In Colombia, I've worked with a volunteer organization called Universidad Posible that my school runs which helps students earn scholarships to go to college.
I learned about the need for investment in higher education and services that help students get into universities.
Due to income inequality and the cost of higher education, university education is not equally accessible for all. In Colombia, private universities are very expensive compared to public schools. This tends to be true for the United States as well, but the difference is that in Colombia there is not as much access to financial aid for university in the form of loans and grants. They exist, but they are not as accessible.
Fortunately, there are many scholarships offered at private universities. They cover large parts of tuition for students of lower incomes and make a private university education possible for them. However, most scholarships require certain academic standards to be earned. One of the requirements is a high score on the Colombian college entry exam, the ICFES test. ICFES stands for Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior (the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Public Education).
