Giving Compass' Take:

• Cafécollege Houston is an example of a "storefront" college advising center that helps reach low-income students of color that might not otherwise be receiving any guidance before college. 

• How can donors connect with and support alternative guidance centers?

• Learn more about the college counseling equity gap. 

Colorful college pennants line the walls in a small room at a public library branch in the city's Near Northside. At a table with stacks of flyers advertising scholarships, a family confers quietly with a counselor.

Students come here from miles around to meet—first-come, first-served—with advisers for help navigating all things higher education, from admissions tests to majors to meningitis shots. The advice is free. And entire families are welcome to take advantage of the program’s bilingual services, offered during worker-friendly evening and weekend hours.

This small resource center is called cafécollege Houston, and it is one of a few similar “storefront” college advising centers that have been set up in recent years. This location primarily serves low-income students of color, many of them the first in their families to pursue advanced degrees.

But those aspiring college students are not unique in needing quality advice, says Sergio Canizales, a college junior who works at cafécollege Houston.

Cafécollege Houston is across the street from a Fiesta Mart grocery store and a high school that mostly serves Hispanic students. Northside High was previously named for Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, and it was once labeled a “dropout factory” in a Johns Hopkins University study of institutions with low graduation rates.

At such high schools, counselors are often overwhelmed with large caseloads and unable to offer personalized guidance to students interested in more than a high school diploma, says Melissa Martinez, director of college access and success for Project GRAD Houston, the nonprofit that runs programs at cafécollege Houston.

Leaders credit the popularity of their programs, which all started with local government support, in part to the efforts they’ve made to welcome and respect families from marginalized groups.

Read the full article about college counseling programs for marginalized students by Rebecca Koenig at EdSurge.