In a good way.

This is one of those why-didn't-someone-think-of-it-sooner ideas. It takes the familiar concept of helping underprivileged high school kids, and puts a smart spin on it.

Simply put, the thinking is this: Not only do smart kids from poor families deserve to go to college, in these days of making diversity a priority, top colleges are dying to recruit them. As CollegeWorks executive director Andee Henrotin says, if you pick up almost any college catalog now --

particularly small, private, expensive, liberal arts schools -- you can bet that a photo of an ethnic minority student will be on the cover.

That's the CollegeWorks mission. As Henrotin says, rather than give students "2,500 bucks, a pat on the back, and good luck,'' the organization's three counselors work with students to find the best colleges for them, fill out admissions and financial aid applications, and guide them in writing essays and taking exams.

The services are free to students; the organization has been running for six years with donations from local firms, such as Dreyer's Ice Cream, the Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants. So far, they've counseled about 100 students who were referred from high school teachers.

"These kids,'' Henrotin says, "are sitting on a winning lottery ticket, and they don't even know it.''

Who knew that having a low family income, poor school environment, and lousy neighborhood could be such an advantage?

Now, a couple of qualifiers. CollegeWorks is not trying to save the lost souls. This isn't a program that takes disenfranchised kids who are flunking school and turns their lives around. Henrotin, a former Oakland teacher, is looking for motivated, smart, and accomplished prospects who need to have their horizons broadened.

Take Maria Tamayo for example. Her father, Jose, works in the fields at a Napa winery. Neither he nor his wife Evanjelina finished high school. Maria is no slouch in the classroom -- "I don't want to brag,'' she says, "but I got almost all A's'' -- and was probably going to be the first in her family to go to college.

But college was going to be a modest experience. Her parents were pushing a community college where she could live at home and not strain the family budget. It seemed to make sense.

"Parents say, 'Gee whiz, Scripps College (a private school in Southern California) costs $38,000 a year. We can't afford that.' Well, you can afford it, and here's how,'' Henrotin said.

"Oh my gosh,'' said Maria. "Andee helped so much. He was kind of in my parents' face a little bit -- in nice way.''

Instead of aiming low, Henrotin encouraged Maria to look at major universities such as Scripps and UC Berkeley. He walked her through the process and helped her apply for financial aid. Among the applications they filled out was one for the Bill Gates scholarship. Last year a letter came to her home informing her she'd been awarded a full ride.

"I ran to my mother's room,'' Maria says. "I was screaming, 'I am not going to have to pay anything for college.' My mother was crying.''

Which is how Maria Tamayo, who had never even spent a night away from home at a friend's house, became a freshman at Cal last fall. For someone who came here from Mexico at the age of 7, who lives in a home where English is a second language, it is opening a world of possibilities.

That's the experience that Ezra Gale, a senior at Oakland Tech, is working through now. A good, but not spectacular, student, Gale is on the student leadership board and swim team at Oakland Tech, a tough school where expectations can be low.

"It never even came into my mind that I could get a full scholarship,'' Gale says. "And the counselors don't push that either. They tend to focus more on graduating. I'd have probably tried to go to a state school or a UC.''

But with Ezra's low family income and difficult circumstances, the CollegeWorks group knew that he'd be a prime candidate for some top schools. They helped Gale with his applications, got his entrance fee waived, and handed him a list of some 40 schools that would be interested in him. Among them: Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth.

It is a story that has been repeated over and over. Another Oakland Tech student, Niema Jordan, is at prestigious Northwestern, where she is getting some $40,000 in financial aid.

"We have literally had parents walk out of our offices crying. They thought they were going to be failures as parents because they couldn't send their kids to college,'' says Henrotin.

And now? Well, Maria Tamayo made it a point not to come back home to Napa too often. She called her mother every day, but tried to stay on campus, beginning her new life. Her parents understood.

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