Trying to make the road to college easier for foster kids

Deborah Sims used to dread college breaks when she was a student.

Her friends had homes to go to, family eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Sims didn't. She often spent vacation alone in a hotel room.

Fending for herself was nothing new. She and her older sister, Sonja, were products of the foster care system, although they were adopted as adolescents.

After graduating from high school, Sims had aged out of the foster care system, but she didn't want to postpone her dreams of going to college.

So, she worked three jobs and began putting herself through, on her own. She had no family support system to offer help or advice along the way, nor any money to pay her tuition.

All she had was a determination to go to college. But the 35-year-old Sims, who has a doctorate in psychology, hopes to use her unique experience to help other foster youth who are also transitioning to college.

"Kids aging out of foster care really need help in accessing higher education," said Sims, a Virginia Beach resident. It's the reason she founded Hopes for Higher Education, a nonprofit organization aimed at improving educational access for this population.

"I didn't have any idea how to access financial aid," she said. "I just worked three jobs and paid for it that way, but I was almost at the point of dropping out."

Since 2001, the year her nonprofit was started, the national organization has helped thousands of foster youth access higher education, she said. Foster parents and their children have found guidance on financial resources and Sims has mentored countless students about their career goals.

Her dedication to serving these foster care alumni was recently recognized. In November, Sims was named one of 10 national recipients for the Maybelline New York Beauty of Education Award. She will receive a $10,000 grant to support her organization, which she will use to start a scholarship for college-bound foster youth.

"Deborah's story is very compelling and she very quickly rose to the top in our selection process," said Lisa Carvalho, a spokesperson for Maybelline New York, who was involved in the selection process.

"Not only does Deborah's organization, Hopes for Higher Education, help children maxing out of the foster care system, but as a former foster child herself, Deborah knows better than anyone what these young people are going through."

In addition to spending the past eight years counseling foster parents and children who are seeking higher education, and providing training to colleges to help these students succeed, Sims has also spent the past five years helping pass legislation to support the academic pursuits of youth in foster care.

"We just had two major pieces of legislation passed this year," Sims said, referring to the Higher Education Opportunity Act and the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act, now includes foster care youth, in addition to low-income and first-generation college students who are eligible to receive tutoring and other program development services at about 2,800 universities.

Sims said the other legislation, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, will allow foster parents to financially provide for foster care youth by extending federal support to age 21, instead of 18. The only criteria are that foster youth must be in school, working or disabled, to qualify.

"The aim is to lead them to be self-sufficient," Sims said. "These didn't come overnight. We've been focused on improving the outcomes for years. It's become a focus of some of the larger organizations dealing with these populations."

Although Sims is excited about all the recent improvements, she said the number of foster care youth that makes it to college, is still too low.

"The most recent data said only 8 to 10 percent goes on to college, and only 1 percent has completed," Sims said. "It's not the educational part, it's the support system that you really don't have, that's the reason why."

Issues such as finding housing, paying for health care, and getting plugged into a support system, are a few roadblocks Sims remembers struggling with as a college student, that she hopes to help other students avoid.

"I know how these kids feel," she said. "I don't want any child to have to experience what I experienced. Children in foster care are my passion and teaching them to be resilient is my life."

LEARN MORE: For more information on Deborah Sims, or her nonprofit organization, visit www.hopesforhighereducation.com.

Rita Frankenberry, 222-5108,

rita.frankenberry@pilotonline.com