****Raffle completed*****
Our scholarship fund was established to help jump start the next chapter for our young people pursuing any form of post secondary education. Here are the cold hard facts when it comes to foster youth and college…..let these sink in….
Only 50% of foster youth graduate high school or obtain a GED.
Only 3% will obtain a 2 or 4 year degree.
But what if we told you that OVER 70% of foster youth want to continue their education? That leaves a very large gap between the reality and the desire. This scholarship was created to address the gap and eliminate specific barriers foster youth face during this journey.
Your help is paramount in closing the gap and helping CHOICES youth obtain their degree or training certificate/license. Our kids often struggle with the need to work full time to pay rent and other bills and attend school full time. In fact, this is the number one reason kids leave school.
You can be a champion for their success by contributing to our scholarship fund! Last year we awarded $6,000 in scholarships to help eliminate the largest barriers of the following:
- Tuition and books
- Rent and housing expenses
- Transportation costs/maintenance and support
- Childcare Expenses
- Computer and other general school supplies
Donate today and help us raise an additional $1,000 to distribute to our youth this upcoming school year! Whether you can give $30 or $300 this fund makes a huge impact on the lives of our foster and independent living youth. Donate easily online by clicking here.
Win Phantom of the Opera Tickets: When we have reached $500 we will draw for someone to win 2 tickets to The Phantom of the Opera performance at The Schuster Center. The tickets are for the 8pm showing on April 21 and are orchestra section seats. This drawing will be held April 18th. Every $10 someone donates we will put their name in for the drawing.
Current Success of the Recipients: Kira who is in our independent living program was a recipient of the scholarship this past year. She is close to completing her first year at Miami University Hamilton as a double major in Forensics and Anthropology. The scholarship money has specifically helped with purchasing her books each semester. She also plans to utilize funds to transfer to the University of Central Florida for her second year. Kira has been accepted to the Honors Society and recently visited the United Nations in NYC. While there she was one of 600 students internationally allowed to visit and submit work about current concerns at home and abroad. Kira has used her first year to explore her career options in the future. Initially she had the desire to work with genocide victims but has since changed her plans to help identify missing persons in the US. As she feels like that will make a bigger impact for families looking for information and closure.
With your support we hope that one day we can help every youth in some capacity who is continuing their education. We need you to do this!
Questions? Contact Ashley Pester at apester@choicesfostercare.com or 937-264-0084 ext. 122. Checks can be made payable to CHOICES, Inc. and mailed to our office at 1785 Big Hill Rd. Dayton, OH 45439
