GO Centers
Maverick Mentors
Senior Gabriel Escobedo, left, always assumed that going to college was an unattainable dream. But a visit to the first GO Center at Arlington’s Seguin High School changed his outlook. “It was the only place where I thought someone could really help me do what I wanted to do,” says the anthropology major, a first-generation college student who plans to graduate next year. Staffed by UT Arlington mentors like Escobedo, GO Centers are offices in area high schools that help students navigate the college admission and application process. The University has 19 GO Centers across five school districts, and more are planned thanks to a recent $300,000 grant from AT&T. “A lot of these students have been told at some point that they aren’t college material,” says Carla Amaro-Jimenez, curriculum and instruction assistant professor and director of the area centers. “We facilitate college access and readiness, and we’ve had really powerful results.”
I worked at the GO Center when I was in college and it was a great experience. It is a wonderful resource for high school kids. I even worked with Gabe when he was a freshman. Now I am an English teacher for DISD but would highly recommend this program to both high school and college students.