Inspired by their own social workers, former foster youth alumnae are following in their footsteps

When you are a former foster youth, you have spent most of your childhood trying to beat the odds stacked against you. Those who are lucky enough to find the support of caring adults can be inspired to pay that forward to the next generation. Such is the experience of two alumnae of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work classmates and members of the Trojan Guardian Scholars, whose childhood trajectories followed a similar path and led to their career choice working with children. 

MSW ’24 graduates Ashley Dixon and Serena Mangino were both raised in kinship care, a form of foster care where a relative takes on guardianship rather than the child being placed with a stranger or in a group home. Dixon and Mangino not only fought the odds to attain their undergraduate education — a goal that only 3-4% of former foster youth ever achieve — but both were so inspired by the caring support received by the social workers of their youth that they chose to follow in their footsteps. Now, they are on a career path to use their lived experiences to make the same profound impact on a new generation of children struggling with family trauma. 

Turning hardship into motivation

Dixon and her siblings were raised by their grandmother, who was granted custody of the children due to their mother’s substance use. Although they only had a social worker for a brief period when Dixon was around five to seven years old, the experience left a deep impression she has never forgotten. 

“Even though I had a social worker for only probably two years, it was still so impactful for me,” Dixon said. “Just having that support when I felt like I didn't have anybody, and I couldn't talk about it because in the families we grew up in, we didn’t talk about our feelings or mental health, we kept it in. Having that one person that I was able to pour it all out to made a difference. It demonstrated for me how much a person could impact your life in so little time.”

Conversely, Mangino’s experience with her social worker did not come until high school. She, too, lived in the custody of her grandmother all her life, with her mother sometimes present prior to her death when Mangino was a freshman. Mangino navigated high school and kinship care with the help of her social worker, who encouraged her to apply to college and was a supportive sounding board when she struggled with the effects of ongoing trauma. 

“Initially, I wanted nothing to do with the school social worker, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't want to meet with her again,” Mangino said. “That turned into meeting with her every week for the entirety of my high school career. She was there when my mother passed, when I had to cut ties with my father, and every other possible thing that I went through in four years. She was tough when I needed it and she knew how to push me in just the right ways to make the most of opportunities. I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for her.”

When Mangino contacted her former social worker to share that she was pursuing her MSW, her social worker was not surprised. When Mangino graduated from high school, she told the social worker she “wanted to be just like her.” 

Both Dixon and Mangino are focusing their careers on social work in educational settings. Mangino has come full circle, working with adolescents and helping them to navigate their different circumstances. It might be identifying resources to take a step further toward their goals, or just being someone who really listens to them. Calling on her own lived experience, she is sensitive about intentionally referring to students’ “caretakers” rather than “parents” when it is not confirmed, knowing how hard it was to be the kid who was different. 

“I always say that unfavorable things happened, and I would have changed them if I could, but I also don't think I'd be where I am without the things that have happened in my life,” Mangino said.

Dixon says the education and training she received in the MSW program at USC provided her with amazing opportunities to build a skillset for her career. In addition to practicum placements that gave her hands-on experience working with elementary and high school students, she earned a graduate certificate in  Trauma-Informed Practice in Educational Settings and became certified in two school-based interventions for students who experience stressful and traumatic life events — Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) and Bounce Back.

Dixon emphasizes that being in foster or kinship care does not have to define a young person. They are not different students, they just have different circumstances.

Dixon now has two young daughters who are around the age she was when a social worker changed her life. The experience of being a parent has been deeply influential for her in examining how she can help those who do not have the advantages her own children do. 

“Being in the system and my journey made me the person that I am today,” Dixon said. “It made me a better parent and my children make me feel able to cross all these obstacles. Just because you've been through rough times does not mean your kids have to as well.” 

A USC family for those without one

Both Dixon and Mangino felt they found a family who understood them in the Trojan Guardian Scholars (TGS) program, which is committed to supporting current and former foster youth who attend USC and building new pathways for college-bound students exiting the foster care system. TGS provides comprehensive support services to any current or former foster youth who is a student at USC. According to the students in TGS, the most important service it provides is a place where they feel welcomed and understood.

The TGS program at USC was co-founded in 2013 by Wendy Smith, retired clinical associate professor and associate dean of faculty development at USC Social Work. Under the direction of Sara Jimenez McSweyn, senior lecturer, the program is housed at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and  includes the Trojan Guardian Scholars Center, a dedicated physical meeting space on campus for the former foster youth community at USC. For Virtual Academic Center (VAC) students, such as Dixon and Mangino were, there are a range of one-on-one and group online meetings as well as regular seminars to support academic and practical life skills. 

“It has been a huge pleasure,” Dixon said. “TGS was very supportive and open with me.” 

When Dixon was considering not attending her commencement ceremony because she could not afford the cap and gown, TGS offered to provide her regalia.  She says that pushed her to walk the stage and have the full graduation experience.

For Mangino, TGS was essential to completing her MSW, helping her to feel at home and overcome challenges. Although she was completing her studies online, she would often come to campus to study at the TGS Center or talk with McSweyn and Eddie Ramirez, an MSW intern at TGS. When one of her classes required the purchase of an expensive book that was critically important to Mangino’s studies but which she could not afford, she reached out to TGS and McSweyn had it for her the following week. 

"Those former foster youth who decide to pursue their MSW tell us that they know what it's like to experience marginalization and invisibility,” McSweyn said. “Their life trajectories are powerful evidence of their resilience and to the miles we have to go, as a profession, before we sleep. It's invaluable to our profession that they will be out there practicing social work with a keen understanding of what families and children caught up in the child welfare system have lived through." 

In April, Dixon and Mangino joined their fellow 2024 TGS graduates at its annual graduation gala, celebrating former foster youth receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees from multiple USC schools. 

As always, the high point of the evening was an opportunity to hear from each of the graduates about the personal impact TGS made on their journey to becoming a graduate of USC. Over and over, each graduate described their feeling of belonging and understanding when they found TGS, whether that was in their first week of classes or their final semester. 

“Whether you are an on-campus or VAC student, TGS is there for you,” Mangino said. “They will make it happen, no matter where you are.” 

If you are a current or former foster youth currently enrolled at USC and interested in learning more, please join Trojan Guardian Scholars.