29 Santa Ana students headed to prestigious preps
The Orange County Register
By FERMIN LEAL

SANTA ANA Twenty-nine middle school students from Santa Ana Unified have been chosen to participate in a program that places them in prestigious preparatory academies across the country.

The A Better Chance program will send the students next fall to top boarding schools in states including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The program places students with scholarships that pay the full four-year tuition, room and boarding costs for every student, equaling about $5 million.

The New York-based nonprofit group helps send about 400 students nationally to schools every year. The goal of the program is to place more inner-city students in these highly respected schools.

Santa Ana Unified sends about 20 to 25 students to the program each year. Students qualify by excelling academically or in other areas, and by demonstrating financial need.

Maria Colmenares, a counselor at Villa Fundamental Intermediate, has been working with the program for several years recruiting students to apply.

Each year, her school typically has as many students accepted to the program as all of Los Angeles Unified, she said.