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A popular academic support program at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School will no longer have to worry about how to pay the bills.

College Tracks, a program at the school that helps mostly first-generation college-bound, immigrant, low-income or minority youth with the college application process, was recently granted full funding by the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Educational Foundation, a group dedicated to financing programs at the school that aren't covered in the school's budget.

"Like many start-up nonprofits, one of our greatest challenges is finding sustained funding," said College Tracks Executive Director Nancy Leopold. "We've been very fortunate to find a variety of funding in past years, but this is huge."

The program helps students with all aspects of the admissions process, from finding colleges to writing essays to filling out financial aid forms. It focuses on helping students who are underrepresented—many are the first in their families to go to college— but the group turns no one away.

"These days a college education is a necessity if you're going to be successful in the job market," said foundation president Matt Gandal. "When we looked at the B-CC community there was a majority of kids who had the ability to go to college, but there was still a subset of students who didn't get those opportunities."

The foundation helped provide the seed money to start College Tracks in 2002, Gandal said, and has been providing the program with small grants ever since. The program costs $50,000 a year, he said, a large chunk of the group's $150,000 annual budget, and the full cost of a year's worth of salaries and supplies for the program.

More than 98 percent of the students in the program go on to a post-secondary education, Leopold said, and the program is currently helping 110 seniors at the school.

Since its inception in 2002, more than 600 students have been through the program, which costs nearly $400 per student per year. The cost, which had been covered by grants from the foundation, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Montgomery County, will now be covered completely by the foundation.

Leopold said the funding will allow the group to focus more on students' development and expanding the number of students the group helps each year.

In addition to helping students with their applications, College Tracks also offers classes to help parents become better acquainted with the admissions process.

While the main reason for funding the program is to help the students at Bethesda-Chevy Chase, it also loosens up money to be spent on the Wheaton High School College Tracks program, which was founded in 2005.Grant money acquired from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation for both the B-CC and Wheaton programs can now be used solely for Wheaton, Gandal said.

Both programs are under the College Tracks umbrella, but operate independently at each school.

"It's hugely valuable," said B-CC Principal Karen Lockard. "This program reaches students in a way that takes the fear out of the college process for them."