This story was originally published by Chalkbeat.

DENVER | Cherry Creek High School seniors Kiran Herz and Jaiden Hwang have spent hundreds of hours filling out college applications and writing admissions essays.

Hwang estimates he wrote 30 essays just over the summer. Herz, seeing the stress that fellow students face when applying to college, wanted to find a solution to make college admissions easier.

His research led to a 1997 Texas law that guarantees in-state students who graduate in the top 10% of their high school class receive automatic admission to every public state university. The two Colorado friends hope they can get voters to pass a similar law here during the November 2026 election.

“It’s so incredibly difficult to get into some of these universities,” Hwang said. “Ther

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