FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WFFT) – From the moment they first donned their caps and gowns, higher education was on the minds of the dozens of students involved with the nonprofit Latinos Count.

For some families, though, a college education is uncharted territory.

“We don’t really see a lot of attention drawn to first generation students of Hispanic heritage at least,” Rodriguez said. “I was kind of scared going into it, being like, ‘How am I going to pay for college?”

A $2,000 scholarship from Latinos Count will certainly help.

“Both of my parents, actually they didn’t really have a lot of education growing up,” said Lisbet Diaz. “They only went to a little bit of elementary school. So just graduating high school is a really big thing for my family really. They always tell me every sacrifice has its reward.”

Latinos Count leadership is hoping to make that sacrifice a bit smaller, especially for first generation students like Diaz and her University of Saint Francis classmate Emily Rodriguez.