Ibrahima Badji
Individualized college access and financial aid support that helps students get to college debt-free, built by a first-generation graduate who walked the path himself.
The Spark
Ibro's story starts where his students' stories start. He grew up in a low-income family and graduated from Mott Haven Educational Campus in the Bronx, where he ran track and learned the discipline and patience he still leans on. As a first-generation college student, the Higher Education Opportunity Program opened the door to Cazenovia College, and he got to and through school the way he now teaches students to do it: with guidance, financial aid, and persistence.
He went on to work in education and behind the scenes in New York sports, and he kept meeting students who had the talent but not the map. So he founded Good Vibes to be the guide he never had. He calls himself the Robin Hood of college access: getting the knowledge, and the money, to the students who need it most.
“We want to ensure that the inequity existing in economically disadvantaged communities is lessened so that the youth from every area can participate in nation-building.”
The Program
Good Vibes Educational Services is a team of educational consultants working directly inside New York City public schools. Students get step-by-step support through the entire college application process: CUNY, SUNY, and Common App applications, FAFSA and TAP completion, scholarship searches, and access to opportunity programs like HEOP, EOP, and SEEK. Family financial aid nights bring parents into the process too. The result the program stands on: 90% of its students go to college debt-free.
The program meets students where they actually are. A Discord community offers live support, a College Access app tracks applications, deadlines, and scholarships, and a public Commitment Wall celebrates where each year's class is headed, from Lehman and Baruch to Columbia.
Forged in Challenge
The hardest part of college access is not the acceptance letter, it is the summer after. Once school lets out, students stop reading email and stop picking up the phone, and hard-won college plans quietly fall apart. The field calls it summer melt, and Ibro names it his single biggest problem.
His answer is an operation, not a worry. Summer interns chase down every unfinished course selection and financial aid file, and Ibro reaches students on Discord because that is where they already are, mid-game. It is unconventional, and it works: the students answer.
The Vision Ahead
Ibro is building Good Vibes into an education technology company rooted in community economic development. He is rebuilding the student platform into a single app that bundles financial aid guidance, a scholarship hub, and college discovery, with more partner schools already committed for the coming year. Alongside the technology, he wants to deepen the program's work with the Department of Education and develop an alumni community that keeps supporting students long after high school.