Growing up, Wheaton High School graduate Chanelle Boadu took pride in her academic ambition and attentiveness. The drive to pursue college, she says, was instilled in her and her three older siblings from a young age by their Ghanaian immigrant parents—neither of whom had the opportunity to pursue higher education.
Boadu, a rising sophomore majoring in Africana studies on a pre-med track at Northeastern University in Boston, graduated in the spring of 2024. Like many low-income and first-generation college students, she considered furnishing a dorm room a luxury.