A Windward Community College program aimed at helping low-income students get into — and complete — college has received a five-year, $1.15 million federal grant.

Students enter the Educational Talent Search program in sixth grade and are offered intensive college and career planning counseling, including help with applying for financial aid.

Counselors meet with students at least once a week, and groups also regularly visit college campuses and workplaces.

About 1,000 students are served through the program annually.

Judy Oliveira-Souza, director of Educational Talent Search at Windward, said most of the students in the program could be the first in their family to go to college.

Starting this year, Educational Talent Search students who enter college will also continue to get assistance through the program in hopes of helping them complete a degree.

In the 2010-11 school year, about 92 percent of seniors in the program applied for college and 72 percent enrolled in two- or four-year colleges.

Statewide, about 50 percent of all Hawaii public school students go to college.

In announcing the grant for the program June 14, U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawaii, said the Educational Talent Search "levels the playing field for disadvantaged and at-risk students by providing them the tools to achieve academic success."

Educational Talent Search has been at WCC since 2002. Funding for the program comes from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant for the next five years of the program is slightly higher than what ETS has been awarded in the past.

For more information about the program, call 235-7480 or visit windward.hawaii.edu/ets.