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Redefining college access and guidance for all young New Yorkers
Portrait of Cielo Villa

Winner

Cielo Villa

Redefining college access and guidance for all young New Yorkers
Portrait of Cielo Villa

Website

roadtouni.org

Year

2020

Organization

Road to Uni

Sector

Education

Borough

Queens

Cielo, once undocumented, founded Road to Uni, an ed-tech platform that guided NYC students through the college application process

Cielo’s life in New York City started as an undocumented new immigrant from Peru. She was single-mindedly focused on getting to college and building a life in the USA from there. A top student, she leveraged leadership academies, resources and mentor…
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“LACK OF INFORMATION IS A BARRIER TO HIGHER EDUCATION. IT SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BE THIS HARD TO SUCCEED.⁠”
Cielo Villa
2020 David Prize Winner

Publication

Forbes

Women Are Leading The Tech Nonprofit Sector. Meet Six Solving Problems They’ve Lived.

By Shannon Farley
April 24, 2023
Cielo Villa will never forget getting dropped off on her first day of third grade. She had just immigrated to the U.S. and didn’t speak English. Her mother said to her: “Be the best in your class…
“Road to Uni creates leaders like nothing I’ve seen before — leaders with the experience to effectuate real change.⁠”
Kyle Lambert
Student, Stanford University, Class of 2024

Podcast

Kume House

S2E8: Becoming an Entrepreneur with Cielo Villa
By Drc. Jaèy
June 1, 2024
This week we speak with Cielo Villa, a trailblazing entrepreneur with a bold vision to revolutionize college access. Cielo is the founder of Road to Uni, a free online resource that acts as a supercharged and hyper-accessible…
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