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Meet the Teens Who've Helped 20,000+ Students Prep for College—for Free.

Isa (University of Michigan) and Sophia (Johns Hopkins University) are the powerhouse co-founders of "The Career Compass Coalition."

Author

Porte Global
July 15, 2025

Isabelle Eribo (Co-Founder of "The Career Compass Coalition,” Incoming at the University of Michigan)

Sophia Sim (Co-Founder of “The Career Compass Coalition,” Incoming at Johns Hopkins University)

Isa (incoming at the University of Michigan) and Sophia (incoming at Johns Hopkins University) are the powerhouse co-founders of The Career Compass Coalition—a student-led nonprofit on a mission to help high schoolers, especially low-income and first-gen students, confidently navigate the college application process.

In just two years, they’ve reached over 20,000 teens with free resources for scholarships, internships, college prep, and more.

The twist? Isa and Sophia don’t go to the same school. They didn’t grow up in the same state. And believe it or not, they’ve never even met in person.

So how did it all begin? With a shared passion for educational equity—and one bold TikTok DM.

If you’re a current high school student interested in starting your own initiative and standing out in university applications — you can sign up for a 30-minute extracurricular review. During the call, we’ll:

a) Learn about your college goals

b) Review your extracurricular profile

c) Help you shape a unique project idea.

#1: How did you two meet? What drew each of you to start The Career Compass Coalition?

Isa: I went to a small private prep school and still found myself overwhelmed by the college process. I remember thinking:

“If I’m this stressed with all the resources I have, what about students who don’t?”

That’s when the idea for The Career Compass Coalition started brewing. I found Sophia on TikTok—she was posting about her academic struggles, and I saw myself in her story. I sent her a DM, and that’s where it all began.

Sophia: I was honestly shocked when Isa reached out. At the time, I was posting content about the ups and downs of being a high school student—from college apps to burnout.

I’m from Oklahoma, which ranks 49th in public education, so I’ve always been passionate about supporting students in under-resourced areas.

When Isa pitched the idea, I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of.

#2: What does The Career Compass Coalition do?

Isa: The Career Compass Coalition is a global nonprofit helping students access college prep tools in one place. Anyone can join our Google Classroom through a link or code and instantly access free resources for scholarships, AP prep, internships—you name it. We make what’s hard to find easy to get.

The goal is to put all the resources which are hard to find in one place.

Sophia: We have different teams handling different portions of the organization. Some of them might be journalists making articles every now and then. Others might include Vice Presidents, or Outreach Directors who are making sure everything is flowing smoothly throughout the project.

We also recently started a Culture and Care team which helps with mental health awareness and adjusts material to lessen language barriers since we have a large portion of students globally now.

#3: How did TikTok help The Career Compass Coalition take off?

Map of the cities students who use the Career Compass Coalition come from.

Isa: It all started with a single TikTok account. We leaned into trending formats and catchy hooks. Looking back, I feel like all it took was one big video to get attention to what we were doing. One video blew up with 20,000+ likes. From there, students flooded into our Google Classroom.

Sophia: I had some experience with TikTok before. I saw that students are all on it and browse through it, especially if it’s something like broad tips for the ACT or experiences as a senior. It’s just very relatable and approachable for other students to be able to connect with each other. That helped us with The Career Compass Coalition and understanding what we should provide.

Funny enough, we didn’t even have Google Classrooms at the beginning. We were just posting resources. But once that TikTok took off, we had to figure out a better system to support the demand—and The Career Compass Coalition really solidified from there.

#4: What was the toughest part about making The Career Compass Coalition work?

How CCC’s Google Classrooms are organized.

Isa: Learning the legal aspects to having a non-profit was super hard. We had to figure it all out on our own. I was talking to Sophia and going, “Hey, you watch this YouTube video, I’ll watch this one, and we’ll figure out how to do this.”

Sophia: I’d 100% agree with that. Honestly, running the whole organization has been pretty smooth in general. It was more so having the consistency, perseverance and passion at the forefront of your mind to be able to power through all the little nooks and crooks. It helped because both Isa and I were just so passionate about what we were doing.

#5: What made you go, “We made it?”

# of website clicks “The Career Compass Coalition” has reached across the world.

Isa: So Sophia made this form for us called “the Career Compass Review Form” where students could fill it out and tell us what to improve.

There was this one student from Myanmar who emailed us.

He thanked us for creating this organization because the situation in his country wasn’t the best - bad enough where he couldn’t attend school. He only had Internet for a little while because it got cut out - but in the limited time he had, he used our resources to stay on track with what he should be doing in high school and trying to apply to college.

Just seeing his story and reading his thanks was just so moving.

Sophia: Totally agree. We also have a Linktree set up, and with that comes data for how many students are clicking on our websites. They come from across the nation but also many third world countries. With just that, the students who struggle and have difficulties with access to education and basic necessities touch our hearts on a daily basis. It really made both of us realize we were impacting students on a much bigger scale than we had initially expected.

#6: How did you manage to build this while being full-time students?

Isa: My number one tip is to use your time wisely when you’re in school. Organizing a good schedule is really underrated. For example, I tried to have a decent amount of free periods so I could balance doing non-academic things like socializing, finishing some flashcards or extra studying I wouldn’t have to do at home.

Then when you get home, you can do the things you actually want to do. For myself that was working on The Career Compass Coalition or relaxing with friends. This’ll keep you motivated so you don’t burn out.

Sophia: Everyone says this, but get out of the habit of procrastination. Everyone’s always like, “Oh, I can do this later,” and then it gets pushed to a later date and ends up biting them in the long run.

Keep yourself accountable by surrounding yourself with accountable friends. They’re the ones who will be willing to push you when you don’t feel like it - cause once you go down that rabbit hole, it’s hard to get back up.

If you’re a current high school student interested in starting your own initiative and standing out in university applications — you can sign up for a 30-minute extracurricular review. During the call, we’ll:

a) Learn about your college goals

b) Review your extracurricular profile

c) Help you shape a unique project idea.

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