Johnnie-Renée Simon was two years in to her undergraduate studies in pre-med when she took a job at a foster family adoption agency to help with college expenses. The experience led her in a different direction.

“I guess what I had previously gone through during my life just pushed me to go towards social work,” she said.

From the ages of 12 to 18, she was in foster care herself.

Putting herself through school has not been easy, but Simon was determined to do it. “There’s not much funding for foster youth, and there’s not many foster youth seeking out education, no less a master’s degree,” she said. “I don’t really know anybody, I don’t have any family, I didn’t have anyone to co-sign a loan for me.” Receiving The Wendy and Barry Meyer Foster Care Alumni Scholarship made it possible for Simon to receive her Master of Social Work from USC.

“USC has a really exceptional social work program,” Simon said. “I did my research, and what I liked was the foundation year where they give you all the core elements and then you get to focus on the area that interests you in the second year. It helped me to really be able to go in-depth.”

Simon graduated from the USC School of Social Work in May 2015 with a concentration in families and children and a sub-concentration in public child welfare. She plans to work with transition-age youth as her long-term career goal.

“It’s really fortunate that this sort of scholarship exists because most foster youth are on their own, and it’s very stressful,” she said. “Just to know that there’s some sort of resource like this, some sort of organization that is on your side, is extremely helpful.”