\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen Ar\u2019reiona Green was accepted to Sacramento State last year, she knew she would need books and school supplies. She didn\u2019t expect to need a toolbox. Or hangers. Or that her dorm room wouldn\u2019t come with a fan or a lamp.<\/p>\n Like many first-year students, Green, who is headed into her sophomore year and plans to become a plastic surgeon, was excited about her future adventures. But coming up through the foster system in California, she didn\u2019t know anyone who had gone to college. While she felt ready for her classes, life as a college student was mostly mysterious except for what she\u2019d seen online.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where Dec My Dorm stepped in. The program works with more than 140 foster youth headed to college, hosting an annual event in July to kit out each student with sheet sets, pillows, a shower caddy and connections to other people in the same situation.<\/p>\n Green took part in the summer of 2024, leaving with several duffel bags filled with the things she needed, including many items she didn\u2019t know she would need, like dish soap.<\/p>\n \u201cI was expecting bed stuff and towels,\u201d Green said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting them to give me period products and school supplies. They were giving out school merch and stepping stools and toolboxes. They really went above and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Ar\u2019reiona Green and her aunt loaded up on dozens of new items to outfit her college dorm at Sacramento State, where she\u2019s headed this fall to study health sciences.<\/span> Photograph: Dawn Fallik<\/p>\n The program started in 2018 when Jill Franklin, a program manager of the Independent Living Program for the department of children and family services in Los Angeles county, met a student who came from the foster system. The young woman described arriving at the University of California at Berkeley with just a trash bag, not knowing that dorm rooms are spartan affairs with a desk, chair, bed with an oddly sized mattress \u2013 and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n \u201cShe didn\u2019t have a pillow or a sheet or a towel, and everybody else was there with their parents and their bags of stuff,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cAt the time, I was editing college essays and I realized, we never ever thought about that first day.\u201d<\/p>\n Franklin started with a small Amazon wishlist and a handful of students. It was particularly important that the kids were involved in the process as much as possible, she said, because they were used to living in spaces that were not their own.<\/p>\n \u201cYou might have a 17-year-old who\u2019s on the football team and says: \u2018I don\u2019t want Minnie Mouse sheets,\u2019 but oh well, that\u2019s what it is, and they probably aren\u2019t going to be there for very long and it\u2019s not their bedroom,\u201d said Franklin. \u201cIt was very important that they pick their own bedding, their own towels and their own blankets, so that when they walk in that room, or someone else walks in that room, it says: \u2018This is who I am.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, she met Phyllis Shinbane, who had retired as director of operations from Connecting a Caring Community, a non-profit organization based in Calabasas, California. Like many people, Shinbane had been unaware that foster youth often have nothing they can bring with them to college, but realized this was a need she could help fill.<\/p>\n Along with CCC\u2019s executive director, Lisa Kodimer, and the Dec My Dorm co-chair Allison Weiss, they raised more than $40,000 in donations and connected with sponsors and volunteers to help 142 students in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just leveling the playing field,\u201d said Shinbane, who hopes to expand the program to other states. \u201cIt\u2019s just putting them in a room where they\u2019re equal, where they\u2019re not different, where their past doesn\u2019t define them, that they are the same as every other college student that came from a supportive, structured, safe home.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Ar\u2019reiona Green\u2019s dorm room.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Ar\u2019reiona Green<\/p>\n Eight per cent to 11% of people in foster care obtain a bachelor\u2019s degree, said Sarah Wasch, associate director of the Field Center for Children\u2019s Policy, Practice & Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Although most people in foster care can remain in the system until they are at least 21 years old, many foster parents don\u2019t have the funds to furnish a dorm room.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a disconnect around who is responsible to oversee that transition,\u201d Wasch said. \u201cFor youth in foster care, it\u2019s very unclear if it\u2019s the foster family\u2019s responsibility, the case manager\u2019s, the court\u2019s or the legal guardian\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n While some states have programs addressing foster care and higher education, efforts remain piecemeal and there are plenty of gaps to fill, like dorm room needs and storage over summers, she said. Most colleges have support systems specifically aimed at supporting students who come from the foster system, like the Guardian Scholars program in California. Those focus mainly on financial support for tuition and meals, and advising for classes, not for student life.<\/p>\n At one point, legislation was introduced to create a federal center that would coordinate state efforts, but it did not pass, Wasch said.<\/p>\n Kelisha Williams, a foster student from Kentucky who graduated from Harvard University last spring, said she wished there had been a program like Dec My Dorm when she was going to school. Although Harvard provided a list of dorm room essentials, she watched a lot of YouTube videos to figure out what she would need to fit in and worked to save the money.<\/p>\n She emphasized that it\u2019s not just about having the essentials, like a shower caddy and a bar of soap. Not having those things could make foster students feel like they don\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that was going to be a big hurdle, and I did not want anyone to know that I was not like them, or that I didn\u2019t deserve to be there,\u201d Williams, 22, said. \u201cSo I kind of just made sure that I worked the summer before to have everything that I needed, even, you know, if it was kind of plush objects like posters and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Shinbane said that many volunteers were enthusiastic about going with students to set up their dorm rooms, if desired, but there were legal concerns about privacy. The organization offers other resources, like free eye-screening and glasses, and providing students with a resource folder with QR codes linking students to food assistance, clothing programs and campus support.<\/p>\n They invite former participants to come meet the new class headed to college, so they can offer advice and support.<\/p>\n \u201cThis program is like a living, breathing thing,\u201d Shinbane said. \u201cIt evolves every year, and our goal is to provide them with services and resources to help ensure their success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Ar\u2019reiona Green was accepted to Sacramento State last year, she knew she would need books and school supplies. She didn\u2019t expect to need a toolbox. Or hangers. Or that her dorm room wouldn\u2019t come with a fan or a lamp. Like many first-year students, Green, who is headed into her sophomore year and plans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[535,211,3117,9575,9574,536,799,678,489],"class_list":{"0":"post-16172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-college","9":"tag-didnt","10":"tag-foster","11":"tag-kitting","12":"tag-pillow","13":"tag-program","14":"tag-starting","15":"tag-students","16":"tag-universities"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}