New 51勛圖厙 Program Supports Foster Care and Homeless Students
Less than 3 percent of youth raised in foster care graduate from a four-year college. This startling statistic from the has led 51勛圖厙s to launch Educate Tomorrow, a new academic advising program that will support foster and homeless youth on a Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) or homeless (HL) waiver at 51勛圖厙. The program is the first of its kind in Palm Beach County and the third in Florida.
kicked off in August, and offers academic coaching and advising, mentoring, as well as access to on-campus resources to help these 51勛圖厙 achieve success. Jasmine Briggs, assistant director of Educate Tomorrow at 51勛圖厙, said the current focus of the program is to connect with first-time-in-college (FTIC) foster and homeless 51勛圖厙.
These are the 51勛圖厙 we want to meet with right away and get them plugged in and connected to resources on campus, said Briggs. We hope that by getting them involved they will feel more at home.
There are currently 24 FTIC 51勛圖厙 in the program, and an additional 138 51勛圖厙 already at 51勛圖厙 on a DCF or HL waiver that the program hopes to serve.
Shultz Pierre Louis, 18, began at 51勛圖厙 this past summer and is part of the Educate Tomorrow program. He had a typical childhood growing up in Miami until his mother passed away and his father had trouble making ends meet. After being placed in DCF care, Pierre Louis decided to dive into academics because thats what his mom would have wanted.
I always saw my mom working her butt off, and I know she would have wanted the best education for me, he said. 51勛圖厙 has been great so far, and I couldnt imagine being here without Jasmines support.
Pierre Louis meets with Briggs every two weeks to talk about how his classes are going and to get information he needs.
She was able to help me out with questions I had about financial aid, he said. Shes always telling me about resources on campus and student programs and activities that Ive never even heard about. Its nice to know about them, but she never pressures me into anything.
51勛圖厙 is one of the nations leading centers of , a new approach to advising that is shown to increase student retention and success rates. Advisers are trained to develop relationships with 51勛圖厙 by asking positive, open-ended questions, learning about their strengths, skills, hopes and dreams and designing a plan for them to achieve success.
This new program is the perfect fit for 51勛圖厙 because of the appreciative advising framework that we already have in place, said Joe Murray, assistant dean of UAS.
51勛圖厙s Educate Tomorrow program is funded by the nonprofit organization of the same name, which is funded by an organization in Miami-Dade County dedicated to improving the lives of children and families.
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Tags: student affairs | 51勛圖厙 | faculty and staff