When Gabriel Clark graduated from high school in 2019, the Idaho Falls native didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment. “I didn’t have aspirations or a goal. I felt lost,” Clark says.

When he was in middle school, he had dreamed of going to Stanford University as a chemical engineer. But he struggled with his grades in high school — as well as with depression, an eating disorder, and family challenges after his electrician father was injured on the job. Plus, the odds were stacked against him: One analysis of Stanford data found that just 5% of its students come from rural areas.