Fostering Success by Laurie Hall

Guardian Scholars provides helping hand for former foster youth

Disconnected. That’s how Kalil Kamara felt when he walked onto the Sac State campus. After bouncing around 10 different foster homes, Kamara started college completely on his own. “I didn’t have anybody to look over my shoulder,” Kamara says. “I had to guide myself.”

That isolated feeling didn’t last for long— he found support in the Educational Opportunity Program and McNair Scholars. And now there’s a new campus program designed specifically for former foster youth.

Guardian Scholars offers a safety net for students who’ve been left to fend for themselves in other aspects of their lives. It provides guidance in navigating the system as well as mentoring opportunities.

“We want to be a ‘non-institution’ for them, to make the campus more welcoming and accessible,” says program director Joy Salvetti Wolfe. “There’s no line they have to stand in. We’re a one-stop shop.”

“If I would have had Guardian Scholars as a freshman, I probably would have felt more at home,” Kamara says. “It’s a secondary family if you need support. The people are very helpful, like a family would be.”

Sac State’s program differs from programs for foster youth at other universities because it targets current students as well as incoming freshmen. And that’s in part because the program was developed with input from students who were already enrolled. Students like Janay Swain.

As a former foster youth who had been involved in reform efforts, Swain has an insider’s grasp of student needs. “So it’s not what we think would be good for former foster youth, but what is,” she says.

Among their areas of concern: healthcare, housing and financial aid.

Once a foster youth turns 18, he or she is no longer a part of the child welfare system. Or any system. “When I was emancipated, all of a sudden I was responsible for rent, for a car, for car insurance,” Swain says. “I didn’t have a family who could help me out. I didn’t have a place I could stay.”

Many students were not aware they had health services available. And even if they did, they still needed someone to walk them through the process. “We told them these were things that will be taken care of for you,” Salvetti Wolfe says. “All you have to do is go to school.”

In addition to guidance, the program offers a form of family support. Participants are each paired with mentors, who come from both on and off campus. Mentors and students meet regularly, sometimes weekly, and touch base via e-mail. “The mentor becomes a surrogate friend, brother, sister. They are someone the students can talk to about anything,” she says.

That contact can be vitally important. A check-in phone call to make sure that students had somewhere to go over Winter Break revealed that a student had become homeless. “We were able to discover it because the mentor followed up,” Salvetti Wolfe says. The student went on to graduate in May.

Salvetti Wolfe says they hope to one day offer scholarships to all Guardian Scholars. An October fashion show raised $20,000 for scholarships and another is set for fall. The program also received $12,500 from the Walter S. Johnson Foundation and is seeking additional outside funding. To help, call (916) 278-3533.
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