Incoming freshman who were raised in foster care will have the opportunity to participate in a week-long orientation program next August that aims to help the students adjust to university life.
The Bridging Success Early Start program will provide 50 former foster care students an opportunity to participate in activities that Jennifer Geiger, the program’s coordinator, said will promote success while they attend school.
“We’d really like to make sure these students feel more prepared –– not just in academic aspects, but social aspects as well.” Geiger said. “We want them to know where to go for help or support.”
Geiger said the students will not only get to know their advisers and campus services, but students will also go to a Diamondbacks game and the Phoenix Art Museum with the rest of the group.
“Another part of it is really getting these students to know each other,” Geiger said. “They’ll have this social component where they’re going to get to know other students so that it’s not this crazy, overwhelming (transition).”
Geiger said the program is the beginning of a university-wide initiative that helps former foster care youth adjust to college life.
“This is kind of the bare introduction to the larger program that we’ll be working on to make sure that (former foster care students) feel connected when they get started and after they’re here,” Geiger said.
The university's Women & Philanthropy program offered a grant that will fund the program's first year.
Michele Rebeor, Women & Philanthropy’s leader, said the early-start program received funding because the foundation’s members wanted to support this demographic’s transition to college.
“This is a unique group of students that deserve a chance to further their education,” Rebeor said. “They want it, they have a unique set of needs and this (grant) really offers a hand out and a hand up.”
Incoming social work freshman Breanna Carpenter said she looks forward to participating in the program.
“It’s nice to find people that can relate to you and know where you come from,” Carpenter said. “It lets you know you’re not alone because being in foster care isn’t easy and to have that extra support while branching out from high school makes it (easier).”
According to Children’s Action Alliance, an action and advocacy group that supports Arizona children, only six percent of students at universities are from foster care.
Social work graduate student Desaray Klimenko, a former foster care youth and board member of the early start program, said she wanted to help ASU raise this percentage by offering support and resources to incoming foster care students.
“I would like these students to know that they’re not alone and that they’re supported through our community and this program,” Klimenko said. “I would really like to see more foster care kids continuing their education because…they’re just as capable and supported as (anyone else).”
“This program is one-of-a-kind to the ASU community,” Klimenko said. “There has never been a program directly geared towards us … I think it really shows that ASU is trying to make a difference in our communities here in Arizona and support for education across all walks of life.”
Reach the reporter at aplante@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @aimeenplante
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