Personal Statement  is an Emmy-nominated feature-length documentary that follows Karoline, Christine, and Enoch through their senior year and into college. They work tirelessly as peer college counselors to realize better futures for themselves and their peers. They struggle and they stumble, but refuse to succumb to the barriers that prevent so many low-income students from attending and graduating from college.

College access is one of the dominant civil rights issues of our time. Teenagers across the United States want all that a higher education promises: the possibility of prospering, moving beyond the survival mode that is all they have ever known, and participating in the American Dream. But many of them can’t get there, and as a result, income inequality persists. People from low-income backgrounds are increasingly excluded from higher education. One major cause: they don’t have access to essential resources, including college counseling support. 

Nationwide, the typical school counselor to student ratio is 1 to 464. Karoline, Christine, and Enoch are three young people who have chosen to do something about this problem, by becoming the very resource they don’t have for themselves. With professionally led training in college mentorship, a support network of key adults, and unflagging determination, each of them is fighting to change the world around them. The film sheds light on both the systemic barriers that keep so many young people from attaining a college degree and the power that already exists within historically marginalized communities to address problems of inequality. Karoline, Christine, and Enoch gain access to a system that might otherwise exclude them by leveraging the knowledge and relationships of their peers, family members, school staff and others.