The numbers produced by the Access College Foundation in Suffolk tell a good story.

Since 2003, more than 16,000 high school juniors and seniors in Suffolk have received information about higher education from the foundation. About 2,900 seniors have been assisted in finding funding for college, and they’ve used $29 million in financial aid.

The story gets better. Nearly half a million dollars in “Last-Dollar” scholarships have been granted to help them pay the tuition bill. About 91 percent of Access Scholars who have gone on to college graduated within six years, compared to the national average of 52 percent.

But the numbers can only tell a good story. For a great story, you have to turn to the Access Scholars themselves.

Three soon-to-be high school graduates spoke at the organization’s Suffolk Student Recognition Luncheon on April 22. They spoke about overcoming widely varied obstacles that stood in the way of them continuing their educations.

For Lakeland High School senior Christelle Hollomon, that obstacle was her family’s financial situation and the death of her father in April 2011.

Her father worked long hours to provide for the family, but they still had to use food stamps to get by, Hollomon said at the luncheon.

“I really just thought it was the way it was supposed to be,” she said.

But after he got laid off, he was forced into a series of temporary jobs and finally had to retire early. Shortly thereafter, he became ill and died.

“I knew I had to push through and continue my education,” Hollomon said through tears at the luncheon.

Her Access adviser helped her register for standardized tests, complete financial aid applications and apply to colleges, as well as obtain fee waivers.

“It may not seem like much, but any big of money helps tremendously when you’re living month to month,” she said.

Hollomon was accepted at five colleges and will attend Longwood University.

“I know I wouldn’t have been so successful without my Access adviser,” she said. “There is no word in the dictionary to express my love and admiration for her.”

For BreAunna Rush, who is a senior at Nansemond River High School, her obstacle came in the form of being born into an unstable environment and eventually abandoned by her biological parents. She was taken in by a couple whom she now thinks of as her godparents.

“These random people turned out to be the best people I could ask for,” she said. “They have provided for me everything that I needed.”

However, she didn’t want to burden them with the costs of getting into and attending college, she said.

“I’ve always wanted to do great things, but I didn’t know college was an option,” she said. Her Access adviser “told me about scholarships and what we should be doing to get more money.”

Her adviser also helped her apply for fee waivers and financial aid. She’ll be attending Liberty University this fall to major in American Sign Language interpreting, with the goal of being an interpreter for the federal government.

Hope Strothers’ obstacle was the unfamiliarity that faces all college hopefuls. Her parents graduated from college, and her older sister currently is in the pharmacy program at Virginia Wesleyan College.

However, “a lot has changed since my parents and even my sister had to deal with the process,” the King’s Fork High School senior and International Baccalaureate student said.

She also felt intense “pressure to do nothing less than excel in school,” she said, and didn’t know where to turn when it came to applying for scholarships. The foundation helped her register for standardized tests and apply for financial aid.

“I am forever grateful for the Access College Foundation,” she said.

She will attend Virginia Commonwealth University this year to major in psychology, aiming to become a traveling mental health nurse.

The foundation’s services start with motivating middle-school students to pursue higher education and exploring college and career interests with them. It lasts until they graduate college, with one-on-one and group counseling at many Virginia college campuses.

Donors and partners also were recognized at the luncheon, including the following:

• BASF Corporation
• Richard Bennett Trust
• Birdsong Corporation
• Chorey and Associates Realty
• Community Action Coalition of Virginia
• Farmers Bank
• The Violet H. Greco Foundation
• Nansemond Charitable Foundation
• Suffolk Foundation
• Suffolk Public Schools
• Suffolk Rotary Club
• TowneBank
• Many individual donors

For more information on the foundation, visit www.accesscollege.org.