The USC School of Social Work and United Friends of the Children hosted more than 500 Los Angeles foster youth in October for an event designed to encourage them to go to college.

The 13th annual College Within Reach day offered middle and high school-aged students living in foster care information about higher education, with the goal of showing them college is an option and providing them the necessary tools to begin college planning.

United Friends of the Children is a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the premise that foster youth deserve a successful adulthood. Through housing and education programs, foster youth are provided with the opportunity to graduate from high school, attend and graduate from college, get a job, find housing and have a support system that moves them gradually toward independence.

The college preparatory event featured multiple workshops about college admissions, SAT preparation, campus life and financial aid, as well as a college resource fair with more than 30 colleges and agencies represented.

“Most of what your average person learns about college comes from their family, but children in foster care don’t have that stability because they might have gone through many foster placements and shifted from school to school,” said Wendy Smith, clinical associate professor and associate dean of faculty development, who also serves as chair of UFC’s committee on transitional living programs. “The event also helps caregivers think this could be a possibility for their children. For everyone involved, it’s a new source of information that they didn’t have before.”

The School of Social Work has hosted the event for the past three years and is a perfect fit with College Within Reach because of the school’s community interests, Smith said.

“The School of Social Work plays a crucial role because we are the school that concerns ourselves with people who are disenfranchised and face inequalities,” Smith said. “Being involved matches our mission as social workers, and we are uniquely equipped to understand the challenges that foster youth face.”

The school also supports alumni of the foster care system through two scholarships established by Smith and her husband Barry Meyer. The Wendy and Barry Meyer Foster Care Alumni Scholarship aids full-time students who were previously in foster care, and the Wendy Smith Meyer and Barry Meyer UFC to USC Scholarship supports students who were involved in a United Friends of the Children transitional living, college sponsorship or college readiness program. 

“When we ask students what university they would like to attend, a large number of them say USC,” said Linda Ramos, UFC education program director. “USC has a reputation as an incredible academic institution but also a reputation for its commitment to serving the Los Angeles community.”

Smith said more than 80 percent of foster youth say they are more likely to go to college after attending this event, but the experience of being at USC for a day is also an important factor.

“Being on a college campus and feeling themselves there gives the foster children a sense of reality about it,” Smith said. “United Friends of the Children and the School and Social Work provide an environment that treats foster children like people who should go to college, and they start to see themselves in that way.”