This professional behavior kept many students from non-dominant backgrounds (i.e., students of color, poor and working class students, students with disabilities, and bilingual students) from receiving challenging coursework (AP, IB, and honors classes) and academic, career, and college access/affordability/admission skills needed to successfully graduate from high school and pursue post-secondary options including college. In 1998, the Education Trust received a grant from the DeWitt Wallace/Reader's Digest to fund six $500,000 grants for Counselor Education/School Counseling programs, with a focus on rural and urban settings, to transform School Counselor Education programs to teach advocacy, leadership, teaming and collaboration, equity assessment using data, and culturally competent program counseling and coordination skills in addition to counseling: Indiana State University, the University of Georgia, the University of West Georgia, the University of California-Northridge, the University of North Florida, and, the Ohio State University were the recipients. Over 25 additional Counselor Education/School Counseling programs nationwide became companion institutions in the following decade with average grants of $3000. By 2008, NCTSC consultants had worked in over 100 school districts and major cities and rural areas to transform the work of school counselors nationwide.