Aging Out of Foster Care: The Guardian Scholars Program at Sacramento State

“The Guardian Scholars Program at Sacramento State is one of hundreds around the country designed to help students who are former foster youth stay enrolled, thrive academically and graduate with plans to build stable careers. It offers a window into policies that work — from scholarships to housing help to social connections for emotional support — at a time when the federal government has begun focusing renewed attention on these students and holding out the promise of more investment in them.

Former foster youth — a term that includes anyone who has spent time in the child welfare system, typically due to abuse or neglect — have some of the worst college graduation rates of any demographic group. An estimated 8 to 11 percent of former foster youth go on to earn any college degree, compared to 49 percent of adults overall, according to one analysis. They also typically have lower rates of employment and lower earnings than their peers with similar levels of education.

Experts attribute the students’ struggles in higher education to instability and trauma they experienced growing up, inadequate academic preparedness and a lack of social and emotional support systems in college.

It makes a big difference when students have “somebody on campus that really understands the unique and complex needs of former foster youth, that’s helping former foster youth build community with each other and find resources on and off campus,” said Rebecca Louve Yao, CEO of the National Foster Youth Institute, a nonprofit that aims to improve the child welfare system and empower foster youth. “That’s where the Guardian Scholars programs really work.”

The first Guardian Scholars Program began in 1998 at California State University, Fullerton, with funding from philanthropy. The model has since spread to all the California State and University of California campuses, and colleges around the country have adopted similar programs. And in 1999, the federal government established the Chafee Foster Care Program to help youth aging out of foster care get access to grants for college and other postsecondary training.

Earlier this year, lawmakers introduced a bill to increase the Chafee program’s education and training vouchers from $5,000 to $12,000 per year, with some restrictions. Another bill, introduced last fall, proposed establishing a fund of $50 million annually to expand career training and apprenticeship opportunities for former foster youth, as well as a study of the child welfare system and the resources that are currently available.

Also last fall, President Trump issued an executive order calling for, among other things, the creation of an online platform where young people formerly in foster care can find resources related to their education, job training, housing, health care and other basic needs.

Students in the Sacramento State program — which was created in 2006 and is funded by a combination of private and public dollars — get special scholarships, help paying for textbooks and priority registration for campus housing and courses, said Linda Ram, the program’s former director. The Guardian Scholars office provides advising and holds events like the financial aid workshop (students are required to attend two advising sessions and two events every semester). For students who need quick cash for immediate needs, like replacing a broken laptop or traveling to see an ill relative, Guardian Scholars also offers emergency grants.

At Sac State, the program is growing — from 52 students in fall 2021 to 248 students in fall 2025. That’s largely because of a boost in state funding for the programs at California State schools in 2022, Ram said, which also allowed her to more than double her office’s staff from two to five. Ram recently left Sac State for a job at a local nonprofit.

Last fall, the university launched a new program that guarantees admission to former foster youth as long as they graduated from high school with a GPA of 2.5 or higher and completed a series of courses across seven subjects known as the A-G requirements.

Still, the path to graduation isn’t easy: Data from the university shows that of the 11 students who entered the Guardian Scholars Program as freshman in 2019, one graduated within four years and five graduated within six years. Eight of the 12 former foster youth community college transfer students who enrolled in 2021 graduated in four years, and eight of the 25 who enrolled in 2023 graduated in two years.

Sac State President J. Luke Wood said he’s proud of the growth of the program, but he wants to see far higher graduation rates. “We’re nowhere near where I want to be,” he said. “I’m happy for where we’re at, while being incredibly dissatisfied by where we’re at, too.”

Ram said that despite the resources that the program provides, these students still face significant challenges. Although the program offers priority housing registration, many students will have to work one or two jobs to pay for their living expenses, which might slow them down or cause them to stop out, she said.

Ram said she tried to make the program’s office an on-campus home for her students. She stocked the cabinets with healthy snacks and pasted inspirational quotes around the office’s main space. She often had quiet, calming music playing.

And sometimes now, when the office door is open, it’s possible to hear someone (often President Wood) playing a donated piano in the building’s foyer. His office is just one floor above the Guardian Scholars Program — and that’s not by coincidence.

Wood, who joined the university in 2023, grew up in foster care after his mother relinquished him and his twin brother. Eventually adopted by a foster family, Wood enrolled at Sacramento State after high school. There was no Guardian Scholars-type program then, but he found mentors on campus, and went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Shortly after becoming the university’s president, Wood moved the Guardian Scholars from a small office across the campus into its big, bright space on the first floor of the administration building. Now, the students stop to chat with him while he’s playing the piano, or join him to sing, sometimes bringing out the blue acoustic guitar that lives in the Guardian Scholars office. Jarred Holloway, a 26-year-old business major, who taught himself to play classical guitar in the eight years since he aged out of care, said he’s learned some Beatles songs because Wood likes them.

Holloway went into the foster care system when he was 13, bouncing between foster families and group homes. During that time, Holloway said he attended three different high schools. He had few adults to encourage him to prioritize education, let alone college.

“It felt like sometimes you’re just looked at like ‘Oh this person is not really going to go anywhere,’ ” he said.

But eventually, with the support of people he met through his church, he was able to enroll at Cosumnes River College, a two-year college in Sacramento. There he joined a group for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds and another group for former foster youth, where he learned about financial aid opportunities and other supports for higher education. When he transferred to Sacramento State, he immediately got involved with Guardian Scholars. Over time, he said, he began to feel like he had more control over his education.

Last summer, he marked a milestone when he landed his first internship, at a local credit union. “I was like, ‘Finally, I’ve put in so much work and effort and here I am,’ ” he said.

The path to college was complicated for many of the Guardian Scholars students, and some of them continue to struggle with basic needs insecurity once they’re enrolled. Before arriving at Sac State, Christiano Quinones, a 28-year-old junior, had dropped out of high school, aged out of foster care and worked as a pastry chef in Southern California. A co-worker mentioned a program offering two years of free tuition toward an associate degree for first-time college students, piquing his interest.

He earned his GED, received an associate degree from Fullerton College, a community college in Southern California, and then transferred to Sacramento State.

He had housing lined up, but it fell through, and last fall he and his partner slept in their car when they were broke or in hotels when they’d saved enough money between their financial aid refunds and jobs. Over winter break, Quinones worked with Ram and Bryan, the program coordinator, to get into a dorm for the spring semester. He’s had to take out student loans to pay for it.”
Former foster youth face very low odds of college or workforce success. Some people are trying to change that

[Hechinger Report.org 6/1/6 by Olivia Sanchez]

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