May 2019 Foster Care Special Edition

ENVISION EQUITY MAY 2019
circumstances of my living situation. I still managed to pass my college courses that semester
with a 3.0 average and the representatives for OMC were very understanding of my situation.
For my last semester of my senior year, I opted to go through the plato co-op program. I
turned 18 at the beginning of this semester which meant I had aged out of foster care, and had
to live on my own and provide my own housing. This allowed me to have the freedom I needed
to work in order to afford my bills. In this program I could finish the last credit of Biology that I
needed in order to graduate online while working at my job. This meant I did not have to show
up to campus, which was beneficial to me since I did not have a car nor a license. All I needed
was access to internet. Over my winter break, I finished my online school work at a local public
library and I spent the last part of my semester working to afford my own apartment.
During the time I experienced foster care, I missed out on many opportunities that normal
teenagers got to have. I wasn’t able to join clubs and teams that required funding, which hurt
some of my scholarship chances for college. I was not able to go to social events with friends
whenever I liked, and I was unable to obtain my license. Transitioning into foster care, and
being put into a home where I had to live with and trust people that I didn’t know with my
well-being was nerve wracking. Then transitioning into an independent living program where I
learned to support myself while still in high school was challenging. I had no control over
things that happened in my life. It seemed like all of these experiences defined me as lessthan.
One of the things I always had pride in, and that I knew was under my control, and reflected on
me as a person was my school. I always took pride in doing well. I graduated high school with a
3.8 accumulative GPA. Many foster youth do not finish high school, and do not go on to college.
After high school, I went on to college at BCTC in Lexington where I wanted to major in Political
Science and go to law school.
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