In America today, Jason Long is indeed fortunate. Tens of thousands of his peers — especially low-income and minority students — are unprepared academically for higher education, come from backgrounds in which college aspirations are not the norm, and/or lack the information they need to gain access. And those who are prepared, motivated and encouraged confront huge financial challenges. For every low- or moderate-income student who ends up attending the college of his or her choice without having to take on a huge debt load, there are countless others like Jason’s friends: Facing high costs, they either do not go to college or they attend an institution that is not their first choice and may not best fit their interests. Others enroll in a school they want to attend, but they may end up working long hours at one or more jobs to make ends meet or transfer out after finding that the financial burden is too great.

Aaron Pennington started college at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, but the Indianapolis native found that room-and-board charges made on-campus living too costly. “I sat down with my parents,” he says, “and told them that the best thing was for me to come back to Indianapolis, get back on my feet financially and go to school (near here).” He transferred to a community college (Ivy Tech State College) to complete his general education credits and then to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He’s now a full-time IUPUI student, working toward a bachelor’s degree in marketing while holding down a full-time, third-shift job at a local warehouse.

Juggling full-time work with a full course load is a constant challenge, he says, especially during the busy months that he and his fiancee, Jennifer Steele, were also planning their June wedding. Through it all, though, Aaron is determined to keep up with his studies until graduation in December 2004.