stereotypes that surround first-generation college students and their ability to get into the schools that they want to go to just because they are first- generation students.
This group supports these students throughout the entire college application process to increase their confidence in their abilities so they can learn how to further “realize and utilize their potential and talents,” Staub added.
Open Doors aims to make sure students do not feel alone in the application process and Staub referred to the group as a support system more than anything else so that these students can feel as confident as possible even, if it seems like the odds are against them.
This group is entirely free to the students that it assists, it is a non-profit where the staff members are truly passionate about helping students succeed and volunteer a lot of time and effort to see the students defy the odds. “I can’t wait to see how many lives this group will help change in the future!” Straub said.
Students interested in learning more about or assisting with the organization are encouraged by Rios to contact the organization by calling 201-790-5257 or emailing opendoorseg@gmail.com.
