Livingstone College Center for Aging Out
Livingstone College Center for Aging Out
A joint initiative of Livingstone College and Home4Me to provide teens aging out of foster care a chance at a college education
Do you know a teenager, or are you a teenager, who is emancipating from the foster care system and is interested in going to college? If so
Contact Mr. Anthony Brooks
Vice president of Enrollment Management
Phone - 704-216-6005 or 704-216-6001
Email - abrooks@livingstone.edu
Livingstone College and Home4Me partner to help aging out foster care teens with college education
May is Foster Care Awareness Month, an observance that is near and dear to the heart of Livingstone College’s 13th president.
Livingstone College’s 13th President, Dr. Anthony J. Davis, is a survivor of the foster care system, having emancipated himself at the age of 17, joining the United States Air Force.
He was born to a teenage mother, who was only 14 years old. The day he was born, his grandmother – their intended caregiver – died. He and his mother both became wards of the state of Connecticut.
His foster care mother was reluctant to take in another child, but she agreed to keep him for a weekend. As divine intervention would have it, she said God instructed her to keep the child. She raised Davis to be an intellectual rather than cultivate his athleticism, though he jokes that he still has a mean jump shot.
Davis stayed in foster care until 90 days prior to aging out. At the age of 24, he was reunited with his biological mother, who passed away last year.
Davis is an anomaly as it is a statistical reality that less than 1 percent of children in foster care graduate from college and even less – if any other – becomes president of a higher education institution.
He has defied the odds and wants to reach back to address the foster care crisis in America under his administration at Livingstone College.
On Monday, May 1, the first day of Foster Care Awareness Month, Davis signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Home4Me, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to be a voice for teens in foster care providing Hope, Opportunities, Mentoring and Education (HOME). Donna Reed is founder and executive director.
“We believe every teen aging out of foster care should have the option to attend the educational training and/or the college of their choice and their tuition should be paid,” reads the Home4Me website. “Statistics say that 70% of teens in foster care desire to attend college yet less than 3% graduate due to lack of support, guidance, finances and housing.”
