Higher Education for Washington's Collective Children

With only 2-3 percent of former foster youth ever graduating from a four year college, Washington State has shown an impressive record of success ensuring those youth have a shot at post-secondary education.

Former Foster youth Leon Lewis, 22, is sitting next to his mentor Joan Miller, who, after having worked for decades as a social worker with the Children’s Administration, stays involved in foster care by volunteering as a mentor through Treehouse.

After graduating from high school and having gone through Treehouse’s “Coaching to College Program,” Leon decided to make a go of higher education at South Seattle Community College. But he was 18 and out of the foster care system. He had no money, no parents and no state to help him buy books, rent a place to stay or pay for bus fare to and from campus.

So he started working at a video game store. Lewis was a hard and efficient worker. The boss noticed, and soon the then 19-year-old was quickly exceeding a 40-hour workweek, leaving little time to study. His grades slipped. He couldn't maintain the grueling schedule. 

But then he and Miller heard about the Fostering Scholar’s Program being offered at Seattle University, which provides former foster youth a full ride to the otherwise expensive private university. In what Miller describes as a "flurry of activity," Lewis and her worked tirelessly to get the school and scholarship applications in.

But it was worth it. Today, he is one of 24 students who have received scholarships, and is now simply another face on the college campus, “I do better than some of my classmates and some of them do better than me,” he says with a smile.