When it was quiet at the cafe where he worked in high school, JaLynn Yoakum would slip into a booth with his laptop to work on college applications. To balance work shifts five days a week with marching band practice and school assignments, he had to take advantage of every moment.

Yoakum grew up in the small town of Hinton, about 50 miles west of Oklahoma City. There, he says, most of his peers didn’t go to college—out of his graduating class of 40 students, he was one of only four who did.

As a first-generation student, Yoakum went through the process of applying for college largely on his own.

“I’m not going to lie, it was probably one of the most isolating things I’ve ever had to go through,” he says.

With perseverance and a lot of online searching, Yoakum came out the other side of the application process with an acceptance letter from the University of Oklahoma and an Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship award. Oklahoma’s Promise is a state program that allows high school students who meet income, academic and conduct requirements to earn scholarships for in-state, post-secondary education. At OU, Oklahoma’s Promise recipients may also receive funding to cover remaining tuition and student fees through the university’s Crimson Commitment financial aid program.

Today, Yoakum is chair of Miracle Mindset, an OU-based college access outreach program for first-generation and low-income high school students across Oklahoma. The organization works to equip high schoolers with the knowledge and confidence to pursue higher education—and to succeed once they get to college.

Miracle Mindset works to break down the information gap first-generation and low-income students often face around higher education by hosting conferences and events for high schoolers. The Young Scholars Program, offered each spring, is designed to get high school freshmen thinking early about higher education opportunities. In the fall, the College Prep Program for high school juniors offers practical guidance and tools to make sure they are ready to apply for college, federal financial aid and scholarships.

The organization also offers students mentorship opportunities, resume help, essay checks and an end-of-the-year celebration for high school seniors who complete the Miracle Mindset program.

Yoakum’s favorite part of the conferences are scholarship award presentations, which are supported by Miracle Mindset fundraisers held throughout the year. The awards are modest but meaningful, he says.

“A scholarship amount of $500 is not going to cover everything, but it does give them hope,” says Yoakum, currently an OU chemistry senior. “It shows them what is possible—‘I am worthy, I am capable of achieving this,’—and you can see that in their eyes.”

Miracle Mindset has steadily grown, offering mentorship opportunities to more high schoolers since it was founded in 2018 by OU alumnus Miguel Chavez. 

For Chavez, who was the first in his family to graduate high school, the path to higher education was filled with obstacles.

“I just thought those obstacles were normal,” says Chavez, born and raised on the south side of Oklahoma City. “I thought everybody was going through this, because I didn’t know any differently.”

Chavez arrived at OU in 2017. As he began meeting other students and taking sociology classes, he realized his challenges in pursuing college were part of a broader pattern of barriers that first-generation and low-income students often face in reaching higher education.

“I said, ‘OK, so what can we do about it? We don’t have all the answers, but we have some, so let’s try to do whatever we can and we’ll keep growing and expanding,’ ” Chavez recalls.

With a nucleus of other invested students, Chavez launched the first Miracle Mindset workshop in the spring of 2018. It was “bare bones” compared to Miracle Mindset’s conferences today, he says, but OU students gave out two scholarships and hosted a few dozen high schoolers representing five schools.

Chavez spent all four of his years at OU growing and developing Miracle Mindset before graduating in 2021 with double degrees. Now, he is working on a doctoral degree in sociology at Northwestern University in Chicago—a university his high school guidance counselor discouraged him from even applying to.

From afar, Chavez has watched a new generation of Miracle Mindset leaders make the organization their own. Some students who participated in OU’s conferences as high schoolers also are part of Miracle Mindset’s leadership team, paying it forward for other students.

Anna Leesa Lopez, an OU sophomore studying supply chain management and international business, attended a Miracle Mindset freshman conference at her brother’s urging. There, she was one of two students to win a scholarship—which served not only as a tangible resource toward attending college, but also as a boost to her confidence.

“It was just like, ‘Wow, I can do this. They think I can do this.’ Having that type of support led me to want to come to OU and be part of Miracle Mindset.”

When Lopez created her first resume as a high school junior, her former Miracle Mindset group leader critiqued it and offered suggestions. By the time Lopez began working on college applications, her resume was polished and ready.

The Oklahoma City native quickly found a community at Miracle Mindset when she arrived at OU as a college student. She now serves as vice chair of programming, helping run events for students who are in the same situation she experienced.

The organization’s leaders are working to expand outreach and grow awareness of Miracle Mindset so that more first-generation and low-income students are equipped for college success.

Looking back, Yoakum believes getting to OU might not have felt so daunting if he’d known about Miracle Mindset while still in high school.

“I think 15-year-old me would have been more hopeful about the situation,” he says. “I would have had peace of mind knowing that there are other people facing the same struggle.” 

Dana Branham is a former reporter for The Oklahoman and a freelance writer who lives in The Village, Okla.

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