NORFOLK, Va. — Access College Foundation hosted its annual College Commitment Day. A celebration for local high school seniors accepted to college.
From the Eastern Shore to Suffolk and everywhere in between more than 2000 students from 30 Hampton Roads high schools attended this event and all of them were accepted into at least one college for this fall.
"I feel like college and just prep for that it’s always something that I had planned so now that I’ve committed and know what my future will tell like I’m super excited," Manor High School Senior Kimberly Flores-Aguilar said.
Kimberly is a senior at Manor High School in Portsmouth. She wants to be an anesthesiologist and plans to study at the University of Virginia in the fall.
She says moments like this make the last four years for her and her family worth it.
"I'm excited, as a first-generation student, having immigrant parents like being able to see the opportunities that going to college gives you,” Flores-Aguilar said.
For more than three decades, Access College Foundation has provided guidance, mentorship and financial assistance to Hampton Roads high school students to help students achieve their educational dreams no matter where they come from.
"When there's hope for the future, we know that there's power in the present so for them to be able to come from some of those one-parent households, you know incomes, believe it or not, less than $10,000 this hope manifesting this power itself," Access Counselor Gabe Hall said.
Students packed ODU's Chartway Arena. This is the peak of their journey with Access, for the class of 2024.
$54,000 in scholarships from a variety of schools was given out, changing the lives of those in attendance.
"I'm nervous, a lot is going on but I'm also really excited and super happy that I've gotten to this point in my life and it's just truly an amazing experience," Northampton High School Senior Allison Tittermary said.
From starting high school online during the pandemic to preparing for a new adventure in August, students say their loved ones, friends and more are part of the reason they're celebrating.