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You’re a senior in high school, where there’s one guidance counselor for 2,000 students in your low-income school, and you don’t know who to talk to about information about financial aid – or whether to take AP history or what colleges you should shoot for. Or you’re a freshman at Cal State, the first your Latino family to go to college, and you feel lost. Everyone but you seems to know what to do and how to study; your self-confidence is ebbing.
Where to turn to? One place is Zoomz.net, a new social network for first-generation high school and college students to meet and interact with each other. A Facebook for the college-hungry minority students, Zoomz offers testimonials from “first generation heroes,” blogs, advice corners, FAQs on applying to colleges and dealing with family issues, and discussions on college life, like “how to avoid the so-called freshmen 15” (as in pounds, not credits). And, like any good social network, it has member pages with photos and profiles. Zoomz is approaching 300 users.
Launched in August by ALean, a small education nonprofit based in Los Altos, Zoomz is just off the ground and waiting to go viral. Teachers and guidance counselors of minority students: It’s worth checking out and spreading the word.
- Carlos