New York City has as many restaurants as Powell has people, said Powell High School graduate Ethan Cearlock — he’s learned a few fast facts as he prepares to leave Wyoming for the “Big Apple.”

Cearlock graduated from Powell High School this May and in late August he will resume his education as a student at Columbia University in New York City. Cearlock will be attending the Ivy League school on a full ride scholarship thanks to the university’s financial aid secured with the help of QuestBridge — a nonprofit organization that helps low-income, exceptional students “match” with colleges.The organization offers junior preparation for its program but Cearlock only found out about it his senior year, a month before the application deadline, when he Googled “scholarships for low income kids.”

“I wanted QuestBridge to be all I did [for college applications] so I did more than necessary,” Cearlock said. 

He was admitted in QuestBridge’s first round for early decision at colleges the organization partnered with. He had to form a list of colleges he was most interested in and apply to each college individually. He applied to 15 colleges in one month, he said, because he did the math and he had an 8% chance of being admitted to each college he was interested in. If he applied to 15 colleges he had a 90% chance of admission to at least one college. 

Despite the workload, Cearlock said he doesn’t regret applying to so many schools in such a short time span because it improved the quality of his application to Columbia University. His advice to future Powell High School graduates is to apply for the opportunities they find.

“Every year, there are over 30,000 outstanding high school students from low-income backgrounds who are academically qualified to attend the nation’s top colleges,” the QuestBridge website said. “Over 80% of them do not apply to even ONE selective college and they remain highly under-represented on leading college campuses.”

The organization has served 96,000 students with one of the programs they offered according to information from QuestBridge.

Cearlock’s hard work paid off and when Columbia offered him a full-ride, he couldn’t say no. 

“Saying no to the scholarship would be saying no to a quarter of a million dollars,” Cearlock said. “Saying no to an opportunity other people pay for would be foolish.”

When Cearlock arrives in the Big Apple he doesn’t have an entire degree plan decided but he knows that he will study data science, paired with another study in order to bolster a future career in artificial intelligence.

So, what is QuestBridge?

QuestBridge is a nonprofit organization with the goal of helping high achieving and low-income students attend college. The nonprofit has matched two Powell residents with prestigious colleges this year.

Powell High School grad Ethan Cearlock will be attending Columbia University, an Ivy League school in New York City while another Powell resident who wished to remain anonymous will be attending Dartmouth College, another Ivy League school, based in Hanover, New Hampshire. Both students are attending on a full-ride scholarship.

Their scholarships aren’t provided by QuestBridge but by the school’s financial aid programs. Since it was founded in 1994 QuestBridge has worked with low-income youth to help facilitate opportunities and admission into “Leading colleges,” its website reads. Over 20,000 people nationally have been QuestBridge alumni or are currently QuestBridge Scholars and over half of these students have attended a top school on four year, full ride scholarships.

Students are eligible to apply for QuestBridge if they come from a household that earns less than $65,000 a year for a household of four with “minimal assets.” Academically they must be within the top 5-10% of their graduation class. Other non-measurable criteria also applies. To see the rest of the criteria or learn more visit questbridge.org.