Open Door Grant opens new possibilities to students

By Liz McCue 
 
Navigating the path to college in the United States is challenging enough as is, but even more so for students who are the first to travel that path in their families. That’s why, since the organization’s founding in 2019, ROSS (Republic of South Sudan) Leaders has taken high school juniors and seniors on college tours and offered college preparation programs.  
 
“Most of our students are first generation, whether that be first-generation student, as well as first-generation American,” said Nyagoa Deng, who serves as both program facilitator and one of the college tour coordinators for ROSS Leaders’ Lincoln chapter.  
 
ROSS Leaders offers mentorship, academic support, community and cultural engagement, and health and wellness programs to the children of South Sudanese immigrant and refugee families in multiple communities across the United States, including Lincoln. For its first few years, the organization took students on tours of local institutions, including the Universities of Nebraska at Omaha and Lincoln. More recently, ROSS Leaders has been helping students dream even further, starting with a trip to Chicago in 2022.  
 
This year, with the help of an Open Door Grant from the Lincoln Community Foundation, ROSS Leaders took around 50 high school juniors and seniors from Lincoln and Omaha to Atlanta. They visited institutions including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) like Spelman College and Morehouse College, as well as universities like Emory University and Georgia State University.
 
Open Door Grants support Lincoln nonprofits with grants available on a rolling basis with monthly review and a simplified application. For ROSS Leaders, that made it easy to obtain financial support that would help cover operational costs and, with additional grants and donations, make the trip free to all students. In fact, all the organization’s youth programs are available at no cost, said Flora Mondi, interim executive director, to ensure money isn’t a barrier to participation.  
 
Students were split into two groups for the trip. Around two dozen girls traveled to Atlanta first, from July 30 to August 3, and another two dozen boys went from August 4 to 8.  
 
“I honestly can without a doubt say that the college tour was life-changing to some of our students,” Nyagoa said.  
 
She was one of several members of ROSS Leaders’ leadership who accompanied students to Atlanta. Visiting colleges is an important part of the trip, but so is the travel itself.  
 
For some students, this may be their first time traveling out of Nebraska, or even outside of their hometowns. Even as some South Sudanese families mark 20-25 years of living in the United States, immigrants and refugees face language and educational barriers in Nebraska’s job markets that limit their income. In a 2020 report published by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, 63.9% of South Sudanese or Sudanese refugee survey respondents reported an annual income of $20,000-$35,000.  
 
That’s also why the college tours are so valuable – students can view another path for their future that they may not have known existed from seeing their parents’ or family friends’ experiences. 
 
“I always like to say it’s just getting the opportunity to them, because students don’t know what they don’t know,” Nyagoa said.  
 
In Atlanta, students went to the Coca-Cola factory, the Georgia Aquarium, the National Center for Civil & Human Rights and the Apex Museum. They also visited The Black Man Lab and the Southern Center for Human Rights, where they met with Black men and women in a variety of careers.  
 
Seeing successful Black professionals was another important part of the trip, said Anger Dok, ROSS Leaders’ communications director.  
 
“A lot of the students, after they went to the Lab, were talking about how they had never seen so many successful Black men in their 30s, 40s, 50s and being able to talk to them,” Anger said. “And they also felt like it was a vulnerable space where they could talk about how they felt.”  
 
At the Southern Center for Human Rights, the girls met with leaders and attorneys, including the executive director, Terrica Ganzy. 
 
“It was beautiful for our students to see women of color in those positions and hear their amazing words of wisdom, as well,” Nyagoa said. And not just students — one of her colleagues also found a new interest in law, and the experience assured Deng of her desire to pursue a law degree.  
 
For both Nyagoa and Anger, seeing students get excited at new possibilities is one of the greatest parts of their jobs. They also faced barriers to getting into college and see a lot of themselves in the students they work with.  
 
“I want to help students the way I wish I had been helped,” Nyagoa said. “I hope to be able to aid my students so that they don't have to face these same barriers, students who share virtually all the same identities as me.” 
 
Her mom was a major proponent in Nyagoa’s higher education journey, hoping that she and her siblings could have a life and jobs that weren’t as labor intensive. That mindset is held by many parents who send their children to ROSS Leaders’ programs, too — they want to see their children attain college degrees and fulfilling and impactful jobs. 
 
The number of role models who can speak about college and their professional journey is growing, as previous ROSS Leaders participants return to the organization as mentors. Anger herself didn’t learn about it until she was in college, but in the years she’s been a mentor or program coordinator for ROSS Leaders, she’s enjoyed seeing students grow over the years, both as people and inches in height.  
 
The organization has growth in its future, too, with goals of eventually offering free ACT testing and taking students on trips abroad. Starting with just five students in 2019, programs now serve dozens, driven in no small part by word-of-mouth — students bring their friends, who bring their siblings, who then bring their friends to events or talk about programs. Excitement for the college tours for juniors and seniors has grown year after year this way, too.  

“I’m looking forward to seeing that twinkle in their eye continue through multiple generations of students,” Anger said.