At seventeen years old, Lance Beverly stood in the aisle of a local bookstore holding an ACT preparation book.

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$29.99.

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Then he picked up another.

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$34.99.

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For many families, those prices are little more than an inconvenience. For low-income students, they can represent a meaningful barrier to opportunity.

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Growing up in Alabama, Lance understood that reality firsthand. Yet he also understood something else: education had the power to change the trajectory of a life. Rather than allowing financial obstacles to dictate his future, he found a way forward. Along the way, he began helping classmates with ACT preparation and college essays, unknowingly laying the foundation for what would become a lifelong commitment to college access.

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Over the next decade, that commitment evolved into a career dedicated to expanding educational opportunity. Lance worked with students and schools across Alabama, Texas, Massachusetts, and New York, helping students navigate the college admissions process while building programs designed to increase college access for low-income communities.

In 2019, Lance returned home to Alabama and founded VIDAL Access, naming the organization in honor of his late grandmother, Vida Beverly. What began as a simple vision—to provide low-income students with the level of college guidance often reserved for affluent families—has grown into one of Alabama's leading college access organizations.

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Today, VIDAL Access has served more than 25,000 students through a combination of in-school consulting, college persistence programming, and experiential learning opportunities. The organization has secured support from the Alabama State Department of Education and many of Alabama's leading philanthropic partners. Since its founding, VIDAL's work has spanned Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma, Leeds, and numerous other communities across Alabama, bringing high-quality college and career advising to students who have historically had limited access to such support.

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Among VIDAL's signature programs is the Dream Initiative, an immersive experience for high-achieving students that combines travel, career exposure, and individualized college advising. Through the program, students have visited organizations and institutions such as Google, the New York Stock Exchange, The New York Times, Howard University, and the White House, while gaining firsthand exposure to educational, professional, and civic opportunities that many never imagined possible.

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Along the way, Lance has helped students earn admission to institutions such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Vanderbilt, and many others, while also helping students secure prestigious scholarship opportunities through programs such as QuestBridge, Posse, Gates, Dell, and Coca-Cola.

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Despite the growth, Lance's motivation remains remarkably simple: every student deserves access to opportunity, regardless of zip code, family income, or circumstance. Through VIDAL Access, he hopes to continue building partnerships, programs, and systems that help students not only reach college, but thrive once they arrive.

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Lance earned a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, graduating summa cum laude with University Honors and Business Honors. He subsequently earned an Ed.M. from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, an M.A. in Higher Education Administration from Louisiana State University, and a Master of Public Administration from LSU. He is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Learning and Leadership in Organizations at Vanderbilt University.