My name is Lucas Moabe and when I was 17, I was a public-school kid in a poor neighborhood in Montes Claros, Brazil, where I grew up. I wasn't the smartest in my class. I had no real plan for university, most kids from my school didn't go.

Then my uncle, a teacher at a private school, got me a 90% discount on a six-month ENEM prep course. The ENEM is Brazil's national university entrance exam, and that course was the kind of preparation middle-class kids take for granted.

I scored 30% above my school's average. That score got me into university on a full scholarship. From there: an exchange in Canada, a pharma internship, a master's in the Netherlands, and a career I never could have imagined as a kid in Montes Claros.

I'm not an exception of talent. I'm the result of one chance I was given.

Why this matters

Brazil is one of the most unequal countries in the world, and you can see it most clearly in education. In Brazil, 60% of private-school students go on to university. For public-school students, it's only 21%.

The gap isn't talent. It's preparation. Middle-class kids get prep courses, structure, and support for the ENEM. Public-school kids in poor neighborhoods don't, so they score lower, miss out on university, and the cycle of poverty continues.

A good ENEM score breaks that cycle. I know because it broke mine.

What we're going to do

Hood to Uni is going to give 50 public-school students in Montes Claros the same chance I had.

We partner with public schools that provide their computer labs as a study space. We pay for each student's access to one of the best online prep courses in Brazil. From June to November 2026, students study around 9 hours a week, with monthly mentoring on academic performance and career planning. After the exam, we help them apply to university through Brazil's public scholarship programs.

Goal: 15–20 of them in university by 2027.

Where your donation goes

100% of donations go directly to students, in the form of:

Hood to Uni doesn't create the course. We fund access to it. We're transparent about that because trust matters more than sounding bigger than we are.

What it costs

Be part of this

Talent exists everywhere. Opportunity does not.

If you can donate, please do. If you can't, sharing this campaign already helps.

To learn more about the project check us out on Instagram and TikTok .

From the Hood to Uni.

Thank you.