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GREENSBORO – One year ago this month, teens in foster care could start to apply for and attend college for free as part of the North Carolina Reach program.

The program pays for the full cost of state college after other grants and scholarships have been applied.

“Just the last couple of years it's been hard to try and find financial aid to go to school, to take classes to get a degree,” Allen Coltrane, a senior at N.C. A&T State University said.

But this year, Coltrane got some help through N.C. Reach.

“There were grants and scholarships, but not enough to pay for the full amount of my education,” he said.

But Arthur Johnson, a coordinator for N.C. Reach, said it's about much more than just money.

“We've been able to help students with a variety of needs including counseling, mentoring, we have care packages that go out to students,” Johnson said.

And he said the response from students has been tremendous.

“They weren't sure where they were going to get the money for school; they weren't sure what they were going to do to be successful at school,” Johnson said. “And the N.C. Reach program helps out not just financially, but with their day-to-day individual type management responsibilities and requirements of going to school.”

One year into the program, administrators said they aren’t seeing any major problems. In fact, the only noteworthy issue they're dealing with is how to get more people involved.

Right now, only 10 percent of eligible students are actually taking advantage of the program.

“There are about 4,000 students identified in North Carolina that are eligible to receive assistance through the N.C. Reach program of those we've been able to make contact with about 10 percent of that population,” Johnson said. “We continue to work and strive to hit that other 90 percent.”

He said at this point, the program has no where to go but up.