When it is time to pack up and leave the dorms for the holidays and summer vacation, for some students, leaving campus is not a viable option.
However, with the creation of the Bruin Guardian Scholars program at UCLA, former foster youth finally received the assistance needed to remain on campus at times when most students head home.
Founded in 2008, Bruin Guardian Scholars was the result of California State Assembly mandates to create programs to support former foster youth, said Paolo Velasco, the program coordinator.
Before then, the university had no idea of the foster student population and therefore could not reach out to it.
Once the UCs allowed college applicants to identify themselves as foster youth during the 2008 application period, the university could identify the students, reach out and connect with them, Velasco said.
He added that these newly identified students soon started their own former foster youth organization, expressed their challenges and concerns to the chancellor and ultimately laid the groundwork necessary for the start of the program.
While various academic and financial concerns spurred the creation of the program, housing was a primary issue.
“We don’t run a program that requires an application to get assisted,” Velasco said.
“We have an open-door policy that allows the former foster youth to come as they please and get the help they need,” he added.
When it comes to housing the students, UCLA Housing Services works very closely with the Bruin Guardian Scholars on a case-by-case basis in order to review financial aid and to organize a payment agreement, said Hilary Crocker, manager of the housing assignment office.
“Housing Services will reach out to those identified as Guardian Scholars to let them know that interim housing is available during the academic year,” said Crocker, who added that Housing will work with both the student and the program office to assist students in making their housing payment, even if they decide to live in the university apartments.
“When everyone came back from the Thanksgiving holiday and started gearing up for finals, I was stressing over where I was going to stay,” said Renee Tate, a third-year sociology student and former foster youth. “I had no source of income.”
After getting in touch with the Office of Residential Life, Tate was got a job with Housing that allowed her to stay on campus, and was soon introduced to the newly started Bruin Guardian Scholars program, she said.
Since then, Tate ““ along with about 70 other former foster students ““ has been helped by the program, which continues to grow and gain funding, Velasco said.
Yet the aid that former foster youth are able to receive at UCLA extends well beyond the university, and can be found among the rest of the UC system as well.
Many college campuses have organizations similar to Bruin Guardian Scholars, which work in the same way as UCLA’s to provide housing and other services to foster students.
Currently, four of the 10 UC campuses ““ UCLA, UC Davis, UC Riverside and UC San Diego ““ have such organizations, according to an e-mail from Leslie Sepuka, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President.
The law AB 1393, which was recently passed, encourages UCs to provide priority housing to students from foster care, which includes providing housing during vacations, said Jerlena Griffin-Desta, director of student services for student affairs for UCOP.
For universities that do not already offer year-round housing for students, however, this poses a challenge because it is both difficult and unsafe to keep housing open for only a small number of people, Griffin-Desta said.
These universities work to arrange housing in nearby areas with family, faculty or alumni, she said, for the times when campus housing is closed.
“Not every campus has on-campus housing open during break, but all campuses work to find housing,” said Kerry Franzetta, the policy and program analyst for student affairs of UCOP.