Eunice Dominguez Chacon, Breanna Carpenter, Ryan Jordan, Keiosha Lee, Mikayla Miller, Dale Vaugh and Gayle Hoefer play a game during a Bridging Success event at ASU Sept. 22, 2015. (Michael Chow/The Republic)
Two years after a bill passed giving Arizona’s foster children free college tuition, a helpful Phoenix program emerged.
More than 3,500 13- through 17-year-olds were in the foster-care system in Arizona in 2014. Of those, more than 700 ‘age out’ of foster care on their 18th birthday every year, left to face the world alone.
Teens who have experienced foster care become adults with the odds stacked against them. They encounter higher rates of homelessness, incarceration, teen pregnancy and substance abuse.
In a bid to help build a future for these youth, then-Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law two years ago a bill offering Arizona’s foster children free tuition at community colleges and state universities.
Since then, enrollment of former foster-care youth has increased 40 percent at Arizona State University, up to about 500 students, according to one university official.
Maricopa County Community College District officials are unsure of any enrollment change, but serve more than 1,000 students who experienced foster care.
In an effort to help new and existing students, ASU and the community college district this fall launched Bridging Success, a program that gives information, resources and support to students who formerly were in foster care.
It’s ASU’s first program targeted exclusively at its students with a foster background. The community college district, which is the largest in the country, has had a similar program before, but this is its biggest.
Why we need this
Foster youth “experience homelessness, incarceration, dependence on public assistance, unemployment, and out-of-wedlock parenthood at disproportionately higher rates than their same-age peers,” according to research cited by Foster Care to Success.
“That is the story that no one ever wants to listen to… the social cost, economic cost to our society,” said attorney Tamera Shanker, who is board chair of the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation.
“Across many studies, the one thing we can point to that will break the inter-generational cycle of abuse and neglect is education,” she said. “It makes all of Arizona more profitable. It raises the quality of life for everybody.”
Many students in Bridging Success are high achievers determined to become successful leaders. Breanna Carpenter, a freshman and honors student in ASU’s program, vows to become a lawyer or social worker to change Arizona’s system.
Improving more than 300 lives
About 110 students, including 95 freshmen, have chosen to work with Bridging Success at ASU, run by the College of Public Service and Community Solutions. About 20 of them participated in Early Start, a week-long camp of academic workshops and community-building activities to foster life skills and a circle of friends before classes started. About 200 students are in the program at the Maricopa colleges.
Facilitators at both schools say they’re building the program “as they go.” When students showed up to move into ASU dorms without any towels or bedding, coordinators found donations to supply them.
It’s all in hopes of improving former foster youths’ chances of graduating.
Improving more than 300 lives
About 110 students, including 95 freshmen, have chosen to work with Bridging Success at ASU, run by the College of Public Service and Community Solutions. About 20 of them participated in Early Start, a week-long camp of academic workshops and community-building activities to foster life skills and a circle of friends before classes started. About 200 students are in the program at the Maricopa colleges.
Facilitators at both schools say they’re building the program “as they go.” When students showed up to move into ASU dorms without any towels or bedding, coordinators found donations to supply them.
It’s all in hopes of improving former foster youths’ chances of graduating.
Only 7 to 13 percent of students from foster care enroll in higher education, and about 2 percent of former foster youth earn a bachelor’s degree, compared to 24 percent of adults in the general adult population, according to a report from Casey Family Programs, a national organization committed to providing and improving foster care.
Stepping from the foster system into the honors college
College was always in the picture for Breanna Carpenter, a 19-year-old from Glendale and one of the program’s most enthusiastic participants.
Carpenter is talkative and always on time; She’s been in advanced classes since sixth grade and, as the oldest of three girls, identifies as “a strong personality” and “a very independent person.”
Her foster experience started in high school, when she started to recognize a relative’s prescription-drug abuse.
“My sophomore year I started at a new school. I walked into my guidance counselor’s office and I said ‘Hi, I’m Breanna and I’d like to call CPS.’ ”
She entered a guardianship with other family members, and the case was closed by Carpenter’s senior year.
Now, she’s a social-work major and a member of Barrett, the Honors College and the new Public Service Academy, for which 100 students were selected to receive training to become leaders in public service. She plans to become a lawyer or pursue a master’s in social work, pledging to help Arizona’s foster children.
Joining a national investment in student achievement
Arizona is among at least a dozen states that offer some version of a tuition waiver for students from foster care.
The Arizona waiver is offered to people who are or were in foster care or were adopted from foster care at age 16 or older; are 23 or younger; and have less than $10,000 in assets.They can get free tuition and fees at any of the state’s three universities or 10 community-college districts, and can transfer between them.
So far, the schools only have one way to find these foster-care alumni: Students must answer “yes” to one new question on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid that asks if they are or were in foster care. There may be hundreds more who qualify for the program but can’t be identified.
The main benefit of the tuition-waiver legislation is that “it started the conversation,” said Bridging Success coordinator Stephanie Garman, who works with the community colleges’ students.
“A lot of time students are so focused on ‘How am I going to live, where am I going to live, how am I going to get a job,’ the discussion of college isn’t even happening,” Garman said. “Now students go, ‘Oh, it’s financially reachable for me in a way I never thought about before.’ I think it’s a powerful message.”
The waiver is a small investment compared to the social and economic impact it has on the students, their families and society at large over their lifetimes, said ASU program coordinator Justine Cheung.
“My dream is in a couple of years to say ‘Look, if we as a society invest $40,000 in a young person for them to get a college education… over a lifespan, what is the financial return of that?,” Cheung said, comparing it to the cost of incarceration or welfare.
“There’s such a stigma about being a foster child’
During Carpenter’s time in the foster-care system, she didn’t tell friends about her situation for months or even years. Instead, she focused on completing the prestigious International Baccalaureate program and spending time with friends.
“I didn’t want it to define me,” she said. “There’s such a stigma about being a foster child. I think especially as a teenager there’s the, ‘Well, you’re a troubled teen,’ so I just didn’t want that placed upon me.”
Bridging Success makes it so much easier for the students to bond because they already understand each other’s complicated backgrounds, helping them get right into the serious talk, Carpenter said.
“So many people don’t understand what it’s like to be in that position and they don’t understand the draining aspect of it,” Carpenter said. “Being able to find individuals that relate to you so quickly and understand it… that was probably my favorite part (of Early Start).”
“Failing” their way to solutions
On a rainy September evening, a handful of Bridging Success students gathered in a spacious room on ASU’s Tempe campus to eat pizza, play group games and talk about their first month in college.
Most of them knew each other from Early Start, where Carpenter said they “became a family in like, two days.” Today is about getting them to blend with the other Bridging Success students. Only two showed up – like most freshmen, it’s hard to get them to come to events.
The students come from a range of cultures, socioeconomic statuses and placement experiences. Many came into foster care in their teen years, and most keep their stories private – even ASU program coordinator Cheung doesn’t know their histories.
For these seven, the game is to get across “the great divide,” which means crossing from one side of the room to the other, with all of their feet touching the entire time, without talking.
The veterans take charge, linking hands with the others and beginning to shuffle their feet across the floor. When one accidentally steps out of place, the group is sent back to the wall to start over.
It’s about the idea of “try, fail, try again,” and how everyone plays a different role in finding a solution, the facilitator says in a sit-down debriefing that takes the group from giggly to serious. How was your first month? Have you failed?
It’s kind of miserable to have no roommate and few friends, Gayle Hoefer said, to which others responded by offering to exchange numbers. Keiosha Lee, who traveled from the Polytechnic campus in Mesa, was chatty and giggly during the tasks but said she’s struggling to open up around people not in the program.
Friends become family
During Early Start, the 20 students spent long days meeting staff from student-support services, learning about life skills, and practicing using their new laptops donated by Insight, a technology company. The program is funded by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Carpenter expected it to be helpful in a practical way, and to come out with a new friend or two.
“I was probably most surprised at … how quickly we bonded and formed a sense of community,” she said, smiling. “Honestly, we became a family in like, two days.”
By the end of the week, the students were texting and sending each other Snapchats, a joyous feeling that Cheung pointed out as unprecedented.
“Many of us weren’t given the examples of what it’s like to have a healthy relationship with someone, and so she had told us that that was what a healthy relationship should feel like, is the bond we had formed there,” Carpenter said.
The moment lingers.
“It was probably one of the best experiences I had ever gone through,” she said. “We were able to… be the support system we weren’t always given for each other.”
How to help
Want to help foster youth go to college in Arizona? There are many ways to contribute.
Donate to Bridging Success
The Maricopa County Community College District accepts donations for its Foster Youth Initiatives program at mcccdf.org/foster. Donations to the ASU Bridging Success Emergency Fund can be made to the non-profit ASU Foundation by visitingasufoundation.org/bridgingsuccess.
Give a Foster Care Tax Credit donation
A year ago, the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation created Keys to Success, a program that works with 15- through 21-year-olds who will be or are “aging out” of foster care in Arizona and funnels them into their Scholarship Program and, eventually, to MCCCD or ASU. Both programs are funded largely by the Foster Care Tax Credit. Earn a dollar-for-dollar tax credit up to $400 for individuals and $800 for those filing jointly by donating at fosterfriendaz.org.
Mentor a 16- or 17-year-old
THRIVE is a one-on-one mentoring program of the Arizona’s Children Association that matches volunteer mentors to a 16 or 17-year-old who is about to “age out” of the foster care system in Arizona and has asked for a mentor. Those 21 and older can apply to become a mentor for at least two years by emailingMentor@arizonaschildren.org or visiting arizonaschildren.org.
Donate to a similar NAU program
In 2010, investor Paul Blavin and his wife, Amy, created the Blavin Scholars Fund to help Northern Arizona University undergraduate students who have experienced foster care. The program helps dozens of scholars each year with support services such as year-round housing, mentoring and financial aid. Donate to the program at blavinscholars.org.
Filed under: News Tagged: Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation., Arizona State University, AZ central, Foster care to success, Foster youth, Kaila White, The Arizona Republic