Student Luz Hernandez Discusses Challenges for Foster Children in College

SACRAMENTO BEE -- Hernandez got past her rocky start, but most foster youths who want to go to college do not. By age 26, only 8 percent of people who were in foster care as young adults have a college degree, compared to 44 percent of the total population. “Starting out, it was really hard,” Hernandez said. “I was lucky that I found a support group at college to help me through this. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to make it through all of college with not even that.” Hernandez, meanwhile, graduated with her Associate’s degree last May, and is attending San Francisco State University for a degree in Liberal Studies and a minor in Criminal Justice with plans to attend graduate school. She said she wants to become a social worker to help other foster children who are going through what she did. “I was able to do it, so everyone should be able to,” Hernandez said. “Just because we’re fosters doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to succeed. We’re able to access higher education, too.”