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Sam Dunaway | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n Teal blue ribbons adorn the trees around Western\u2019s campus, bringing to light a community that is often overlooked: foster students. The WOU Fostering Success initiative is hosting Foster Care Awareness Month throughout May to help inform the campus community about foster students and provide support for individuals that have been a part of the foster care system.<\/span><\/p>\n Senior Sean Stephen is a foster youth peer mentor with WOU Fostering Success. With a personal history in the foster care system, Stephen strives to reach out to prospective Western foster students and ensure that current students have the resources they need to be successful. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cComing from a foster care system into college is a pretty big transition for most students, and for foster care students it\u2019s a really big transition because a lot of foster care children don\u2019t have the support that they need,\u201d explained Stephen. \u201cThat\u2019s one area that I want to be there for them where they have, if they need it, support and advocate to what they need to help them be successful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The initiative was established in 2015 by Dr. Emily Plec, a professor of communication studies. She was impacted by students at Western that had experienced the foster care system and felt that there was more she could do to support them. Teaming up with a representative from Polk Youth Services and the previously established Wolves Fostering Hope club, Plec introduced one of the first initiatives to provide resources for foster students on campus, help them navigate financial aid and give general support that they may not get from other people in their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe tend to assume that everybody\u2019s got a family,\u201d Plec acknowledged, whether that\u2019s someone to provide emotional support, financial stability or just a place to stay during holidays. \u201cThere was a group of students that that just wasn\u2019t the case for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Help with advising, learning about federal financial aid benefits and even putting together finals week survival kits can enhance a foster student\u2019s life at Western. Plec commented that the initiative is \u201cjust trying to do the things that families do that are the intangible parts of just getting you through.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n WOU Fostering Success planned several events during May for Foster Care Awareness Month including a socks and shoes drive for foster youth in the community, educational tabling and a duffle bag and suitcase collection, as part of the No More Trash Bags movement. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the foster care system, usually when you\u2019re being transitioned from home to home, all you have is a black trash bag full of your stuff,\u201d Stephen explained. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to give foster kids backpacks and luggage and suitcases and duffle bags so they don\u2019t have to be carrying around a black trash bag because that\u2019s really dehumanizing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One of the most recent accomplishments of the initiative is creating a Preview Day focused on high school foster youth in Oregon. The event on May 25 is open to all foster youth interested in attending Western and includes a campus tour, assistance from the Student Success and Advising Office on transfer articulations and a luncheon featuring a panel of foster students sharing their experiences at Western. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a whole day to meet students who are making the dream of college happen,\u201d Plec expressed. And, for the first time ever, graduating foster students will be presented with graduation honor cords during the luncheon. Stephen, who is involved in the Wolves Fostering Success club that made this possible, believes this is a big achievement for foster students. <\/span><\/p>\n Stephen explained the difficulties that he faced coming to Western as a transfer student from the foster care system and not knowing anyone in the school. He encourages everyone to reach out to people that may need a hand.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you see somebody and you know that they might be struggling, just reach out and say \u2018hey, how are you?\u2019\u201d Stephen suggested. \u201cDon\u2019t let somebody slip into the cracks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To learn more about the WOU Fostering Success initiative and Foster Care Awareness Month, visit wou.edu\/foster.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sam Dunaway | News Editor Teal blue ribbons adorn the trees around Western\u2019s campus, bringing to light a community that is often overlooked: foster students. The WOU Fostering Success initiative is hosting Foster Care Awareness Month throughout May to help inform the campus community about foster students and provide support for individuals that have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":7817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}