For students who experience foster care, homelessness, or the incarceration of a parent, college education can seem as unreachable as the stars, a path reserved for other kids. In recent decades, the number of mothers in prison has skyrocketed, largely for drug or other nonviolent offenses. Children in protective services, meanwhile, are being shuffled from foster home to foster home, in some cases more than fifty times.

First Chance tells the remarkable stories of students from severely troubled backgrounds who—when given an opportunity—succeed in the college classroom. These are kids with striking talents and special insights. They need someone who believes in them.