College for foster kids is making dreams come true
By Jennifer Cowley, president of the University of Texas at Arlington, for The Dallas Morning News
One in three young people who age out of foster care experience homelessness by age 21, according to the Texas Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing at the University of Texas. By age 24, only about half will have any form of gainful employment and fewer than 3% will earn a college degree, the National Foster Youth Initiative reports.
These outcomes are not because our youth lack ambition or ability. They reflect gaps in our systems that universities like mine can be part of addressing.
At The University of Texas at Arlington, where I serve as president, this issue plays out in the lives of students like Angel Jefferson. Before arriving at UTA, he spent some nights sleeping on a park bench and other nights on a square patch of concrete beneath some stairs in a parking garage.
Somehow, Jefferson stayed focused on his college dream. Fortunately, the state of Texas waives tuition and fees at state universities for foster youth. It’s a generous and compassionate policy. But many of these students have additional needs that we try to fulfill.
At UTA, Jefferson connected with our Emerging Mavericks program, a recent initiative aimed at supporting students who have aged out of the foster care system or experienced homelessness. Emerging Mavericks offers a vital network of resources: temporary housing, career counseling, academic and financial support and opportunities for community — anything we can think of to help students like Jefferson succeed.
We designed Emerging Mavericks, which is funded by the university and vital partners like the Communities Foundation of Texas, to address gaps in the system and offer talented, motivated kids a better chance at degrees and meaningful careers. Our team helped Jefferson secure on-campus housing during semester breaks as well as a part-time job, allowing him to focus on his studies in broadcast journalism.
There are more Angel Jeffersons out there. Take Mikayla Ortiz, a sophomore biology major, first-generation college student and force of nature. She bounced among nine different homes in California, New Mexico and Texas while growing up. UTA has helped meet some of her critical needs, such as assistance with tuition and textbooks and emergency funds when her landlord tacked on unexpected fees.
At UTA, Ortiz works a campus job helping organize major student events like concerts. She became president of our MEDLIFE chapter, a student organization that aims to improve health care access in low-income communities. Her dream is to attend medical school and become a physician, compounding the public good that programs like Emerging Mavericks provide.
Another Emerging Maverick is Hunter Hurst, a former foster youth who grew up in rural Teague, Texas, sleeping in a snake-infested trailer home and barn lofts. In December, he graduated from UTA with a double major in marketing and real estate, crediting the mentorship he received through our program as a major factor in his success. He is pursuing a career in the automotive industry.
Students like Jefferson, Ortiz and Hurst often get overlooked in our national conversations about higher education, as do the programs that help them succeed. Yet they speak directly to the value of our universities, not only as engines of economic growth and research, but as institutions capable of strengthening communities by expanding opportunities to those who don’t otherwise get a fair shot. These students and their stories remind us that higher education is a public good because, at its core, it changes lives.
I know that’s true for Jefferson, who told my team that Emerging Mavericks felt like a dream come true. The program is now serving more than 180 students at UTA. We’re fulfilling a lot of dreams.
Jennifer Cowley, Ph.D., is president of the University of Texas at Arlington.