Tray’Lee Ashley reflects on her postsecondary journey and the vital support OneGoal has provided her during college.
A Full-Circle Journey
How Eddie Lopez’s Journey is Multiplying OneGoal’s Impact in Houston
At OneGoal, our mission is centered around empowering students with the tools, confidence, and resources they need to map out and achieve their postsecondary aspirations. OneGoal Alum Eddie Lopez’s journey captures the heart of this work and reveals what happens when that mission takes root, proving that investing in a student’s future often generates a ripple effect far beyond a single diploma.
Where Eddie’s
Journey Began
Eddie’s journey with OneGoal began at East Early College High School in Houston, Texas.
Like many first-generation students, Eddie knew he wanted to pursue higher education, but lacked the guidance and roadmap needed to navigate the complex world of career exploration, applications, financial aid, and campus selection.
Through OneGoal’s classroom curriculum during his junior and senior years, Eddie gained the tools, knowledge, and support he needed to succeed. By his senior year of high school, he knew where he was headed and, with OneGoal’s help, was able to focus heavily on financial aid applications to make his plan a reality.
Senior year, what we were doing in OneGoal is scholarships, scholarships, scholarships... It was a good thing that I did, because I got 4, and they ended up paying for all of my college.
Support Beyond
Graduation
After high school, Eddie enrolled at Lehigh University, where OneGoal’s support continued well past high school graduation and reached far beyond Texas. His OneGoal coach — Mariama, a staff member responsible for supporting students in their first year after high school — remained a constant source of encouragement. As Eddie navigated undergraduate campus life, rigorous academics, and leadership roles, Mariama was there to support and provide advice.
“My coach was always a text away, and so she was always super helpful. Everything she said was encouraging. Whenever I had a question about anything, she knew who I had to go to, or how to find who I needed… She was super encouraging, [with words like], ‘you got this’, ‘you can do this’, providing advice on how I can manage my sleep schedule, manage my workload, all of that stuff, and so…whether it was my academic journey or my personal life, she was excellent at providing support and comforting me. My OneGoal coach was amazing.”
Driven by this ongoing support, Eddie graduated from Lehigh University in just three years with a B.S. in Business and Economics, serving as Student Government President along the way, one of his many campus involvements.
During his college years, Eddie also served as Houston’s first OneGoal student intern. He spent his summer making direct outreach calls to high schoolers, answering FAFSA questions, and helping students stay on-track for their deadlines, offering the critical support once provided for him.
“The biggest thing that I learned is that I like being a resource for people… helping them get further in their journey felt really good, and I never felt tired when I was doing that work.”
Returning to His Roots
to Pay It Forward
Equipped with a business degree and a passion for helping others, Eddie realized his true calling was in public service and youth advocacy. When an opportunity arose to return to his high school alma mater, he knew he didn’t want to pass it up.
“I don’t think I would have considered teaching if it were something else, but because it was OneGoal, and I had done it, and I felt like it had helped me a lot, I wanted to do that as well.”
Today, Eddie is a full-time teacher at East Early High School, leading five different OneGoal classes, where he draws on his own experiences and uses the OneGoal curriculum to teach high schoolers essential real-world skills, from public speaking and elevator pitches to early campus research.
He emphasizes that even the most basic assignments can hold significant value for students. This includes assignments like understanding your identity, which can strengthen your scholarship applications and help you put your best foot forward during interviews.
Or, researching a school’s campus life during high school, while you’re in the exploration stage, which can prepare students for their arrival to campus in meaningful ways. With pre-existing knowledge from their research, they may feel more confident asking questions and getting involved, which ultimately contributes to their sense of belonging and plays a significant role in their persistence and, ultimately, their success.
As he reflects on his own experience with OneGoal and how it prepared him for his postsecondary journey, and is now in a position to provide the same for the students currently sitting in his classroom, he says, “Getting exposed to the [OneGoal] material was helpful then… But I didn’t make the connection as to how helpful it was going to be until later on. Especially now, paying attention to the material, because I’m gonna teach it… Having the experience of interacting with it once, then going to college and then coming back to revisit this material. This is the stuff that they’re actually going to need, and it’s very, very helpful.”
Completing the Circle:
From Student to Mentor and Teacher to Advocate
Eddie’s vision for change doesn’t stop in the classroom. After building up his current students as a OneGoal teacher, he plans to pursue a law degree focused on educational policy and/or non-profit law, advocating for student opportunities at a legislative level.
Eddie’s story is a clear example of what happens when we all support student potential. OneGoal not only helped Eddie graduate college debt-free and empowered him to become an involved student, but it also helped cultivate an empathetic, driven leader who is now opening doors for the next generation.
OneGoal has been such a strong shoulder to lean on — I wouldn’t be the leader I am today without it. The curriculum, the support staff, the coaches, the care: no other program has touched me the way this one has. It’s clear that OneGoal holds students and their futures close, and I can’t wait to give back and pour into others the way OneGoal once poured into me.
And to any student reading this, Eddie shares a piece of wisdom inspired by his own journey, “College is what you make of it. So, if you decide to give it your all and to give it a chance to do its job, then it will. But at the end of the day, if you’re closed off and you don’t want to be there, then you will not be happy there.”
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