Colleges reach out to foster youth

Excerpt

Kurt Holden enrolled at Wright State University just to have a place to live after he aged out of the foster care system.

The statistics were against him — more than one in five emancipated foster care youth will become homeless after 18, half will be unemployed at age 24 and fewer than 3 percent will earn a college degree by 25, according to the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative.

Today, Holden has an associate degree from Sinclair Community College, a bachelor’s degree from Wright State and he is pursuing a master’s degree. He also serves as a role model for other former foster youth trying to make their way through college.

“I wanted to really show them that this is possible,” the 27-year-old Holden said. “I’m an image, someone that they can maybe look up to — to go on and achieve what they thought maybe was impossible because the statistics say it nearly is.”

Read more at DaytonDailyNews.com.