NYC's College Choice allows foster care students to attend college for free
NEW YORK -- Marowa walks through the campus of Brooklyn College, reflecting on the path that brought her to this day.
"This isn't something I imagined even a few years ago so this is definitely a dream to be able to come this far," the 24-year-old said.
The English literature major, who came here as a child with her family from Bangladesh, found herself in the foster care system at 16 years old. When it was time to think about college, she was lost.
"I was a junior in high school and then I ended up homeless, and after I entered the system, I had to change my high schools a few times because I was constantly changing homes. So it was really rough," she said.
Now, she is scheduled to walk across the stage with her bachelor's and a job lined up at a Bronx high school through Teach For America. She says it's because of the opportunities allowed her by the city's College Choice program, a recently-expanded initiative from the Administration for Children's Services, which caters to students going from foster care to college.
The program fully covers the cost of tuition at any university across the country. It also provides coaching and tutoring, housing, and a stipend that extends for six months after graduation.
ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser said the past three years saw around 200 students enrolled in the program annually, but the popularity of the program caused a jump to more than 300 this year.
"That's a 50% increase and it just shows to us that when we build the pathway for young people that's at their choice, they thrive," he said.
All this, as ACS says the number of children in foster care is down to a historic low, less than 7,000, compared to 13,000 a decade ago.
"In the past, we saw young people drop out of school in foster care, not because they weren't capable or they weren't doing well academically, but because of social issues and financial issues. And we're taking the uncertainty out of that and letting them really focus on their education," Dannhauser explained.
For young people like Marowa, that's progress. Still, one day she hopes to be a foster parent, herself, to use her experience to improve the quality of life for these children.
"When a lot of people think of foster care youths, they think that we are troubled or we have a lot of issues. I think that's a huge misconception," she said. "We have ambitions and dreams just like everyone else."
College Choice is an expansion of previous city programs that provides educational opportunities for students in foster care, making New York City the first in the nation to gave a program of this scale.
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