The program started with two. Ten years ago, Tom Urquidez and his father Thomas A. Urquidez decided they wanted to enact change within three Wichita Falls, Texas high schools by putting together the Academic Success Program.The program is designed to boost minority students' academic performance, said Director of Operations Michael Martinez, who was a sophomore in Wichita Falls High School when the program began.

The initiative has since expanded to 15 Texas high schools, and last year over 300 program participants graduated from colleges nationwide.

This year, Brandeis collaborated with the Dallas-based ASP to create scholarships that cover all four years of tuition for five ASP students who will enter the University in fall 2009.

Dean of Admissions Gil Villanueva noted the importance of the ASP in light of the high value Brandeis places on social action.

"Social justice is an integral component of the Brandeis mission," he said. "Our commitment to attracting scholars from diverse backgrounds and our recent success in enrolling such students make us a natural partner for the Academic Success Program."

Urquidez, now 29, was a high school senior, and his father was a counselor to at-risk students when they decided to launch the program, Martinez said. "[Urquidez and his father] started very simply," he added, identifying students that "came from the under represented minority backgrounds [and] had a lot of potential but weren't living up to [it]."

Initially, the program offered students only leadership and SAT workshops.

"Throughout this process, [Urquidez and his father] started this conversation about college," among Texas high school students, Martinez said.

The concept of a college education was new to many students, Martinez said. Many from Wichita Falls High School are first-generation college students.

Urquidez, who took advantage of the program's academic resources, entered Dartmouth College in 2000. Three years later, Martinez enrolled at Princeton University.

"It started [when] Tom and students just began going to places that people in Wichita Falls never really thought were possible for them," Martinez said.

He added that just witnessing their peers' successes motivated some program participants to strive for academic achievement.

"Really, the key to why ASP is so successful is because [of] the interaction that Tom had . with the underclassmen in [his] high school," he said

"That is, whenever you see someone in your high school go off and do something, you start to think that you can do it, too."

Many of the ASP's facilitators are recent college graduates who were the first members of their families to attend college, Martinez said.

The facilitators can therefore "relate to the students, and the students begin to look to the facilitators [for] what's possible," he said.

Facilitator Eloy Gardea, an alumnus of the ASP in Wichita Falls who graduated from Columbia University in spring 2008, said that as a high school student, he looked up to students like Urquidez and Martinez. They made the idea of attending a prestigious university seem possible.

"Michael Martinez . was my role model because hey, [he] went to [an] Ivy League school," Gardea said. "The program creates students looking to other students for inspiration."

Gardea said that the goal of attending college is enough to motivate students' academic achievement.

"Often in inner-city schools, . expectation is what's lacking-that expectation of doing something after high school," he added.

In addition to leadership training and SAT workshops, the ASP also teaches students about the process of applying to college. Genevieve Armstrong '12, who participated in the ASP at Hillcrest High School in Dallas, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice, "I'm embarrassed to say how many schools I applied to because [applying] was so easy."

Initially, Armstrong said, "I was terrified about applying to college, not to mention I knew hardly any schools outside of Texas, unless they were state schools or Ivy League." Armstrong said she learned about Brandeis at one of the information sessions led by representatives from universities all over the country.

The ASP and the Brandeis Committee on Admissions will select the five ASP students to receive the scholarships. The Brandeis Committee on Admissions will select the recipients based on who they think will benefit most from the Brandeis experience, Villanueva said.

Though she's been at Brandeis for only one semester, Armstrong already appreciates the school's impact on her education.

Said Armstrong, "Thank God for this program, ... or else I have no idea where I would've ended up.