By Steve Giegerich

For most of us, school lunch period conjures memories of a noisy cafeteria, molded-plastic trays and half-pint cartons of chocolate milk. But Maggy Lewis has another memory, thanks to her relationship with Saleisa Lampkin during the 2006-07 school year.

“Pretty much the whole semester, I couldn’t eat lunch until there was a question from Saleisa,” Lewis quips. Saleisa’s inquiries were as predictable as her presence in Lewis’ temporary office at Gretna High School in south-central Virginia. Saleisa wanted to go to college. And as the first in her family to take that step, she admits she was clueless about what it took to make it to a university campus from her rural community some 30 miles north of Danville, Va.

“There was a lot I didn’t know about college because my parents didn’t go,” Saleisa explains. “So, I had to teach them and learn at the same time.”

For this eager and determined high school senior, young Maggy Lewis represented the fount of college knowledge – and lunchtime was the best time to tap into her expertise. The noontime disruptions proved fruitful. Saleisa is now a freshman at Virginia State University in Petersburg. Not coincidentally, her mentor and guide is just an hour away, a first-year law student at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

The connection between these two young women was a vital link in the chain leading to Saleisa’s success – and it’s one of thousands of similar links being forged throughout the nation to assist underserved students. Around the country, Lewis and other recent college graduates have joined marketing whizzes, veteran educators, advocates for Native Americans and even hip-hop artist Fonzworth Bentley in varying – and often unusual – efforts to get students like Saleisa Lampkin where they need to be. Programs are springing up that involve peer or “near-peer” mentors and other respected role models. Schools and communities that have traditionally lacked a college-going tradition are working hard to build a culture in which all students truly “know how to go” to postsecondary institutions.

To James Moeser, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, these new efforts to pave the college path for low-income students come none too soon.

“One thing we are seeing in this country is a widening divergence between the fortunate, who have the advantage and benefit of understanding what it takes to go to college, and those who do not, for many reasons, have that understanding,” says Moeser. “As a college education gains more and more importance, we’re seeing that gap (grow). It is not something we can ignore anymore.”

The gap, rooted in poverty and social inequity, is reflected in the complex web of problems facing low-income families. And narrowing that gap is imperative if millions of underserved young people are to gain a foothold in an increasingly competitive global job market, says Susan Pollack, director of advocacy for the College Success Foundation, an organization in Issaquah, Wash., that coordinates college access programs.

Pollack says the higher education establishment must more fully recognize the barriers that poverty, homelessness, hunger and parental neglect create for many college-qualified young people. Acknowledging this connection between social justice and college access, Pollack says, is a vital step in establishing the person-to-person connections between would-be students and “the people on the ground” who can help them plot a path to postsecondary success.