Lighting the way: First Star Academy

King Manning is your average teenager. He enjoys building Lego sets, playing “Minecraft” and binging TV shows like “Breaking Bad.” Manning looks forward to attending Arizona State University as a first-year student this fall.

From a glance, you wouldn’t be able to tell that Manning is a foster child. From the outside looking in, how could you tell if anyone is going through something like that? However, for Manning and many others in the foster care system, the realities of growing up as a foster child are something they face every day.  

Foster care is a temporary living situation provided to children whose parents for various reasons, are no longer capable of caring for them. Children who grow up in foster care often don’t receive the same opportunities and resources, especially regarding education. Only 10% of foster children nationwide are expected to pursue higher education beyond high school.

Manning explains the effect of being in the foster care system, and the impact that it can have on many foster children’s ability to go to college.

“The major issue youth in foster care face regarding education is motivation,” Manning said. “In terms of having a guidance counselor or mentor to direct them towards a pathway of continued education. When you have all of these students coming from traumatic backgrounds, they don't feel they have the strength or mental capacity to go through college.”

Manning notes that oftentimes foster children come from traumatic experiences and backgrounds that have left long-term effects on mental health. Alongside any lack of circumstantial resources these children experience, they are also often dealing with very serious mental and emotional baggage that hinders their ability to focus in school.

As Manning said, what a lot of these children are missing most in this regard, is a guiding force or mentor to help them toward a path of education.

For Manning, this has been found in First Star Academy.

“First Star makes us feel like anything is possible, even when the world can be cruel,” Manning continued. “First Star is a safe haven for students like me.”

The First Star – Arizona State University Academy is a free, comprehensive four-year college access program that aims to provide foster youth the academic support, enrichment, and resources needed to enroll and succeed in college. First founded in 2011 at UCLA, First Star Academy has spread to multiple university campuses around the nation, and now serves as a beacon for foster students everywhere.

“During my sophomore year of high school, my youth coach, Benjamin Bradley, introduced me to First Star,” Manning said. “He told me about a program at ASU that focuses on providing youth in foster care with academic support, enrichment and resources needed to be ready for college.”

First Star Academy serves as a resource for high-school and college students who were in foster care. It provides many academic opportunities such as college credit for academic coursework, independent study, and a two-week residential summer experience.

Alongside being an academic resource, First Star also helps provide transportation to foster students through a partnership with HopSkipDrive. A representative from HopSkipDrive spoke to this relationship and their continued support.

“HopSkipDrive partners with First Star to arrange safe, reliable transportation for high school youth in foster care. HopSkipDrive CareDrivers provide rides to scholars during the academic year and summer so that students can attend all programmed activities.”

HopSkipDrive has arranged almost half a million rides for students in foster care to get to and from school and extracurriculars. Manning has particularly appreciated the service, as he relies on it for transportation.

“Without HopSkipDrive, I couldn't attend my First Star meetings,” said Manning. “I am grateful for the service because it allows me to get where I need to be, and the CareDrivers offer little conversations to wake me up and prepare me for the day.”

Barriers in education can’t be addressed if the students aren’t able to show up at school. Providing basic services like this helps give students in foster care the opportunity to achieve an equitable education and create a stable future for themselves. And it's much easier to support than one might think.

“HopSkipDrive's marketplace arranges care-centered transportation, allowing school districts, government agencies, and nonprofits to support individual student needs by connecting them with a supplemental transportation option from highly-vetted CareDrivers. An easy way to support HopSkipDrive is to become a CareDriver. Local community members with caregiving experience should visit HopSkipDrive to learn more.”

First Star is an amazing pool of resources for students in the foster care system. However, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Much more than that, it provides a space for community and support that foster kids can lean on.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned so far is that it’s not over until you say it’s over,” Manning said. “With most of the challenges my peers and I face as youth in foster care, I thought at some point one of these people would give up on me, but they have really been there for me and consistently pushed me to keep going when things get hard.”

“Shout-out to Dennis,” Manning continued. “He is one of the coolest youth coaches there. While all the youth coaches are cool, Dennis is a spokesman for the people!”

Youth coach Dennis Mendez continued to be a spokesman for the people, expressing his connection with First Star and the motivations he and many youth coaches carry.

“Honestly, my goal coming to ASU has been to help people, " said Mendez. “That's my goal in life, and to be a part of programs such as First Star and TRIO Upward Bound is a great first step in achieving my goals in life. Seeing my students grow from when I first meet them to when they achieve their own forms of success, I feel like I'm doing the right path for myself.”

Mendez said he first got in contact with First Star after working with Bridging Success, another organization supporting foster students at ASU, when his peer mentor and fellow youth coach, Sam Perez, suggested he apply.

“I think that my goals align with First Star, as I'm able to provide help to students directly and honestly through First Star,” Mendez continued. “I am able to find my students' needs and address them as an individual instead of a set. If my students need help on a particular task and I help them succeed, I feel great.”

Working with these goals in mind Mendez and the many youth coaches of First Star have worked hard to create an environment where the foster children feel seen and supported. Mendez reflects on not only how he has tried to impact the foster students, but how they have impacted him as well.

“To see students go from awkwardly being silent as they may or may not want to participate in the first few days of their enrollment, to being best friends with another student and those students being near inseparable, is honestly the best feeling,” Mendez explained. “When King Manning became friends with another student named Josh it was so great to watch, as the two just instantly became friends and they continued to help each other succeed in life and in school.”

“It makes me feel like my time here is worth as much as I believe it is.”

First Star is expansive, both in its opportunities and in its approach to supporting its students. When written out, its list of benefits can seem like a lot. However, many of them are things that students outside the foster care system don’t have to worry about.

A ride to school, opportunities for extracurriculars, basic necessities, a shoulder to lean on, etc. These things can be easily taken for granted, and it's hard to see the impact they can have on one's education until they’re all gone.

In King Manning’s case, it was never about what he didn’t have, he just needed a little support and motivation to get where he wanted. And he found that under the guiding light of the First Star.