Finance higher education, mentor the next generation and create a cycle of student success. These are a few of the goals of The Fourteener Fund, started by six alumni of Aurora’s Rangeview High School.

Bruce Ahn was a straight-A student at Rangeview. Four years of hard work earned him a spot at Ivy League Cornell University, but no amount of work ethic could prepare him for what he’d face after high school graduation.

Ahn quickly discovered that his high school education had not prepared him for the challenges of college. He went from a straight-A student to failing his first final exam.

Ahn and his peers realized they were facing similar struggles transitioning into college after Rangeview, despite their different majors, universities and states.

“We thought, what can we do to make sure the next generation of Rangeview graduates don’t have to go through what we went through, which was pure hell,” Ahn said.

Thus The Fourteener Fund was born.

Ahn, Nathaniel Bradley III, Andy Stockinger, Sean Downs, Do Hun Park and Nick Koeppen began the non-profit organization in February. The six graduated from Rangeview in 2014 and have been best friends since freshman year.

“We’re trying to provide them those stories,” Bradley said. “Hopefully to learn from our mistakes instead of making them themselves.”

The organization provides financial assistance and guidance on everything from networking to living alone to dealing with failure.

“A lot of these kids need to have their hands held during this process,” Ahn said. “We just want to make sure they have a better experience than we did.”

The fund’s first scholar is Irl Paulalengan, a 2020 Rangeview graduate studying journalism and media communication at Colorado State University.

Paulalengan is a first-generation college student and an immigrant from Indonesia, where her parents still live.

“What I really love about their mentoring program is that they came from where I came from,” Paulalengan said. “They know the struggle transitioning from Rangeview to a predominantly white institution, the worries of not getting enough financial aid and the fear of failing classes or not getting the most out of college.”

At Rangeview, 48% of students are economically disadvantaged and 74% are non-white, including 41% Hispanic and 22% Black, according to U.S. News.

Without her parents in the country, Paulalengan is supporting herself through college.

She said she used the $1,000 scholarship from The Fourteener Fund to pay for insurance through CSU, which regular financial aid doesn’t cover.

But more than just money, Paulalengan said the fund has provided her with guidance, support and advice that first-generation students don’t usually have access to.

“It’s really great to hear tips from people who were once in my shoes and succeeded,” she said. “Navigating college campus as a first-generation woman of color is hard enough, so having financial and mentoring support from The Fourteener Fund definitely had helped me a lot.”

The Fourteener Fund members meet with Paulalengan once a month to check on her college experience and answer any questions she has.

And for Aurora students who aren’t scholars, the fund offers virtual assistance.

The fund began a podcast, “Candid Career Chats,” where they talk with each other and other Rangeview alumni about their experiences in college and work.

The podcast provides students with insider information from career professionals that come from similar backgrounds. Past topics include transitioning from college to the work force, college math courses and family influences on education.

“It’s not just how what are they gonna do in college but also how do we prepare them getting careers in future, how do they network better, how do they make opportunities for themselves while still in college,” Bradley said.

The group said one of their main objectives is to “build a cycle of success for students” in which Aurora students can achieve success and use it to support each other.

“It’s an opportunity to give back to our community,” Stockinger said.

For the upcoming school year, The Fourteener Fund wants to expand, providing one scholarship for every high school in the Aurora Public School system.

The group is applying for non-profit grants but so far, the scholarships have been 100% donation based. The group is planning a fundraising Ted Talk-style event for December.

Last year’s scholarship for Paulalengan was funded by less than 20 donors, six of which were The Fourteener Fund members themselves.

The 2021 scholarship applications are set to open in February.

There is no GPA requirement. Last year, the application consisted of three short essays written on perseverance, commodity and purpose — the values the fund was founded on.

“We wanted to try and find students who shared those similar values,” Stockinger said.

Applications and donation guidelines are available at thefourteenerfund.org.