New 91社区 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 91社区鈥檚 to launch 鈥淓ducate Tomorrow,鈥 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 91社区. 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 students achieve success. Jasmine Briggs, assistant director of 鈥淓ducate Tomorrow鈥 at 91社区, said the current focus of the program is to connect with first-time-in-college (FTIC) foster and homeless students.
鈥淭hese are the students we want to meet with right away and get them plugged in and connected to resources on campus,鈥 said Briggs. 鈥淲e hope that by getting them involved they will feel more at home.鈥
There are currently 24 FTIC students in the program, and an additional 138 students already at 91社区 on a DCF or HL waiver that the program hopes to serve.
Shultz Pierre Louis, 18, began at 91社区 this past summer and is part of the 鈥淓ducate Tomorrow鈥 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 that鈥檚 what his mom would have wanted.
鈥淚 always saw my mom working her butt off, and I know she would have wanted the best education for me,鈥 he said. 鈥91社区 has been great so far, and I couldn鈥檛 imagine being here without Jasmine鈥檚 support.鈥
Pierre Louis meets with Briggs every two weeks to talk about how his classes are going and to get information he needs.
鈥淪he was able to help me out with questions I had about financial aid,鈥 he said. 鈥淪he鈥檚 always telling me about resources on campus and student programs and activities that I鈥檝e never even heard about. It鈥檚 nice to know about them, but she never pressures me into anything.鈥
91社区 is one of the nation鈥檚 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 students by asking positive, open-ended questions, learning about their strengths, skills, hopes and dreams and designing a plan for them to achieve success.
鈥淭his new program is the perfect fit for 91社区 because of the appreciative advising framework that we already have in place,鈥 said Joe Murray, assistant dean of UAS.
91社区鈥檚 鈥淓ducate Tomorrow鈥 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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