Ailani Maximo, a rising eighth grader at R. Dan Nolan Middle School in Lakewood Ranch, knew that if she was going to go to college, it would mean going thousands of dollars in debt.

She said her family, which lives at Faulkner Farms in Myakka City, isn’t financially stable, and her mother, Briseyda Beltran-Carrillo, told her she would need to get loans if she wanted to pursue a college degree…