Willie Stennis intends to be a man of his word.

Last year, a former teacher - the one who would clip science articles from the newspaper for him because she knew it was his favorite subject - died after battling breast cancer.

When he heard the news, Stennis recalls, he vowed: I'm going to help people like that.

"I loved that lady," Stennis, now a senior at Omaha North Magnet High School, said Friday during a recruiting visit to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Thanks to a newly expanded UNL college-preparation program that targets at-risk students like Stennis, the aspiring biomedical engineer could soon be on his way to fulfilling his promise.

UNL this fall announced an expansion of its Nebraska College Preparatory Academy, a program that offers mentoring services and ultimately full scholarships to low-income, first-generation high school students who meet strict academic requirements.

The program, launched in 2006, applies to select students from Omaha North and Grand Island Senior High. Until recently, students had to attend UNL upon high school graduation to receive scholarship money.

But now Omaha's Metro Community College has joined the program, and students will have the option of spending their first two years at Metro, then transferring to UNL to finish their bachelor degrees - all without paying a dime in tuition, fees, books or room and board.

Why join forces with a community college?

"We're aware that there's many paths to getting a degree. We want to be able to offer all of those paths," said Amber Hunter, director of the preparatory academy.

"This allows us to get more students through the college pipeline, and eventually into the workforce."

The academy's first class - 29 students in Grand Island, 10 at Omaha North - will graduate in the spring.

Those students are among the 50 who began the program as Grand Island freshmen in 2006 and 11 who joined in as Omaha North juniors last fall.

Some students had to drop out of the program because their families moved, Hunter said. For example, in Grand Island, where there's a large Hispanic population, families sometimes return to Mexico or need to relocate for a job, she said.

Other students, Hunter said, didn't meet the program's academic requirements: maintaining a 3.0 grade point average; completing enough math, science, English, social studies and foreign language classes; taking the ACT; attending a summer research camp at UNL; and producing a "capstone" research project during their senior year.

Hunter is confident many more students would have failed to reach high school graduation without the preparatory academy.

"These are the lowest-income kids - the most needy," she said.

Students who enroll in the program gain access to a wealth of university resources - not to mention continued support from their high school teachers.

First, each is assigned a UNL student mentor who phones weekly to answer questions and offer guidance.

Students also attend workshops on time management, the college admissions process, financial aid and more.

They take their math and science courses together, building a strong network of support, and academy staff work with students' parents to ensure they're engaged in their children's education.

And once they get to UNL, they get help from retention specialists who provide academic and social support.

The addition of Metro Community College will give students more resources, such as job shadowing programs, Hunter said.

Support from Metro also means more Omaha North freshmen will be able to enroll in the academy - 60 each fall, up from 40 each fall now.

The growth is good news for academy adviser Shannon Teamer, a recent UNL graduate who participated in a similar academy in high school and says he might not have gone to college without it.

Teamer - himself the product of a low-income, single-parent household - said many other high school students could be in the same situation.

Families struggling financially might not have transportation to take their kids to college recruiting events, he said. Parents who hold multiple jobs don't always have time to help their children navigate the college process.

"They don't necessarily think about long-term success. They think day-to-day," Teamer said.

That's where the preparatory academy comes in.

Education, Hunter said, gives students who might otherwise have turned to crime the chance to become productive workers instead.

"It's work. I know it's a lot of work," she said. "But we're passionate about this because we don't want to see the negative things going on that we see on the news. We want to be able to offer other options.

"We all know that when students are educated, when they feel like they have a vision and a goal, they do much better."

Hunter recently met with Omaha North freshmen who just enrolled in the academy. They talked about dreams, about the future.

Later, Hunter got an e-mail from one of the students - an e-mail she plans to keep until the student has her degree in hand.

"Thank you Miss Amber for believing in me. I will try harder because I now see how much this really means to you and the people that believe in me.

"But really I am doing this for myself. Thank you."

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.